But the salon...it was a career goal.
Not a dream.
When she really thought about it...there really weren’t any dreams lurking in her soul, yearning to get out. Which bothered her. A lot.
She’d had dreams once, hadn’t she?
As a young girl. Other than the salon, which she now recognized as a career goal, she’d wanted to be a wife and mother.
She’d become a wife—and the dream had died. But it hadn’t been replaced with any others.
Something she was still pondering as her parents dropped her and Gram off at her grandmother’s place and then left to go get fresh produce and perishables for Gram’s refrigerator. Something Gram would have insisted on doing herself had she been free to do so.
Glancing at the tether on her grandmother’s ankle, Everleigh had to remind herself that that binding was a gift. It was allowing her grandmother to be home, not in a cell.
“This thing isn’t all bad,” Gram chirped, moving through her home with the speed of someone getting to presents under a Christmas tree. Clearly happy to reacquaint herself with everything the eye could see and the finger could touch. “I get to be treated like royalty, having my shopping done for me. And all of the other errands that are like irritating piddles in an otherwise beautiful day...”
And that was Gram. Accepting what was and moving on to find the joy.
All her life, Everleigh wanted to be like that.
So how had she lost her joy without knowing? It was like she couldn’t trust herself at all. Not to choose friends—or lovers.
How could Clarke Colton have just walked away from her as he had?
The thought sprang up with so many others, confusing her. Refusing to be stilled. To leave her alone to accept what was and get on with moving forward.
To finding her joy?
“You’re different.” Gram found her still standing in the living room just off from the front door. She’d done nothing to help with the homecoming. Hadn’t opened drapes, though she knew her grandmother always kept them that way until darkness fell. Hadn’t adjusted the thermostat that had been turned down during her absence to save on the electric bill. The older woman stood there, half glaring at her.
Because she hadn’t been her usual helpful self? She deserved a glare for that one.
“Of course I’m different, Gram,” she said, in place of the apology that had been on the tip of her tongue. “I’ve been in prison, I’m a widow, my husband was cheating with my friend right under my nose, my grandmother was arrested for me...”
The litany went on. As though, if she kept listing all of the things that had exploded her world over the past few months, the pieces might somehow fall into place and let her move past them.
“No,” Gram said, as she sat in her chair, picked up the remote and turned on the television set. Chose a streaming service. A show. And then muted it. “Sit,” she said, looking at the sofa.
Everleigh sat.
“Now, I know you’re a grown woman and you don’t have to listen to a word I say anymore, but I’m going to tell you one thing and you’re going to listen to it.”
Everleigh almost smiled. But because it felt so great to have Gram back, she nodded, straight-faced, and waited, giving her full attention.
“You are not to blame for anything that happened here. Not any of it.
You didn’t choose for your husband to be a cheater. Or for one of your friends to be one of his lovers. You had absolutely nothing to do with his murder or your arrest and time in prison. And, believe it or not, missy, you didn’t have anything to do with me being in prison. I knew what I was doing, what I was bringing on myself, when I took that child. You think I had any plan of getting away with it? Of course I didn’t. I brought him home, right here, loved him while I had him, and waited.”
Gram paused. Everleigh waited. Was she allowed to speak yet?
When it appeared she was, Everleigh said, “I chose to marry him. To befriend her. I did choose. I chose to trust them both, too.”
“Ah...trust... Now, that’s a tough one.”
“I can’t trust me, Gram. I don’t have any faith in my own ability to know who or what to trust.”
“You trusted that Colton who’s been keeping you safe.”