There Goes My Heart (The Sullivans #20) - Bella Andre Page 0,86
it had during the night. The wind was whipping through the treetops and sending white caps racing across the ocean’s surface, as well.
As Zara approached the Sullivan Café, she hoped Beth hadn’t changed her morning schedule at the last second. Fortunately, she’d barely knocked when Rory’s mother opened the door.
“I’m so happy to see you.” Beth’s relief was obvious. “Come in. Can I make you something to eat or drink, or both?”
Zara was about to shake her head when her stomach growled at the delicious smells coming from the kitchen. She hadn’t had anything to eat or drink since lunch the day before.
“That would be lovely. Thank you. I’d like to help, if that’s okay.”
Beth nodded. “I’d love that.”
While Beth brewed two hazelnut lattes, Zara toasted bagels and laid out smoked salmon, cream cheese, and capers. When they were both settled in a booth with breakfast, Zara took a deep breath and began.
“I’m sorry for the way I behaved last night. You were so gracious to invite me into your home. I never should have run off the way I did.”
“No apologies are necessary.” Beth was kind and full of warmth. “We’re all entitled to a good freak-out every now and then.”
Zara nearly apologized again before she realized that she needed to begin as she meant to go on. And that meant not blaming herself every time she messed up. Instead, she would start trying to forgive herself, then move forward.
Still, she wanted Beth to know something important. “You have raised a wonderful man. Rory is…” Her heart lodged in her throat. “He’s unlike anyone I’ve ever known. Not only loving, but also brave enough to see that we were meant to be together—and to stand behind it even when I wasn’t sure I knew how to do that. If my mom were here…” She needed to pause to collect herself again. “I’d ask her how to make things right with him. But since she isn’t, I was hoping…” She looked into Beth’s eyes. “I was hoping you could help me. After all, you’ve raised seven great children. Surely you know everything by now. Surely you can tell me what to do.”
“I’d be happy to help in any way I can.” Beth reached across the table to put her hand over Zara’s. “But first, I’d love it if you could tell me about your mum.”
Tears sprang to Zara’s eyes as she told Rory’s mother about how much she’d loved her own. Beth held her hand while she spoke, squeezing her fingers tightly as she recalled the day of the car crash.
“I certainly don’t know everything,” Beth said when Zara had finally finished speaking. “Not even close, I’m afraid. What I do know for sure, however, is that love is capable of healing even the deepest wounds—but only if we let it.” Beth smiled. “It’s easy for me to say I believe that you and my son were meant to find each other, meant to heal each other, meant to love each other. But the truth is that the only thing that matters is what you believe…and how much you’re willing to stand behind those beliefs.”
From the moment her mother died, Zara hadn’t believed that she was worthy of a future full of love and happiness. Not when her mother didn’t have a future. Zara had stood behind that belief with fierce determination for half her life.
Only now, as she sat with Beth, did she fully understand what Rory had meant when he’d said that he believed she could be just as fiercely determined to allow herself to be happy, and to love and be loved, as she had been determined to remain in happiness exile.
“Thank you, Beth. For everything.” Zara might never fully get over her mother’s death, but with help from Rory, his family—and the strong, capable, loving woman it had taken Zara three decades to become—right here, right now, she was going to stop hating herself. “I’ve got to talk to Rory.”
She knew exactly where she’d find him. At the top of his lighthouse, standing watch over the storm the way he’d stood watch over her heart.
Zara was just heading out the door when Kevin and Ashley came into the café. That was when it hit her—there was one more thing she could do to make absolutely sure that Rory would never doubt how much she loved him.
“Kevin,” she said, “could I ask you a huge favor?”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
In the time Rory had lived in the lighthouse, he’d never