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CHAPTER FIVE
WITH A FINAL sip of coffee and silent thanks for a rare weekend off, Lori ended her mile-long trek to Duskywing Farm Saturday morning on a sigh of relief. After a sleepless night, the fresh air and quiet of a Butterfly Harbor morning arrived with squawking seagulls and playful stereophonic ocean waves. It was the reset she needed, a reminder that wallowing wouldn’t do anyone—herself especially—any good.
Besides, nothing worked off a good mad better than a long walk.
She’d staged her own rebellion last night after getting home and hadn’t touched the boxes of invitations—something she’d probably regret at some point. She was used to manipulative people, used to the snark and passive-aggressive machinations, but this time had been one time too many. One BethAnn smirk too many. Lori had taken a stand and, for once, done something unexpected.
And it felt great.
Her time, her abilities weren’t any less valuable than anyone else’s. Why did she continue to spend her life worrying about what other people thought about her? Abby was right. There was more to her than numbers on a scale. There always had been. Time to start acting like it.
That she’d started by ending any potential romantic involvement with Matt Knight before it had ever really gotten started seemed a tad overkill.
She should have known allowing herself to dwell on all those romantic ideas she’d never let herself entertain would come back and bite her. Besides, if things had gotten serious with Matt, she had her own confessions she’d have had to make about what the future did—or in her case didn’t—hold in store. So maybe this entire situation was a blessing in disguise.
Maybe she just needed the reminder that she would be okay on her own.
She had her friends, her family, a new niece and, knowing Fletcher’s desire for a big family, there would be more kids for him and Paige in the future.
She should feel relieved that Matt was officially out of her life—and she would be if she didn’t have to deal with the whole beautification project. Story of her life. She’d finally taken a chance on something, grabbed hold of what she really wanted and in so doing exploded another part of her life.
She’d needed a reality check. She’d needed to get her head out of the clouds. She needed to remember that reality had crashed over her the summer she’d turned ten. Had continued to crash for years after.
With parents who had blamed rather than comforted, criticized instead of encouraged, the child Lori had been disappeared the day her little brother had died; whoever she’d been meant to be had been washed out to sea along with Colin, leaving a shell of a little girl desperate for someone to cling to; to grieve with. And when Fletcher and her grandfather hadn’t been enough, or when she couldn’t bear to cry one more tear, she’d turned to the one comfort that would never let her down.
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