most things that are right are right and wrong are wrong. There are exceptions, sure, but more or less it’s not up for debate.”
She raises a brow that looks like she stenciled it with a crayon. “So did you harm a child?”
“Of course not.”
“Did you hurt an animal?”
“Really, Lorene?”
“Did you lie to someone’s face to cause them harm? Because sometimes you have to tell a little white lie. I know people say you don’t, but you do.”
I shake my head. “I didn’t.”
“Then the only other thing you could’ve done that would’ve been unequivocally wrong is taking something that wasn’t yours.”
Thief.
“Trevor?”
“I had to break it off with a girl today,” I say softly. “A girl I care a lot about.”
My face falls. I avoid her eyes and look at the floor. The edges of the rug are a whiskey color, and they remind me of the flecks of gold in Haley’s eyes.
“You had to, huh?” Lorene asks.
“Yeah. I had to.”
“Oh. Okay.” She takes off again in her rocking chair, her needles clashing together in a quick tempo.
I wait for her to say something more, to ask me for details, to pressure me into spilling my guts, because I fucking need to. But she doesn’t.
“I expected more from you.” That simple one-liner slams into my chest with the force of a wrecking ball.
“What?”
“You’ve been the biggest help to me while you’ve been here. I was telling my friends at the salon on Saturday morning how I’d be as proud as a peacock if you were my grandson.” She sighs sadly. “And to hear you say you did something you aren’t proud of because you had to . . . I know you, boy. No one makes you do anything.”
“It’s for her own good,” I argue.
Her eyes flip to mine. “That’s the weakest argument you could make.”
“It’s true.”
“And why is it in her best interest for you to walk away? Does she love you?”
I shrug.
“Do you love her?”
I don’t answer.
“I fed Geoff, nursed him when he was sick, held his hand on his deathbed even though the man ended our marriage and hurt me in a way I’ll never be able to explain if we sit here for the next hundred years. Want to know why?”
“Why?” I say, my voice hoarse.
“Because love doesn’t end. Because that piece of paper that says we were no longer married didn’t climb inside me and cut the line from my heart to his.”
I hang my head again.
The piece of paper in the form of a napkin that Haley and I signed didn’t keep me from hurting her either. Maybe I’m as bad as Geoff.
I flinch as stomach bile threatens to come up my throat.
The weight of the world presses on my shoulders, and I think I hear the wood crack in the chair from all the pressure. Maybe it was my heart cracking instead.
Lorene scoots to the edge of her rocker and sets her project on the coffee table. “If you’re running from love, Trevor, you better stop while you can and go back and get it. Because I’m telling you the truth when I say you can’t outrun it.”
The wind vanishes from my sails. I sag against the chair. “What if I change my mind?”
“Then you do.” She laughs. “Geoff changed his and I survived.” She reaches across the space between us and takes my hand in hers. There are brown marks marring her papery skin, her veins bright blue. “You’re a bit of a pistol, you know that?”
I grin.
“If a woman is going to be around you long enough to fall in love with you, she’s going to be strong enough to let you go if that’s what you want.”
“But what if—”
“What if the inn burns to the ground tonight while I’m asleep in it?”
“All right, Lorene. There are lines you don’t cross.” I shake my head, my frustration growing.
She shrugs, not giving a second thought to my comment. “Well, you can what-if yourself to death. Keep it up, and you’ll find yourself on your deathbed someday, wondering what-if, and you’ll be out of time. A hundred years goes by like the blink of an eye.”
My heart is heavy as I get to my feet. It already feels like a lifetime since the conversation with Haley, when in reality it probably hasn’t been an hour.
I kiss Lorene’s hand and then her cheek, and watch her eyes swell with tears. I fight a tug in my chest as she pats my hand.