“I think I see,” Reede said. “People let life get in the way and don’t follow their visions—or their talent.”
“Exactly! When I was in school studying art I met some fantastically talented people, but after graduation I heard nothing about them. There was a young man who wrote a play that awed all of us. Know what he’s doing now? Selling used cars.”
“Didn’t want it enough?” Reede asked, looking at her intently. “Is that what happened with you?”
“I never had the drive of Jecca or Kim. I—” She looked down at her hands.
“You thought of others before yourself,” he said. “I can attest that my sister never let anyone or anything stand in the way of her jewelry making. But you . . . You were needed, so you set your own wants aside.”
“That’s one way of looking at it.” He was making her feel good about herself. For years, when she saw online anything that Jecca or Kim had done, Sophie had felt like a failure. But Reede made her sound, well, almost noble.
She wanted to talk of something besides herself, and she was interested in his world travels. “What’s the most beautiful country you’ve ever visited?”
“New Zealand.”
“Really?” she said. “I would have thought someplace tropical, like Tahiti, would be.”
“Too much traffic; too many houses.”
“Most impressive place?”
“Galapagos Islands, with Petra a close second.”
“Scariest?” she asked.
“Tonga, with Easter Island right behind.”
“Interesting,” she said. “Most surprising?”
“Hong Kong. Very clean, very modern.”
“So where would you like to live?” When he started to speak, she put up her hand. “Let me guess. New Zealand.”
“Yes,” he said. “I have friends there, and I like everything about the country.”
“Have you always felt out of place here in Edilean?”
He took a moment before answering. “I think so. It wasn’t easy living here as an Aldredge who wanted to be a doctor, but I wasn’t the Aldredge.”
She waited for him to continue.
“See this house?” He waved his hand toward the living area below. “I didn’t really like the kid who lived here. He used to make fun of me because I was interested in medicine. But I hung around him because of this house.”
Sophie ate in silence, waiting for him to explain.
“It’s like Aldredge House, the one Tris inherited. He got the name Tristan and the ancestral home.”
“And you wanted what he had?”
“I thought I did. But what I think I really wanted was to belong, to have that feeling of being part of a place.” He opened a box of cupcakes and held them out to Sophie.
“If your family has lived here for generations I’d think you’d feel that you were part of the town.”
“Maybe. I’ve been told that the Aldredge who settled Edilean was a doctor, but he was also a wanderer, that he rode on horseback all over the U.S.”
“So you’re like him,” Sophie said as she broke off a piece of chocolate and ate it. The rain was still coming down steadily, and combined with the small space, she was feeling very close to this man. It was a day for revealing secrets. She thought that if they stayed there much longer that she’d tell him more about Carter. She needed to keep the conversation on Reede. “So you’ll leave as soon as you can.” It was a statement, not a question.
“The very second.”