Adam was outside the studio when Henry left Jane chatting with Grace and Luke in the lobby. He tensed, thinking of the confrontation at the Harvest Fest. He needed to get Adam out of here before Jane came outside. It wouldn’t help her cause to exchange heated words with him again. But then, maybe that’s what Adam was banking on, Henry thought grimly.
“Did you know Jane was teaching the class?” he asked mildly, trying to give his oldest friend the benefit of the doubt, even though it appeared the guy was hell bent on showing Jane no consideration in the slightest.
Adam just shrugged as they reached the parking lot. “You know Kristy and I are getting married in a few weeks. We’re practicing for the first dance.”
“But you know Jane works here.”
“Briar Creek is a small town.”
Henry pushed back his temper. “All the more reason to try to give her some space.”
“We paid for the class; we didn’t cause problems. What are you trying to say?”
Henry kept his gaze steady, but anger coursed his blood through his chest. He tried to keep his tone mild. Tried to reason. “Jane’s going through a lot right now. She loves her daughter.”
“And I don’t?” Adam shook his head, his lip curling with warning. “You’re out of line.”
He should walk away now, before things got worse, but he couldn’t, not this time. Adam’s jaw pulsed with thinly controlled rage, but Henry couldn’t back down. Not yet. “I’m just suggesting you be a little more considerate of what she’s going through, that’s all.”
Adam gave a low, mirthless chuckle. “Damn, Henry, after everything my family did for you, I expected a little more loyalty.”
The fist at Henry’s side tightened. Now that was just plain low. In all the years he’d known Adam, payback had never come up. The kindness the Browns had bestowed on him was unspoken. Now, his worst fears were confirmed; the sense of being an outsider, a leech, not a real member of the family. Just a charity case.
“Don’t say that,” Henry spat. “This isn’t about you and me. Jane’s my friend, too.”
Adam turned to Kristy and handed her the car keys. “Why don’t you go ahead and get the heat started?”
With a long, hard glance back at Henry and a flick of long, silky hair, Kristy obliged. Adam waited until the car door had slammed before nailing Henry with a look.
“Is there something going on with you and Jane?” he demanded.
“No. Of course not.” Henry tried to keep his tone casual, but he had the creeping sense he wasn’t being honest—with Adam, or himself.
Adam didn’t look convinced as he folded his arms across his chest and gave Henry the once over. “My mom said you came to visit her the other day.”
Henry nodded, recalling his visit with Patty. “I did. We had a nice chat. You know how fond of your mother I’ve always been.”
Adam stared at him for several, long seconds. “Are we still friends?”
“Of course we’re still friends,” Henry said quickly. Only he wasn’t so sure anymore. He’d overlooked the flirting back when they were still young, but the stakes were higher now, and he wasn’t sure he could sit back and say nothing this time.
Adam began walking toward him, a slow, purposeful stride. “I still consider you my friend, Henry, even though we haven’t stayed in touch. So do me a favor.” He stopped within inches of Henry’s face. “Stay away from Jane.”
Henry flexed the hand at his side and, before he did something stupid, thrust it deep into his pocket. He took a step back, feeling the blood coursing in his veins as he stared at Adam. “As you said, it’s a small town. I don’t really see how that can be avoided.”
The glint in Adam’s eye returned. “You’re not in town for long. It shouldn’t be that difficult.”
Henry stared stonily at his oldest friend, trying to remember the good times they had together, trying to understand how he could have ever grown so close to someone who could be this cold. He hadn’t started to see it until well into early adulthood, a good ten years into the friendship, and by then, it was too late. He was part of that family, and Adam knew it. Worse, he was now using it as leverage.
The two men stood, waiting for the other to break, and no matter how long Adam waited, Henry knew he couldn’t agree to what his friend was asking.
“What does it matter if I talk to Jane? You’ve moved on, you’re getting married. Why do you care?”
Adam’s eyes snapped open. “Why do you care is what I want to know? Why is it so damn important for you to spend time with her? She’s my ex-wife for God’s sake, Henry!”
“So I’m expected to just cut her out like you did, pretend she doesn’t exist?”
Adam’s gaze narrowed. “Whose side are you on, Henry?”
“No one’s side,” Henry said, sighing in exasperation. He should have stayed out of it. No good came from getting messed up in other people’s business.
Behind him a door slammed and he turned to see Jane, Grace, and Luke standing on the steps of the dance studio, and from the look in their eyes, they weren’t satisfied with his answer any more than Adam was.
What had she expected? Of course Henry wasn’t taking her side, why should he?
