Hannah was in the kitchen when Brooke arrived, Jason in tow.
“Mom, look who I found wandering around St. Dennis.” Brooke knew that wasn’t quite where she’d encountered him, but it would suffice for the moment.
“Jason! What a nice surprise.” Hannah embraced him and gave him a long hug. “Why didn’t you let us know you were coming?”
“He wanted to surprise us,” Brooke said before Jason could respond.
Jason nodded. “Right.”
“Well, sit, then. Have you had dinner?” Hannah went directly to the refrigerator and opened the door.
“No, I—”
“Let me fix you something. Let’s see, we have—”
“No need to bother, Hannah,” he told her. “I can stop somewhere on my way back to the motel.”
“You have a room?” Hannah stood. “Where?”
“The small place out on the highway right past the first shopping center after the light on River Road.”
Hannah made a face. “For heaven’s sake, you can’t stay there. Call them up and cancel the room. You’ll stay here.” She ducked into the refrigerator again. “Hamburger okay?”
“A hamburger would be great, but really, Hannah, you don’t need to—”
She shushed him with a wave of her hand. “Sit.”
Jason sat.
“Where’s Clay?” Brooke asked.
“He’s upstairs with Logan. Shower time.” Hannah turned to Jason. “Say, why don’t you go right on up and surprise him?”
“I’d love to see him, thank you.” Jason stood. “Which way?”
“You can go right up the back steps here and it’ll be the third door on the right.”
Jason’s footsteps echoed up the steps, and overhead they heard floorboards squeak.
“All right, now.” Hannah turned to her daughter. “What’s going on? Did you know Jason was coming? And why do you look so out of sorts? I thought you were finishing up your will at Jesse’s office.”
Brooke dropped into a chair.
“I didn’t know Jason was coming. I was at Jesse’s office when he arrived.”
“Jason went to Jesse’s office?” Hannah frowned. “Why would he have done that?”
“Remember I told you that Jesse wrote a letter to Jace, just asking about the state of the landscaping business because of the money that Eric pitched in as seed money?”
“Right.” Hannah began to make a burger for Jason.
“Well, Jason took that to mean that I wanted him to pay back the money now.” Brooke shook her head. “He was furious. It never occurred to me that he’d take it that way. I was only asking because I didn’t even know if he was still in business. I thought I should know because of Logan …”
“Of course, you should know. No need to explain. And shame on Jason for not calling you to ask if that was what you wanted him to do.”
“That’s exactly what I told him. But he sold the business so he could pay me back. He came here to give me a check. Actually, he wasn’t even going to do that. He was just going to leave it with Jesse without even calling me.”
“Oh, dear lord. No wonder you’re upset.”
“That isn’t all of it.”
Hannah turned around. “So …?”
“So Jesse and I were in the conference room when Jason arrived. We’d been … we were …” Brooke was trying to decide how best to word it.
“Oh. I see.” Hannah took a small skillet from the rack overhead and placed it on the stove. “You and Jesse. Well.”
“Well …?”
“Well, it’s about time.”
“Mom …”
“Brooke, I know you’ve had a terrible time of things. Maybe I’m especially sensitive because I lost my husband, too. I know that after all the years I spent with your father, I won’t be looking for someone else. But you’re so young, sweetie—much too young to hang up your dancing shoes.”
“Jesse and I weren’t exactly dancing, Mom.”
“I got that part, sweetie.” Hannah turned back to the stove, a small smile on her lips. “It was a metaphor for … for whatever you were doing.”
“It was … awkward, to say the least. Jason figured things out real fast and wasn’t very nice. To either of us.”
“Said things he shouldn’t have?”
Brooke nodded. “He made me feel like … like …”
Hannah put her arms around her daughter’s shoulders. “Don’t let him do that, honey. Don’t let anyone do that to you. There’s still happiness in store for you with someone. I want you to find it. Embrace it.”
“That’s pretty much what I was doing when Jason arrived,” Brooke muttered.
The kitchen was silent, Hannah looking for a spatula in an overstuffed drawer, Brooke trying to put everything that happened into perspective.
“I really like Jesse, Mom. There’s something about him … I can’t put my finger on it, but sometimes I feel as if I’ve known him forever. Which of course I haven’t, but—”
“Funny. I said the same thing about your father when I first met him.” Hannah found what she was looking for and closed the drawer, muttering, “Gotta clean that out before I move.”
“I thought you always knew him, the way everyone knows everyone around here.” Brooke turned in her chair to face her mother.
“Remember that your father was five years older than me. I knew who he was because I knew his family, but I didn’t actually meet him until I was sixteen and he was already twenty-one and farming.” Hannah stood at the window looking out.
“You met him at a hayride, right?” She’d heard the story before, but it was a good one, and it looked as if her mother was remembering it, too, just the way it happened all those years ago.
“The hayride was over on the Emmonses farm. I went with a couple of my girlfriends. Your dad was there with his brother, Everett, and his girlfriend.” Hannah paused. “I wonder what ever happened to her. I don’t think I saw her again after Everett died in Vietnam. Anyway, Dave climbed onto the hay wagon we were on, and sat next to me. I never looked at another boy after that. Couldn’t wait until I was eighteen so he’d go out with me.” She looked over her shoulder. “He thought my parents would think he was too old for me. Which they did. But I knew I was going to marry him. Even before I knew I was really in love with him, I knew that. It happens that way sometimes. I don’t understand it myself, but there it is.”
Logan bounded into to room. “Uncle Jason’s here!”
“I know. I saw him!”
“Can I stay home from school tomorrow with him?”
“I must have water in my ears because for a minute there, it sounded like you asked if you could stay home from school tomorrow.” Brooke slicked back his wet hair.
Logan made a face. “I figured you’d say that. But on Saturday he’s going to come watch me play soccer and I told him I’d buy him an ice-cream cone at Scoop.” Logan turned her face so that they were eye to eye. “You still have that little ticket Vanessa gave me on Halloween, right? The one for a free cone?”
Brooke nodded. “It’s upstairs on my desk. I suggest you leave it there until you’re ready to use it.”
“Where is your uncle, Logan?” Hannah asked.
“He’s upstairs, talking to Uncle Clay. They’re talking about beer.”
“Would you please go tell him that his hamburger is ready?”
“Sure, Gramma.” Logan went to the foot of the steps and started to shout, “Uncle—”
“I could have done that myself.” Hannah rolled her eyes. “Go upstairs and tell him, please.”
When Logan had gone, Hannah asked, “Why do you suppose Jason overreacted to your letter the way he did?”
Brooke shook her head. “I don’t know. I’ve been asking myself the same question. I mean, just selling out like that was extreme. I have to think that either he reacted from sheer blind anger, in which case he has to be regretting it—”
“Or he was looking for a reason to sell it and your letter provided one.”
“We’ll see, I guess, if he sticks around long enough. As for me”—Brooke stood and stretched—“all the drama aside, I still have a paper due in the morning and six dozen cupcakes to bake. Please make my excuses to Jason, but I have to get to work …”
She was almost to the door leading into the front hall when she stopped. “Mom,” she said, “thanks.”
Hannah turned off the burner under the skillet.
“It’s time to let go of the past whether or not Jesse turns out to be your future. And really, the only way to know for sure is to give him a chance. Don’t turn your back on something that could be very right for you because you’re afraid of what Jason or anyone else may think. It’s your life, Brooke. Start living again.”