The other moving truck belongs to Julio and Will. Since Liam is moving to Harriston, we decided he should take over as manager of that garage. Will has been wanting to get his degree. This location is growing by leaps and bounds, so Julio will be taking over as an assistant manager here. It will actually come with a raise and more responsibility since the Centralia shop has so many more services.
Our little corner of town stays in the family, and Wren and Liam finally get the distance they need to heal apart from each other. This is how it should have been all along. I just thought I could impose my will on everything and make them get along. In a way, I guess I felt like if they were able to get along, then my loving her was never a bad thing.
At least that’s what Dr. Manning has helped me to see. Wren and I are still talking to the counselor, but we’re also both going alone. She’d never really dealt with the grief of losing her parents. Marrying Liam was her way of running from the pain, and now it’s creeping back up on her.
The three of us have lived a very tangled web, but we’re doing the work to untangle it. I don’t see him as much, and sometimes I worry that he’s going to cut me out, but I’m working on having faith that my family loves me. That’s been hard for me. Turns out Wren isn’t the only one with parent-related baggage, but I’mworking through it. At least her parents loved her. Mine loved booze more, but I am learning how to let that go so it doesn’t dictate my relationships going forward.
Bess pulls up with Dolores in the passenger seat. She rolls down the window and hollers over at us. “Dolores’s grandson and his wife bought Wren’s old house. They’re having a housewarming barbecue tonight.”
“That’s not a lot of notice,” I say, knowing that we have a lot of furniture to move, contained in two trucks.
Dolores leans out of the window. “Give me a break, I’m old.”
Liam wipes his brow. “Go ahead and go. I hired some of Scott’s players to help with ours and Julio’s stuff. We’ve got this. You should take Uncle Charlie, too.”
“What do you say, want to go crash a party at Wren’s old house?” I ask him.
He bumps Hattie with his shoulder. “Sounds like old times, huh, Doll?”
She gives him a sly smile, and I really wish I could go back to knowing a lot less about how they got together.
“What about all the kids?” I ask. There’s bringing a few kids, then there’s the elementary army that follows us around.
“My grandson, Ben, has a little girl. He knows I’m inviting all of you. He wants me to bring the people who take care of his granny, so you’re not crashing anything,” Dolores insists.
“Let me go tell Wren,” I say. By tell, I mean ask, because I don’t want to risk all the progress she’s been making lately.
“I’m right behind you,” she says. “Bess has been blowing up my phone the whole time she’s been parked in front of the house.”
Bess waves her phone as proof. “To be fair, I’m also texting Donovan, telling him to hurry up. Jack had a birthday party, so I guess he’s going to meet us there.”
“Looks like almost the whole gang is coming,” I say. “Scott and Harlow?”
“Meeting us there after her appointment,” Bess confirms.
This is the new normal. Family events often happen without Liam and Claudia, but they’ve grown closer to her family. I didn’t know that my pushiness to have everyone together all the time was an issue with them. Liam recently confessed that she’s felt disconnected from her own family. They still join us from time to time, but it is more balanced now.
Boundaries aren’t these evil things that keep people apart. Not like how I’d viewed them. Turns out, sometimes they’re the glue that keeps people together.
Walking into Wren’s old house feels weird. It’s like someone opened all the windows and let new life breathe into the bones of it. Despite the fact that there have been other people living here in the last fifteen years, it still feels like Martin and Elisa’s house.
If it feels like this to me, I can only wonder how it feels to Wren being here.
“We can leave anytime you want,” I whisper to her.
She smiles. It’s not happy, but not quite sad either. “I’m okay. It’s just a house.”
“No, it’s not,” I say. I don’t want to set her back after all the progress she’s made in healing.
Wren puts her hand on my arm, and her smile turns more appreciative. “When we leave here, it will be.”
Once again, I’m going to force myself to trust and have faith. She’s already shown me that she’s stronger than I’ve ever given her credit for. She can handle this.
Wren
I takea seat on the picnic table and close my eyes. The sound of laughter, conversation, and children playing surrounds me. I can smell hot dogs and hamburgers cooking on the grill. All of it mingles to take me back to the past.
“It’s nice seeing the house so full of life again,” a voice says next to me.
