Reece tossed a towel over her shoulder. “Do you think we won?”

  Farrah shook her head. “I have no idea, but I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  With business slowly getting back to normal, Ginny was able to focus on other things, like Savannah, when she showed up one day after lunch at the café.

  She couldn’t say that she was happy to see that woman. Who in their right mind would ever be happy to see the woman who stole your husband? But from what Farrah had told her, Ginny knew that Savannah had made her bed, and was certainly laying it.

  If that wasn’t justice enough, she didn’t know what was.

  “Do you have time to talk?” Savannah asked meekly.

  “Sure,” Ginny said, wiping down the last table. “Why don’t we meet at the shops in a few minutes?”

  “Sure. I’ll see you there.”

  It was a beautiful day at the beach. The smallish downtown that Sugar Cove had was lined with a few shops. It wasn’t anything as big as Port St. Joe, but there were a couple of gift shops that housed the usual Florida memorabilia—dehydrated baby alligator heads, bleached sun dollars and starfish, as well as wind chimes made of shells.

  A small coffee shop that served beignets was her favorite. She loved a hot beignet on a cold Saturday morning, and as they were heading deeper into December, the mornings were certainly flush with cold.

  The downtown streetlamps were decorated with green garland dotted with red bows as well as lights in the shape of stars and snowflakes. At night, the sight was beautiful—all the lights and garland made everything feel Christmassy. Even during the day the decorations added a touch of charm.

  It was outside of the coffee shop where Ginny found Savannah, huddled over a steaming paper cup of coffee.

  “Would you like a beignet?” she asked as she grabbed the door handle.

  Savannah shook her head. Worry brimmed in her eyes, and Ginny wasn’t sure if she was going to add to her burden or take away from it. Either way, she was doing the right thing, she was sure of that now.

  After ordering a dozen steaming hot beignets and a coffee, Ginny sat down. She pushed the box toward Savannah, and the woman shook her head.

  “Take one. I can’t sit and eat in front of you.”

  The woman frowned, but she did take one of the pieces of fried dough rolled in powdered sugar and nibble one edge.

  Ginny expected it to be more tense between them, but she felt a sense of peace sitting across from the woman who had helped turn her life upside down—along with Jack, that was.

  She didn’t have ill feelings toward her, but she didn’t exactly feel warm and cozy about Savannah, either.

  “Have you been in Sugar Cove all this time?”

  That woman shook her head. “No. I’ve been ho—back to Atlanta.”

  Her cheeks turned pink with embarrassment, and Ginny understood why. Calling Atlanta her home was an admission that it hadn’t been her home before Jack had moved her there, given her a home that had never belonged to her.

  “Well, you’re here now.”

  Savannah gripped her cup of coffee so tightly that her knuckles whitened. “I…I’ve come for your answer on if you’d like to buy the house. I’m sure you talked to your friend and you know what’s happened, but I do want you to know that the reason why I’m offering it to you is so that…well, I don’t agree with what Jack did—giving me the house to begin with. It wasn’t right of him, and I’m trying to make up for that.”

  “Buy selling it back?”

  She nodded.

  “You could’ve just given it to me to begin with.”

  The woman’s eyes became big as plates. “Um, well, I guess that I could have, but it’s just been such a whirlwind of change. Moving to a new city, settling in with my son, meeting new people. I felt like I had to give it a shot.”

  “Right. Had to give it a shot.”

  For a long time Ginny thought that part of her might feel bad for Savannah. After all, she’d been thrown into a new home and a new situation against her will, same as Ginny.

  But as she stared at the woman, eyed her perfect manicure that probably cost sixty dollars, roved her gaze over the cashmere sweater and stared at the diamond earrings, Ginny didn’t think that Savannah actually regretted any of it, least of all spending so much money on frivolous things.

  Yes, Ginny had nice pieces of jewelry and some expensive clothes, but for the most part, she had lived frugally, buying clothes that she considered investment pieces, ones that she could wear for years to come. When she looked down at her nails now, she couldn’t remember the last time that she had a professional manicure. It had been months. She’d had to placate herself with doing them herself.

