Chapter Forty-Six

“WHAT’S IN CORNWALL?” Dan asked as she finished telling them all about what she had in mind.

“I don’t know,” she lied. “It’s just pretty.”

She tried to blame her obsession with wanting to take them all there on the movie About Time. It was Dan’s favorite movie, after all. But since his diagnosis, none of them had been strong enough to watch it.

“Trust me,” she said. “I think the sea air would do us all some good.”

As much as they all loved London, this point was hard to argue. None of them had ever lived in a big city before and the prospect of open spaces near the water was appealing.

And after only two days on his new medications, Dan’s energy had really perked up. If they were going to get there, it should be now. She found a house near where Will’s family lived because it was the area she knew best and rented it for the weekend. It overlooked the sea and looked absolutely gorgeous in the pictures.

As soon as they arrived, the rest of her family finally acquiesced and told her she’d been right. The house had Adirondack chairs out back and they all couldn’t wait to sit and soak up a bit of sun. Her poor desert children were looking practically pasty outside of their native habitat.

She’d arranged for five bikes to be waiting for them at the house and after double (read: triple) checking that Dan was feeling up to it, they rode into town for lunch.

“I could totally live here,” said Shawn as they set their bikes against the wall of the café.

“Maybe you will,” Joey said, reaching up to put an arm around her son. “You could buy a nice cottage and turn it into a B&B.”

“What about college?” he said.

“Honey, you only get one life,” she said. “Make it everything you want it to be. Make it extraordinary.”

She wasn’t sure how much wisdom she could impart on a sixteen-year-old boy, but she did know that Dan’s cancer had changed her kids already. They were smart and mature for their age, but the way they looked out for one another since they’d heard the news had Joey convinced they were going to be okay once he passed.

Not that it would be easy, but they would get through it together. And that was enough.

As they finished their lunch, Joey nearly had a heart attack as she looked across the room. There, sitting at a table with a woman and two small children, was Will.

Oh no, she thought. Without her, Will and Liam must never have gotten married. At least the kids and woman looked nice, but Joey was so sad to think that Will had never come out and lived like he wanted to.

Or maybe that whole timeline was wrong for everyone, and by not talking Will into saying yes to Liam, she’d saved them a horrible divorce or something. She thought about this for a while and didn’t realize she’d been openly staring at Will until he waved at her.

Did he recognize her? Was that even possible? Without a word of explanation to her family, she got up and went to his table.

“Do you know me?” she said.

“I don’t think so,” Will said.

“Oh, but you waved.”

“I wasn’t sure if you were staring at me or having a seizure,” he said with a laugh.

“Oh, goodness. I’m so sorry. You just remind me of someone I used to know.”

“From here?”

“Uh, no, London.”

“Ah, well, sorry, miss. Enjoy your holiday.”

“Thank you,” she said. “You have a beautiful family. I’m sorry to bother you, Will.”

She turned around quickly, hoping she’d said his name so quietly that he didn’t notice.

“Did she just call you Will?” the woman with Will said.

“Miss?” Will said. “How do you know my name?”

“Oh, I, uh, heard your wife say it earlier,” she said. “When I was accidentally staring at you.”

This seemed to appease him, but he gave her the same look Liam had as she tried to will all the blood to drain from her face.

“Sister,” he said.

“Excuse me?”

“This is my sister,” he repeated.

“Oh,” Joey said.

And since they already thought she was crazy, she decided to press her luck. “But these are your kids?”

“Yes, these are my kids.”

“And you’re married?”

“I am.”

“To?” she asked.

“My husband’s name is Liam,” he said, with a face that looked like annoyance and amusement.

“I’m so happy to hear that,” she said, before walking away for real.

“Do you know them?” Dan asked when she sat back down.

“I thought I did,” she said.

“You watch too many British movies,” Meghan said. “Everyone here looks familiar to you.”

They all laughed, and Joey felt joy mix with foolishness. How big of a narcissist did she have to be to assume that everyone’s lives would just fall apart without her? Will and Liam hadn’t needed her to sort things out. She wished she could go back and ask for their whole love story, but it wasn’t hers to know. They were together and that was all that mattered.

And if they were real, and really together, that meant the rest was maybe, possibly real too.