Chapter 8
Claire barely remembered the drive to Gracie’s house. She’d been on autopilot the entire way there. Her lips were still tingling from Julian’s kisses when she walked through the front door. Her sister was in the living room, sitting in a rocking chair knitting a sweater. She stopped abruptly when her gaze fell on Claire’s face.
“You okay?” she asked, worry creasing her forehead.
“Yeah, fine. Why?”
Gracie set her needles in her lap. “Because you don’t look fine. You look kind of spacey. Is Tank all right? Were you able to get him to eat?”
“Oh, yeah. He gobbled his food right after I got there.” Claire sank into a high back armchair. Her head was spinning as she tried to make sense out of what had happened tonight. “I kissed Julian,” she said quietly, more to herself than to Gracie. “Actually, he kissed me, then I kissed him. After that, we just kind of kissed each other.”
Gracie sprang to her feet, dropping her knitting on the floor. “Claire, that’s wonderful. But I thought you hated him.”
“I thought so too. I don’t even know how it happened. One minute we were eating dinner and drinking wine and the next, I was in his arms.”
“So what does this mean?”
Claire shook her head. “I have no idea. I’ve never felt like this before—dizzy, and giddy, and like my heart’s about to explode.”
Gracie smiled. “I’d say it sounds like you’re falling in love.”
“This soon?’
“There’s no time requirement on it. I might be an old married woman, but I sure remember what falling in love feels like.”
“Are you sure it was that long ago?” Claire hadn’t planned on bringing up Tim Hayden, but this conversation had morphed into what seemed like the perfect time and another might not come.
“I don’t know what you mean? Henry and I have been married for fourteen years.”
“I’m not talking about Henry.” Claire’s lips puckered in disapproval.
Gracie’s face went white. “You’re losing me, Claire. Who then?”
“Your boyfriend, Tim Hayden. First I caught you looking at old prom pictures, then I saw you two together at the festival. Gracie, do you have any idea what this’ll do to your family?”
Intense astonishment touched her sister’s pale face, then she grabbed her sides as she erupted into peals of laughter. “I can’t believe you think I’m having an affair.”
Claire frowned, not finding this at all amusing. “Well, what then?”
Gracie came over and put her hands on her sister’s shoulders. “I adore Henry. He was my first and only love. I’d never do anything to hurt him. But I got married at eighteen and then had Zak two years later. I’m not complaining, mind you, my family means the world to me…but they shouldn’t be my world. You have no idea how I envied you, Claire. How you went off fearlessly to pursue your dreams… I never did that. I stayed here and became a wife and mother. Of course, that was my choice, and I wouldn’t change it, but Zak is getting older. He’s in the seventh grade now and doesn’t need me like he used to. And Henry, he’s got his new job with Julian, but what do I have? An empty house?”
Claire stared into Gracie’s green eyes and saw the pain there. “I had no idea, but what does any of this have to do with Tim?”
Gracie sat down on the floor beside Claire’s chair. “I’ve talked to Henry about what I’ve been going through lately, and it turns out that he’d been struggling with some things too. He felt like he was working too much and not spending enough time with Zak. That’s one of the reasons he took the job at Barnett. It wouldn’t be as demanding as the job he left. So the two of us came up with what we hope will be a solution. Henry’s been taking Zak on little trips whenever he can, and I’m going to go to culinary school. You know how much I love to cook.”
“But Tim Hayden, Gracie! Why did you look so happy when you were with him?”
She smiled. “He’s been close friends with Henry for years, and he’s been helping me select a school. He has a restaurant just outside of Portland and will be opening another one here in Romance in about a year or so. I can have a job there if I want.”
Claire’s face felt hot. What an idiot she was! She threw her arms around her sister’s neck. “I’m so sorry to have doubted you. I should’ve known better than to think you’d do something like that.”
“Don’t be sorry. You had no way of knowing what was going on in my life. Just like I didn’t know what was happening in yours. I wish you didn’t live so far away.”
“Me too.”
“Now that love might be in bloom between you and Julian, maybe you’ll rethink my request to move back to Romance.” There was a hopeful twinkle in Gracie’s eyes.
Claire deftly changed the subject and before she knew it, it was after midnight. She’d spent hours laughing and chatting with Gracie, but if she didn’t get to bed soon, she’d never get up in morning. And she had no doubt that if she didn’t appear at Julian’s bright and early, he’d be calling her, complaining that Tank hadn’t eaten his breakfast.