“I’m not saying you have to agree with me. If you think I have it all wrong, more power to you. Tell me what I’m missing here because I remember exactly what kind of a mess you were when she left you. I remember you playing that stupid love song on repeat and that you didn’t take a shower in over two weeks.”
“Ew,” Caitlin said with her nose scrunched.
“It was one week and did you know how long that song stayed in the top of the charts in 2016? There was no way around it.”
“What song?” Caitlin asked.
Owen wasn’t going to tell her.
Adam luckily didn’t remember the artist’s name but said, “You know that female singer from the UK? The one who said hello a thousand times in the same song.”
“Oh, you mean Ade—”
Owen’s manly pride made him interrupt Caitlin. “It doesn’t matter. I’m over it.”
“You are?” Caitlin asked.
Owen sighed. “I know I still have my issues and that Tara and I both need to work on things. But isn’t that what everyone needs to do in their relationship? I mean, you have moved out here to this little town in the mountains and Adam is working on being a jerk all the time.”
Caitlin made a buzzer sound like Owen got it all wrong.
Owen winked at his brother, knowing fully well that Caitlin would make the joke.
“Very funny,” Adam said with a smile.
If there’s one thing about Adam, he wasn’t easily offended by anything. He better not be as he doled out enough punches himself.
“All jokes aside, Tara and I had a good talk. There are things that happened in her past and that day she left town that made me see why she did what she did. It doesn’t excuse her for not contacting me when she found out that she was pregnant, but I’m ready to move on from the past. I hope that once Tara tells you her story, that you all will be happy for us.”
Caitlin reached out over the table and squeezed his hand. “I can already see how Tara and Frankie’s stay has changed you, O.”
He knew they must have felt him pull back from them in these past months. Without either of them actually saying it out loud, he realized that everything was okay again.
“Thanks, Cait. That means a lot.”
Adam slung his arm around his shoulders and pulled him in from the side. “Love you, man.”
Owen smiled. “I love you, too.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Tara walked up the winding mountain road with Frankie by her side. “I can’t wait for the snow!”
“I know, sweetie. This is all going to be white!”
Frankie squealed. “We’ll make a snowman with one of grandma Lauren’s carrots.”
Tara smiled. “She has so much stuff in that kitchen, eh?”
“Hmm-mm. I’m gonna be a cook like grandma.”
“Grandma Lauren does a lot of things for the B&B, did she tell you this?”
Frankie wasn’t listening and pointed at a bird in the sky. “Did you see that? What’s he called?”
Tara had absolutely no idea. “Ehh…. Oh, wait. I’ll take a picture and send it to your father. Maybe he can tell us what kind of bird that is.”
She tried to take a picture but wasn’t really good in framing the bird. Without screening the pictures, she selected a dozen of pictures before sending them to Owen.