“I missed you so much,” I goaded, placing my hands on her hips, but she turned out of my grasp.
“Really?” she said sarcastically. “Do you have any idea what I have been doing for the last seven years? Did you know I graduated from college at the top of my class? That I got my real estate license and am one of the top selling agents in the area?” That explained why she was the one who delivered the land deed. “Maybe it doesn’t sound like much to you, but I do have a life here.”
“It sounds like a lot,” I answered. “These are things I want to learn,” I added, but she was uninterested in anything I had to say.
“It’s too late for that.”
“It’s not,” I insisted. If there was ever a woman who knew how to get under my skin it was her. She’d always been stubborn, but the grown up version of her was taking it to a whole other level. If she’d just hear me out. I reached out for her hand one more time, but the second I made contact, she folded her arms across her chest and out of my reach.
“Oh, and did I mentioned that I practically had to glue my sister back to together when Jamie died? Thanks for coming to the funeral by the way. It’s not like you grew up with the kid or anything.” Nora’s frustration at my absence over the last few years was only matched by the contempt in her voice. She just went from under my skin, to punching me right in the heart. I did know about Jamie and I did think about how Georgia was doing. The two of them had been pretty much inseparable as kids and when I heard what had happened I knew she had to be devastated.
“I would have come, but I was trying to make things easier on you.”
“Don’t give me that bullshit. You were trying to make things easier on you. You broke up with me. You left. You pretended like me, like this town, never even existed. Don’t deny it.”
I wanted to tell her that I hadn’t, but it would have been a lie. It was easier to pretend like I’d done the right thing by leaving her behind, but the truth was, I wasn’t so sure. If my leaving had caused her to become so jaded and bitter then maybe I’d made an even bigger mistake than I thought.
“Okay,” I agreed. If she didn’t want to let me apologize and try to make things right then I guess I owed her that much. She was right, I was only in town for a short time and the pained look on her face was killing me. “I’m not denying that I left this place all wrong.” As she walked away, I added, “But don’t think for a second that I’m not going to try to make things right with you.”
“It won’t work,” she promised as she pushed past me and made her way back to the bar. I watched her go back inside and when the door closed, I let out the breath I’d been holding. That might have been one of the most painful things I’d ever experienced, and thanks to my career choice, I’d broken bones. Lots of them. At once.
*
When I finally picked my pride up off the sidewalk and went back into the bar, I found Brett and Hoyt racking the balls on one of the pool tables in the back.
“Guessing you struck out, Romeo?” Brett teased.
“What makes you think that?”
“She came back in and asked her sister to go to the bathroom with her,” he explained. “Haven’t seen them since. Man, you really know how to scare that one off. What’s that, twice now?”
“Yeah, she hates me,” I said, hanging my head briefly. “Apparently I did some serious damage when I left.” If she would have just let me explain why I thought what I was doing was the right thing then maybe I could have made her not so mad. So bitter.