“What has you most upset?” Grace hedged, as their mother’s Victorian house came into view. She’d insisted on riding with Jane instead of Luke, and Jane hadn’t argued. Fall garland was draped around the wraparound porch of their childhood home, and a matching wreath hung over the door. It looked warm and inviting, and Jane longed to go inside, flop onto her old twin-sized bed, and cry into her pillow. It was so much easier to fall apart in the one place you felt most safe.
But she couldn’t.
Jane unhooked her seatbelt, but didn’t reach for the handle. “I don’t know,” she replied, but the knot in her gut said otherwise. It was always uncomfortable to see Adam around, especially with Kristy. It took everything in her to be polite and, lately, not physically lunge at him, but it was also a feeling she had slowly learned to live with. The real hurt, she knew, was because of Henry, and because of the way she’d let herself start to feel about him.
“Adam had no business being there. If you ask me, he did it to taunt you.”
“You know that Adam hates to dance. It was probably Kristy’s idea. She has no shame. Or discretion.”
“Anyone who breaks up a family probably doesn’t,” Grace agreed.
“She only broke it up because Adam let her,” Jane said.
“You know,” Grace said, her expression turning satisfied, “I bet once they’re married and she has that baby, you won’t even have to deal with them as much. She’ll be way too focused on her own life to bother with you anymore.”
Jane’s pulse began to race when she thought of everything Grace didn’t know. She wanted more than anything to tell her the rest of the story, to explain everything she was going through, but doing so would make her as selfish as Adam. What should have been a fun waltz lesson in preparation for Grace’s first dance with her new husband was overshadowed by Jane’s problems.
She’d tell Grace everything, but not until after she returned from her honeymoon. By then, Jane realized with a jolt, everything might already be decided. Her lawyer was already putting their case together, and soon they’d have a scheduled hearing.
Even if she told Grace about Adam’s effort to take Sophie across the country, there was nothing her sister could do for her. There were some battles in life she’d just have to fight herself.
“We should get inside,” she said, before Grace could talk about it anymore. She didn’t want to discuss Henry with her sister—there was nothing to discuss, after all. So he’d been friendly—she didn’t need to look for more beyond that. She didn’t need a knight in shining armor. She could hold her own.
She held on to that thought as they climbed out of the car and made their way up the winding path to the porch. When she’d mentioned to her lawyer that she could sell her home and move into this one to cut down on costs, he’d advised her against it, and she was happy he had. As much as she loved this old house, it wasn’t her home, and she couldn’t hide away in it and pretend that she was a child again and that other people could fight her battles and make everything better. The best thing she could do was continue to give Sophie the life she’d always lived and stick with their well-established routine, and that meant staying in the only home Sophie had ever known. Judges didn’t like to uproot kids, her attorney reassured her every time doubt crept in, especially ones as young as Sophie.
But did judges overlook financial means and forming bonds with new siblings? She was working on not thinking of everything in terms of catastrophe, on focusing on what was within her control. But late at night, when the house was dark and still, the worried thoughts crept in. Last night had been the first solid sleep she’d had in a week, thanks to Henry.
She wouldn’t be counting on a repeat.
With a sigh, she left her shoes next to Grace’s on the front mat and wound her way to the back of the house, where Sophie and their mother were sitting at the kitchen table, eating bowls of ice cream.
“How were the new classes?” Kathleen asked, as Jane bent down to plant a kiss on Sophie’s forehead. The little girl didn’t look up from her dessert. Sweets were an important matter. They required full attention.
Jane met Grace’s eye and shrugged. “We had a good turnout. I haven’t seen quite so much hot pink Lycra since the last time I watched a Richard Simmons video.”
“You’ve watched a Richard Simmons video?” Grace retorted.
Jane felt her cheeks flush. “It was after Sophie was born. I was trying to lose the baby weight!”
“You mean you worked out to his video! Oh, Jane!”
Her mother and sister laughed, and Jane reluctantly joined them, feeling her mood lift.
“Can you stay for ice cream?” Kathleen asked. “I have chocolate chip.”
Jane’s favorite. Her spirits rising, she slid into her own childhood seat next to her daughter while her mother fixed her a bowl and Grace began chatting about some last-minute wedding details. “Wouldn’t sparklers be gorgeous during the first dance?” she asked, and Sophie clapped her hands in agreement.
Kathleen set Jane’s bowl of ice cream in front of her with a smile, then returned to her own seat, patting Jane’s hand fondly before lifting her own spoon. Jane ate her dessert and listened to her sister and mother talk, and she felt her conviction grow. Adam might have taken her dreams from her, but one thing he couldn’t take was her family. It would have been easy to run, to start fresh, but Briar Creek was her home, and she and Sophie both deserved to fight for their place in it.
Forget what he did to her. Forget romance and flowers and all those gestures she’d romanticized and longed for. This kind of love was constant and loyal. And it would have to just be enough.