“Well? Did you blow it with Rick or not?”
“I suppose it depends on your definition of blowing it.”
Hannah had obviously reapplied shocking pink lipstick while in the ladies’ room and her full, colored lips turned downward in a frown. “I left you alone with him. All you had to do was say you’d stay. Say you loved him. Say anything but you didn’t, did you? And now he’s gone,” she said, her voice rising along with her hysteria.
“Hannah, please.” Kendall clenched her fists and fought down the rising tide of embarrassment. Kendall had come to care what these good people thought. “Can you lower your voice?”
“Why?” Hannah practically shouted. “Everyone’s already watching you. Which reminds me. I heard someone in the bathroom say something about you and that picture last night. What picture?” She barely paused for breath. “What’d I miss? And how bad did you screw things up with Rick?”
Kendall groaned and rested her head in her hands, massaging her aching temples. She was dizzy and nausea rose quickly.
“Kendall?” Hannah asked, more quietly this time. “Hmm?” She barely raised her gaze as she answered. Her head hurt, she was emotionally spent yet Hannah had an agenda that wouldn’t be deterred.
“Did I mention I stuffed Norman’s toilet and it’s overflowing?”
“Oh, God.” That got Kendall’s adrenaline flowing again and she jumped up and flagged Izzy down.
“Just a second,” the older woman called.
“But . . .” Kendall tried to catch her but Izzy disappeared into the kitchen before returning with food on her tray and heading in the opposite direction.
“It wasn’t my fault. I mean it was an accident, I swear,” Hannah continued at full speed.
“An accident? This from the girl who stuffed the toilet in the teachers’ lounge at Vermont Acres?”
Her sister had the good grace to blush before going on with her rambling explanation. “The garbage was full and the paper towels from washing my hands kept falling onto the floor.” She gestured wildly with her hands. “And I wouldn’t normally care, ya know? But you’re always saying to be polite and clean up after myself, so I tried to flush them down the toilet instead. See? An accident.” She shrugged too innocently in Kendall’s opinion.
“Isabelle!” Norman’s voice bellowed from the back hall. “Damn toilet’s overflowing,” the owner of the restaurant yelled in an extremely pissed-off tone.
Kendall lowered herself back into her seat. She tried unsuccessfully to blink back tears and when that didn’t work, she lay her head back in her hands so she could alternately cry and laugh hysterically.
Her life had become a complete and utter mess. And based on Hannah’s acting out, her inquisitive questions, and push for Kendall’s reconciliation with Rick, things weren’t about to get easier anytime soon.
Chapter Fourteen
Kendall dragged herself home after the episode at Norman’s. She’d let Hannah leave with Jeannie and her parents while Kendall had stayed until the plumber arrived and she’d been successful on insisting he send her the bill. She walked up the front stoop, pausing when the obvious aroma of chocolate assaulted her senses, giving her a needed boost of energy.
She knelt down in front of the foil-covered plate on the stoop and lifted the white note taped to the top, reading aloud. “Kendall Dear. Your favorite comfort food at a time you need comfort badly. It’s the least family can do. Ignore the gossips and they’ll get bored quickly. Hugs and kisses, Pearl and Eldin.”
It’s the least family can do. “Family.”
The word seemed to come up again and again, mocking her. Until her move here, Kendall had considered herself more a loner than someone with connections, especially family connections. She had kept everyone on the periphery of her life, even Hannah. And they’d both paid for that lapse, Kendall thought sadly.
Yet here were Pearl and Eldin, whom she’d just met, worried about her feelings and taking her into their life because they cared. Just like Raina Chandler, like Charlotte and Roman, Beth . . . the list of people who cared for Kendall seemed to go on and on. Yet wasn’t she equally concerned about them?
She wiped a tear from her cheek, one she hadn’t realized she’d shed. And what about Pearl and Eldin, she thought, taking in the brownies. How could she tell them they needed to move out of the large house into the smaller one just so she could sell the home out from under them?
The same way she’d told her sister she was taking her away from Yorkshire Falls, that’s how. And the same way she’d ignored Rick’s words. I love you, he’d said. And she’d walked away anyway. She shivered despite the heat, realizing she still stood on the porch.
With a sigh, she picked up the plate of brownies and let herself inside. Happy made a beeline across the house to greet her at the front door. Tail wagging, he jumped on her, his front paws nearly hitting her plate.
“Happy, down.”
Her stern voice worked. The dog settled at her feet in a sitting position, but his tail still wagged with glee. “At least someone’s happy to see me today.” After putting her things down in the kitchen, she gave the dog the attention he craved, and he reciprocated, the laps of his tongue and his furry acceptance almost more than she could handle.
He loved her unconditionally and all he asked in return was that she love him back. Despite the fact that she’d been a perfect stranger until last night, he trusted her to provide him with that safe haven and love he sought.
And she would. So why couldn’t she trust the same way? When had her life become so complicated, Kendall wondered. She walked to the window, Happy at her side, and looked out at the backyard, at the stretch of green grass and trees she remembered from childhood. The sight brought her back to the tea parties with Aunt Crystal where the