  So no, she didn’t feel bad for what she was about to say to Savannah. “Thank you for coming all this way, and I have an answer for you.”

  Hope brightened her eyes. “You do?”

  “Yes.” Ginny bit into a beignet to buy some time. “Mm. So good.” As Savannah patiently waited for an answer, Ginny finished chewing and took a last sip of coffee. “I’m not going to buy my old house back.”

  Savannah’s jaw dropped. “But I thought that you’d want it? I thought that you’d want to move back in.”

  “For a long time I thought so, too. All I wanted was my old house and my old life, or what I believed was my life. But since I’ve moved here, to Sugar Cove, I’ve seen that my life can be so much more. Back in Atlanta, I would’ve been trapped by four walls that reminded me of Jack and our life. I would’ve been focusing on the past. But now I’m looking to the future. Yes, it’s a bit different than I imagined, but it’s one I’m excited for, all the same.”

  Savannah was quiet for a long minute. She stared at her coffee before she said quietly, “I’m sorry for all the pain and hurt that I’ve caused you. I truly am. I know that I can’t take back what I’ve done—”

  “No, you can’t,” Ginny interrupted.

  Her eyes flashed up and she nodded, swallowing. “I know, and I hope that in the future, I’m a better person, that I do more and don’t hurt people the way that I have. You didn’t deserve what happened to you.”

  “No, I didn’t. But I also think that if it hadn’t been you, it may have been someone else. I think Jack would’ve been drawn away from me no matter what. I really do. As much as I hate to say that, you’re about as special as any woman would’ve been, anyone that he could live out a magical fantasy with so that he had a secret life on the side.”

  Her jaw fell, and Savannah scoffed. “You’re saying that me and my son aren’t special? That we didn’t mean anything to Jack?”

  “I think you became special to him, yes. But if you’d married him and stayed with him, your relationship would’ve eventually turned out just like ours.” She leaned forward, her elbows on the table. “You see, the one person Jack truly loved above all others was himself, and I don’t think anyone could change that about him—not even you.”

  Savannah sat back in shock. Her eyes darted wildly around, and her mouth opened and shut as if she was trying to think of something to say, but no words came.

  Ginny almost hated telling these things to Savannah, but this woman wasn’t an innocent bystander. She had willingly gotten involved with a married man and had birthed his child. She deserved the truth, and there was no point in sugar coating it.

  “So no, I won’t be taking the house,” she confirmed again.

  Savannah threw her head back and laughed. “That’s just fine, because I wouldn’t sell it to you anyway.”

  Savannah pushed back her chair, the sound of the feet scraping against the wooden patio grating to Ginny’s ears. She shouldered her purse. “I hope you have a great life,” sarcastically as she stormed off.

  As Ginny watched that woman slide into her car and drive off, a faint smile quirked on her lips. “I will have a great life,” she murmured. “I certainly will.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  FARRAH

  When Farrah entered the dining room a few days later, the last thing that she expected to see was some sort of sign outside.

  “What could that be?”

  At first she thought that perhaps Savannah, in her anger at Ginny for not wanting to buy her old house back, had placed some sort of nasty signage out front. Or worse, Jack’s ex-wife had upped her attacks and wasn’t just spreading lies about food poisoning; she was now announcing in bold letters that the café had poisoned people.

  But that wasn’t what greeted her when she opened the door to get a closer look.

  The sign that was staked into the small patch of grass outside the lighthouse didn’t say anything about food poisoning or any other nasty thing.

  In fact, it wasn’t anything nasty at all. Instead it read:

  First Place Winner in the Sugar Cove Christmas Decorating Contest.

  Farrah screamed. It couldn’t be helped. She shrieked with happiness as tears leaked down her face. What was wrong with her?

  What was wrong, she realized, was that for the past weeks she’d been holding on to a world of hurt and anger, judgment and frustration—at herself, at Brad.

