“Austin’s mother invited me over to dinner. I hadn’t spent any time with her in forever. So, Austin and I just bought some food for dinner.”
“Uh huh,” Maria told me. I blushed. “He’s grown up to be a good-looking man, and he can give you the world on a string. Who wouldn’t want that?”
“It’s not that big of a deal,” I assured her. “We were just spending some time together. As friends.”
The news moved on to sports. No woman in this room cared about that. Their focus was all on me. I was in the hot seat for a while.
I thought that Maria and Mack had a simple life here, but they raised four children and were very happy. They didn’t need huge bank accounts and excitement to do that, and neither did I. To me, the new deal Austin was working on sounded like too much, given that he already had so much money. Was he trying to get further away from North Reed… further away from me?
“You were happy living here, weren’t you?” I asked Maria.
“It was the best,” she said. “The kids had a ball growing up here, and we were always so content.”
All of her kids lived in various parts of the state, after going to college and forming their own families, but they visited often. I’d seen their cars a lot in the last few months.
“I can’t wait for the kids to come back for Christmas. It’s so good to have them around. And it will be the first Christmas without Mack. I could use all the company I can get. We all miss him so very much.” Tears formed in her eyes.
I couldn’t imagine going through anything like that. I vowed to keep the wall up around my heart. I didn’t want this kind of pain with Austin all over again. Losing him once had been bad enough. It had been eleven years, and I’d never really gotten over him. If I let myself love him again and he left, that pain would haunt me for the rest of my life.
“We’ll make it a special holiday, though,” Maria said. “Mack loved Christmas. The last thing he would have wanted was for us to ignore the holiday and mope around. In fact, once the kids are here to help, we’re going to put up three times as many Christmas lights as normal, in honor of him. I want the house to shine so brightly he can see it from heaven.”
My eyes misted up. “That sounds wonderful.” I squeezed her shoulder comfortingly. She patted my hand.
“So,” she said, clearing her throat. “What are you doing for the holiday? Going to see your parents or are they coming here?”
I smiled weakly. “It’s just Kim and me this year. Dad’s been sick with a cold, so they’re staying where it’s warm. And with all of the stress about the library closing, Kim just wanted to make it a quiet holiday. She’s not feeling the usual spirit.” I spoke quietly. There had been a lot of talk about the library’s financial troubles, but I didn’t want to make it a group topic. It hit too close to home for me. I also didn’t really want to talk about the change in plans for my parents’ visit. “I guess I’ll make us a nice dinner. We haven’t spoken too much about it.”
“Everything will work out fine. You’ll see.” Maria flashed me an encouraging smile.
“I sure hope so,” I murmured.
She raised an eyebrow at me. “Maybe that boyfriend of yours will fix it,” she said. “Although if you’re still working here, maybe he’s cheap, after all.”
She laughed, and I laughed with her. Maria was joking with me. I loved my job, and it showed. I didn’t want a man like Austin to buy me a big house and tell me to stay put. I wanted the whole package. I shook my head and laughed harder. “I’d never expect any of that from him, nor would I ask for it.”
“I know. You are a strong girl, and you’ve worked for what you have. Mack always admired that about you, you know. You and Kim. He always told me that you could have gone to New York with Austin and lived an easy life. You chose not to.”
I remembered the pain of saying no to that choice and how we ended things. Pain filled my heart.
“You stayed here with your family and held out for something that you wanted,” she said, giving me a curious look in the mirror.
I smiled weakly and checked the evenness of the cut. That had to be the longest time I’d ever spent on a cut, as well as the most painful.
Everyone knew that I was with Austin, though to what level, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t even know.
“I don’t want to live my life based on money. I think it blinds people to what’s really important.” I shrugged. She ruffled her hair. “You had a family here and were happy. You didn’t need all that fancy stuff, did you?”
Maria chuckled and shook her head. “We had some hard times over the years, but the kids always had food on the table. We did just fine.” She nodded as if to affirm her words. “We were happy. Is that what you want, Rebecca?” I smiled and nodded. “You’ll have it then. I am proud of you for sticking to your guns.”
“We’d never let her go.” I glanced up to see Mary smiling at me. “She does too good of a job around this place, and the customers love her.”
“That’s good because I’m not ready to leave.” I smiled back, enjoying the softer side of the woman for a moment.
“He’d be crazy to let her go,” Maria said.
I smiled at her and squeezed her shoulder. All was well in my little town again, even though I couldn’t stop thinking about Austin.
I did have a home here where my precious sister lived. I had enough money to get by, thanks to my parents leaving me the house. If Kim could stay, I could make it here and let Austin go.