over him,” Jessibelle told her friend. “In fact, I don’t know what I ever saw in him.”
Wrong, she thought. That didn’t sound right. She turned to her friend and added, “I mean, I’m sure you and Rodney—”
“Then maybe you can give me some advice.”
Disoriented, again, Jessibelle felt the absurdity of that statement sink into her. “Advice? About Rodney?”
“Yes.”
Might as well go along with this. “What?”
“He’s taking over my life.”
Jessibelle felt her eyebrows rise.
“How did you deal with that?” Hanna asked her.
“Deal with it?” With Rodney making all their decisions? “I didn’t,” she told her friend. “I wanted him to take over my life.”
Hanna closed her eyes for three long seconds, blowing out an exasperated breath. “You what?”
The truth clunked into Jessibelle’s mind. She hadn’t known. Not until this moment. “Not very mature, I know. But I was in love. At least . . . I thought so.”
And now, it was like she’d crossed a barrier and entered into a new world of awareness. “Fortunately, he never wanted to marry me. I’m getting a second chance.”
Her own words surprised her. A second chance. A second chance for finding love. How trite was that? And, still, how true.
“Maybe I’m getting a second chance,” Hanna said. “I don’t have to go through with this.”
“Go through with . . . ?”
“I don’t want to marry him.”
Chapter Six
“You don’t want to marry him?”
Somehow, Hanna’s announcement made about as much sense as Gabe crashing through the living room window.
“No,” Hanna said, flatly. “I don’t.”
“But . . . but—”
“Do you have a good reason why I should?”
A good reason? Jessibelle felt like she was stuck in the middle of a whirlwind. Everything was happening too fast.
Or had the signs been there all along? And had Jessibelle been so wrapped up in her own little world that she had not noticed?
“One good reason,” Hanna prompted her. “One good reason why I should marry Rodney.”
“Sure,” Jessibelle said, thinking of the first reason that popped into her head. “I’ve got this great dress to wear to the wedding.”
“You do? You found one? Show me!”
Jessibelle felt the laughter well inside her. “Hanna! We’re talking about you breaking your engagement and you want to see a dress?”
Hanna smiled, looking sure of herself. “Tells you how serious I am, doesn’t it.” And then she glanced at Jessibelle’s feet. “Hey, nice shoes. To go with the dress?”
“But . . . but all you could talk about at work was Rodney? All the time. Every single minute of every single day.”
Hanna watched her for a beat. “And you never listened. You always changed the subject.”
Baffled and uncertain, Jessibelle chased through her memories. “But you were so happy.”
Hanna’s shoulders sagged. “I was trying hard to be happy. Too hard. It shouldn’t be an effort.”
Understanding came crashing down on Jessibelle. “And I was not listening—”
A stretch of silence fell between them. Then Hanna said, “Because you were still in love with him.” A little sad smile of acceptance. “I didn’t know.”
It’s over, Jessibelle thought. This whole crazy thing is over. She’d wished for a miracle, it had come in the form of Gabe, and her heart had mended faster than she’d thought possible.
And her friendship with Hanna had mended too.
Hanna spent the next hour drinking hot herbal tea and listing all of Rodney’s considerable deficiencies.
Jessibelle listened, and she worked hard, forcing herself to simply listen, and to not agree with her friend’s assessment. Since, who knew? This could be trouble in paradise, and it could blow over . . . .
Jessibelle told Hanna not to do anything drastic. Not until she’d had a good night’s sleep and could think clearly. They ended the night with a promise to meet the next day for lunch.
· · · · ·
The next morning,
Madeline Sheehan
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Lauren St. John
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