I glanced toward a beanbag in the next section where Rosie sat with a glass of wine in one hand and her book in the other. Nacho, the Labrador mix she fostered, rested near her feet. Even with hands full, Rosie was able to give me a shushing finger to the lips.
“My marriage is fine,” I whispered to Sylvie.
“Honey, oatmeal is fine. Ten dollars off a brow wax is fine. The first few months of your marriage should be more along the lines offabulous,wickedly invigorating, andcan’t wait to get back home to reenact chapter twenty-three of that book.”
“It’s still an adjustment.”
“Indeed it is.”
Hattie now settled on my other side. “What are we talking about?”
Peace, quiet, and fictional snogging. That’s all I’d wanted tonight. “We’renottalking. We’re reading.”
Sylvie took a sip of wine. “I was asking for a status report on her marriage.”
“Because that’s what you do during a read-in.” Being denied my book made me a little punchy, but Felicity and Lord Bradford were waiting for me.
Hattie rested her paperback in her lap. “I can’t speak for Olivia, but Miller says Lachlan’s happier than he’s ever seen him.”
The words on my page blurred before my eyes as I caught my sister’s revelation.
“Well, of course,” Sylvie said. “He’s a very lucky man to marry our Olivia.”
“Did you know his father was emotionally abusive?” Hattie added. “He all but abandoned Lachlan and his mother in Dallas and left her to raise Lachlan by herself. Lachlan had a job at thirteen, washing dishes for the diner where his mom worked.”
Thirteen? Washing dishes? “There was a lot about Lachlan I didn’t know when we were in college,” I said quietly. “I’m not sure he got to have a childhood.”
“You’re aware his mom had a heart condition, right?” Hattie asked.
“No, I didn’t know that.” I hadn’t delved much into his mother’s story.
“According to Miller, she was always sickly. He took care of her a lot, even when he was just a kid.”
What a childhood. If I had known where Lachlan had come from, would it have changed how I’d treated him in college? I wanted to think it would’ve. “Lachlan’s worked hard to make a new life for himself,” I said.
“And now you’re part of that better life.” Hattie smiled. “You’re the most stable thing to happen to him in years, Olivia.”
Lachlan and I were as stable as a two-legged stool.
“He’s certainly not Taylor.” Sylvie curled her glossed lip, as if his name tasted sour. “But sometimes we take our old wounds into our new relationships.”
“I certainly did when I met Miller,” Hattie said.
“I know Lachlan isn’t Taylor.” This conversation scrubbed against my defenses like sandpaper.
Sylvie rested her blonde head on my shoulder. “Sugar, just because Lachlan wasn’t on your timeline doesn’t mean he didn’t show up right on time. Don’t be afraid to love with your whole heart again. With the right person, the risk is worth it.”
I said nothing. Just returned to my book where I could spend time with a couple who would get their lives figured out by the end of the last chapter. They’d overcome all the obstacles, find their way to each other, and claim their happily ever after.
I didn’t need marriage advice from my family because I wasn’t in a real marriage. Very soon Lachlan and I would quietly separate, and we’d go live our lives.
And if the thought of Lachlan moving on and finding his happily ever after with someone else made my heart tremble just a bit, I needed to get past it.
Because I certainly wasn’t going to fall in love with a man destined to leave me.
I’d done that once, but never again.
After Lachlan and I split, I’d wish him well and get back on my life plan where everything had its time and place.