  She’d been so convinced that he was cheating because she’d wanted to be, Farrah realized. She had wanted her husband to be cheating because she’d never truly gotten over his cheating from the past. She hadn’t worked through that hurt the way she should have. Instead she let it fester inside of her, becoming an infection that burst open when she spotted the first reason to allow it to do so.

  And what had she done then? She’d ran. She’d fled from her life and tucked herself under Ginny’s wing to hide out. She hadn’t even told her husband where she was going. She’d only driven as fast as she could to get as far away as possible.

  So when Brad had said that he might have cancer, she’d felt even worse. How could she turn her back on him during his time of need? It was easy when you told yourself that he wasn’t faithful and that he deserved to be treated this way.

  But did he?

  Brad didn’t rush off to some mistress for comfort. He’d come to her. He’d tracked Farrah to the beach and had told her that he needed her. Her. If he’d been cheating, wouldn’t he have gone to his mistress, rested his head on her bosom for comfort?

  He certainly wouldn’t have uprooted his life for the likes of Sugar Cove.

  Which meant that in reality, Brad wasn’t being unfaithful. Yes, he’d done so in the past, but he’d truly tried to be a better person. He’d tried to make up for his past mistakes, and Farrah had thought that she’d forgiven him, but deep down she hadn’t. She didn’t owe Brad anything. He’d walked out on their marriage first. But he’d also returned, and she loved him. He loved her, too. That was what hurt the most—that she loved him so much.

  She had work to do. A lot of work when it came to trusting Brad again. But she thought that it could be done—in fact, she knew it could be if she allowed herself to admit the truth of what was in her heart—that the trust needed to be rebuilt, and she had to acknowledge that she’d been crushed in the first place. Telling Ginny had been a good first step toward her goal.

  A world of emotions sliced through her as Farrah stared at the sign, the goal that she had worked so hard for, if nothing else but to make Ginny proud of her, and to have earned her stay at the lighthouse.

  Yes, it was obvious that she was under everyone’s feet there, but no one had complained to Farrah, and for that she was grateful.

  The door burst open, and Reece said, breathless, “What is it? What’s the matter?”

  Tears were leaking from her eyes now. “Look,” she choked out. “Look and see.”

  She pointed to the sign and Reece’s gaze followed. Her hands flew to her cheeks, and she shouted, “Yes! Let me get Mama.”

  Ginny was outside a few seconds later. She studied the sign for a moment before opening her arms and pulling Farrah into a hug. “You did it. You won!”

  “I couldn’t have done it without y’all,” Farrah told her, holding her friend tight. “The three of us did this together.”

  A car rolling down the street slowed in front of the lighthouse. A woman in the passenger seat lowered her window and shouted, “Congratulations!”

  “Thank you,” Ginny told her.

  The stranger’s gaze washed up and down the lighthouse. “You know, I haven’t been to your restaurant before.”

  Farrah chuckled. “You should come in. My best friend, Ginny, serves the best food around.”

  “I’ll just do that,” she replied. “I’ll see y’all for lunch.”

  As the car drove off, Ginny lifted her brows. “You know, this sign might be all the advertising we need to squash the rumor that Ellen started. If that’s the case, I owe you my livelihood.”

  She scoffed. “You don’t owe me anything, Ginny Rigby.”

  As they embraced once again, Farrah couldn’t help feeling elated at this victory. Yes, she’d managed to accomplish what she’d wanted. There wasn’t anything left for her to do in Sugar Cove except talk to Brad.

  She called him after lunch, and they agreed to meet on the beach at sunset. Farrah put on a pair of loose-fitting pants and a white, long-sleeved blouse. She made sure that her makeup looked nice, and she pulled her hair back into a ponytail, noticing that she really needed to get her roots touched up.

  It was funny. If she’d been back in Atlanta, they would’ve already been dyed. But here in Sugar Cove, life was slower, and things that seemed so important in the city sat on the back burner here, allowing other things that sometimes got overlooked to come to the forefront.

