“Until you weren’t.”
Betsy nodded. “Until I wasn’t. And that one little break from the rules felt so good.”
A sharp crack of thunder exploded outside, causing them both to jump. The candle between them flickered, making the shadows on the wall of the kitchen jump and shake. Lightning flashed, illuminating the emotion swimming across Betsy’s face.
Jenna opened her mouth to speak, to try to make sense of it all, but another deep rumble of thunder rolled across the sky and Walsh cried out, her voice a scared whimper. In an instant, Jenna was out of her seat, crossing the room to the mattress. “Shhh.” She smoothed Walsh’s hair away from her forehead. “You’re okay.” Her daughter’s eyes never opened, but when she shifted and resettled on her side, Jenna could tell the fear was gone. Walsh’s face was calm.
The back door was open and she followed the brush of cool air coming through the doorway. Rain fell in a soft cascade, a stark contrast to the pummeling deluge of the last few hours. Betsy was sitting on the porch in the dark, and she turned when Jenna’s foot bumped something. “Your eyes will adjust after a minute.” She patted the seat next to her and Jenna sat down.
“Is it over?” Jenna asked
Betsy shook her head. “This is the eye. It gets strangely calm before the other side of the storm hits. But that side’s usually not as strong as the first push. Everything okay inside?”
“They’re fine. And Ty’s asleep too.”
“Good. He’ll have a lot of work to do tomorrow. He’ll need his rest.” She rubbed a hand across her eyes. “We probably do too.”
In the distance a siren blared, and a couple of cars zoomed down the highway. “That’s a good sign. At least the road is still open.”
Through the gauze of clouds covering the moon, it was impossible to tell the extent of the damage. Jenna could see big branches in the yard and a wide piece of what looked like metal sheeting pushed against the side of the henhouse, but that was just what was close to the house. Who knew what lay beyond? “It doesn’t look too bad right here. Think everything else is okay?”
“It’s hard to tell. At least the trees stayed off the house. Ty was worried about that.”
Jenna stretched her legs out on the ottoman and leaned her head on the pillow behind her. The air smelled like rain and damp earth. And a little salt.
“So what’s next for you and the girls when you get back home?”
“Well, I talked to my boss on the way here. The guy they hired to replace me just quit and they need a shift manager. I told them I could start as soon as they put me back on the schedule.” She glanced at Betsy. “I asked for a raise too.”
“You what?”
“I know. I ditch my job for two months, then have the nerve to ask for a raise. But I was feeling bold. And he said yes.”
Betsy chuckled.
“I think it was strategic on his part, to keep me from leaving again. But I don’t care why he agreed to it, just that he did.”
“Good for you.”
Jenna nodded. “But I’m going to look for something else part time too. Maybe in an art gallery or a photo studio. Something I can fit in while the girls are in school. I can start there and see what happens.”
Betsy smiled. “That’d be great. It sounds like things are mostly going back to normal.” She paused. “Is that what you wanted?”
Betsy wanted to ask more, Jenna could tell. And she understood it—when she’d left for Halcyon, she’d been almost breathless in her desire for change. Now here she was, appearing to go right back to life as it was before.
“At first, I wanted everything to be different—me and everything around me. I wanted something to shake me up and spit me out in the life I once thought I’d be living.” She hesitated, but the time for hiding truths was over. “And I had a chance to do it. To leave and start over somewhere else.”
Betsy looked at her. “What do you mean, start over?”
“Gregory got a job in California and asked me to come as his assistant.” She swallowed hard. “I considered it, but it didn’t take long to realize the best part of me, the only part I don’t want to change, is what I have with Addie and Walsh. They’re the only good things I’ve ever done and I don’t want to let them down. Everything I do is for them. So, to answer your question, I think some things will go back to the way they were before, but I’m not the same person I was when I left Nashville. So maybe it’s something in between.”
They were silent for a moment.
“I see the change in you. I saw it when you got out of the car this afternoon. When you arrived here in June, you seemed conflicted. Nervous. You made me nervous.”
“I was. But I’m not anymore.”
“I’m not either. And I’m not worried about the three of you. You’re a good mother. If I’ve learned anything this summer, it’s that. Well, that and I had no idea what it took to keep two kids alive.”
Jenna smiled. “I think you did just fine. The girls seemed great every time I talked to them.”
“I just didn’t tell you everything. I lost Walsh. I almost caused the girls to choke on whole grapes because I didn’t know you had to cut them up. I had no idea what to do when they refused to go to bed. I realized how much you do on your own. How challenging