  She spotted Brad as he parked his SUV along the strip of a parking lot for the daily beachgoers. He looked handsome as he brushed his hair to one side, and Farrah wondered when she’d stopped noticing how handsome her husband was. Was it when he’d hurt her all those years ago? Had that been the beginning of the end?

  Well, it certainly hadn’t helped, had it?

  His gaze roved the beach until he spotted her waving. He broke into a smile and jogged down the small dune at the back of the parking lot and over the sugary sand to meet her.

  “Sorry I’m late,” he said, kissing her cheek.

  “It’s fine. It gave me a few minutes to think.”

  He rubbed the back of his neck. It was what Brad did when he was worried. She supposed that between her behavior and the cancer, he’d had a lot to think about.

  “Shall we walk?” she said, pointing down the beach.

  “Sure.”

  There weren’t many people out this time of year, when the weather turned cold. It was mostly locals out running or people walking their dogs on the sand.

  The sun was setting on the horizon, washing the sky in brilliant pink and orange. It was a sight that Farrah had tattooed in her mind time and time again. She loved seeing the sunset. It made her heart light.

  “I heard that y’all won the decorating contest,” he said.

  “Yes,” she replied, surprised by that. “How’d you know?”

  “I drove by,” he admitted bashfully.

  “Oh. Well, it’s a small town. You can’t keep secrets forever.”

  “No, I suppose you can’t.”

  “Listen, Brad, I wanted to talk to you.”

  “I gathered that,” he teased.

  She sighed. Why was this harder than it should be? “I’m going to admit some things, and I don’t need you to tell me that you told me so.”

  He pressed a hand to his heart. “Scout’s honor that I won’t.”

  She eyed him warily. “Promise?”

  “I promise, Farrah.”

  “Okay.” She cleared her throat, trying to get rid of the knot that was suddenly lodged in it. “I guess that…well, you see, the thing is…” Jeez. Why was it so hard to start this sentence? “Okay, well. Here’s the thing: I never really forgave you for the affair. I thought that I had, but I was wrong. Instead of working through all that hurt, I stuffed it way down, deep inside, thinking it was better to ignore it than it was to deal with it. So when I saw that text, it snapped something inside of me, and the only thing that I could do was run.”

  “Farrah, I swear, that text was about your birthday party. It wasn’t about anything else.”

  “I believe you.” She paused and turned to face him. He did the same. “I choose to believe you. I’ve misjudged and distrusted you, which to be honest, I feel perfectly right in feeling. You broke my trust once, in a terrible way. I choose to stay then. But I shouldn’t have run off now. I should’ve dealt with our problems years ago, when they happened, instead of burying my fear way down where it could grow. It wasn’t fair to just up and leave without letting you explain, and it wasn’t fair to me.”

  “Sometimes,” he said tenderly, “it’s hard to know what’s fair until you’re looking at it from the outside.”

  “That’s true. So very, very true.” She inhaled a deep breath, preparing herself for the next part of her speech. “When you told me about the cancer, part of me didn’t want to believe it. Part of me wanted to think that it was just an excuse to get me back to Atlanta. But I know you wouldn’t do that.”

  “I hope so,” he replied with an eye roll.

  She squeezed his bicep. “I do. I know it. Now. I’ve had to look deep into my heart in order to be able to accept it, but now I’m sure, and I’m ready to move ahead.”

  He cocked a brow. “I hope by when you say, ‘Move ahead,’ you’re talking about us.”

  “Yes, I am.” She smiled up at him, remembering what it was like to smile at him at their wedding so many years ago. “I want to come home. It’s time for me to leave Sugar Cove and go back with you to our life. I’m sorry that I left like I did. I’ll never do it again.”

  Brad folded his arms. “Wait just a minute now. You can’t just snap your fingers and expect that everything is forgotten.”

  His words jolted her. “I don’t.”

 

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