The Country Guesthouse (Sullivan's Crossing #5)(25)

It was definitely food for thought.

  Later that night, after dinner, when Hannah was telling Owen about her lunch, he said, “Why don’t you think about staying awhile longer? It kind of sounds like you’re not sure how this is all going to work out. I don’t mean to project, but if you have some anxiety about it, take your time. Here, every day is a good day for Noah and it’s one more day you have to put the pieces of the puzzle together in your head. You’ll still have the whole summer.”

“Owen, I need to face this. I have to get back to earning some money rather than just spending it. I love your house but...”

“Hannah, I think you know having you here has been good for me, too. I wouldn’t charge you to stay in the house. In fact, if you hadn’t already paid the rental in advance, I’d tear up the bill.”

“Why, Owen? Why is this good for you?”

“It must be the timing, that’s all I can think of. It’s been a little over ten years since my divorce. I can honestly say I haven’t been too lonely. My relationships with women were few and brief. I haven’t spent this much time with a woman and child in all that time. My wife remarried. A very nice fellow. I like him. They have a couple of little girls.” He laughed with some embarrassment. “I talked to her a couple of days ago and she suggested bringing the family out here for a visit and I asked her what kind of woman visits her ex-husband.” He shook his head. “But from the day you and Noah got here, it’s felt so ridiculously normal. I understand if you need to go. Maybe we’ll stay in touch. Maybe you’ll come back. I think it’s less odd if you and Noah visit than if my ex-wife and her new family visits, don’t you?”

She laughed a little. “I suppose.”

“I’m used to feeling odd,” he said. “I’m known around here as that skinny guy with the camera. For some reason, I don’t feel that odd with you.”

“But you’re not odd. You’re the most real person I’ve met in too long. And I don’t think you’re skinny at all.”

“I could get things off the top shelf for my mother when I was twelve. I can get things off the top shelf for you. I can swim with Noah. He’s thriving here.”

“I think it’s my responsibility to help him thrive in his forever home, in the place we’re going to live from now on. I have a plan. I should stick to the plan, no matter how uncertain I might feel.”

“This is usually an uncomplicated place,” he said. “You have a couple of days before your plan says it’s time to go. Think about it, okay? Think about giving yourself this gift of time. It’s working for all of us.”

“Please tell me you won’t hold it against me if I feel I have to go,” she said.

“Of course not,” he said. “We’ve become good friends. I only want you to be happy, to be doing exactly what’s best for you.”

She smiled at him. “Why do I have the strangest feeling those were your words when you decided to divorce? Were you polite and supportive even then?”

His shoulders shook with a silent chuckle. “Found me out,” he said. “It was very much like that. Poor Sheila, she has so much energy, has so much to say, so much to give. She’s a total people person. She said that sometimes I was quiet for days. I never thought it was that bad but I didn’t crave large groups of people. It’s true I began seeing more of my world through a lens. I’m afraid I enjoy quiet dinners, sunsets, long walks, campfires, people who don’t have five hundred friends but only a few good ones and count me as one of them. I walked around the Colorado countryside for months and then stumbled on this place, where I could be as quiet, slow and easy as I wanted to be.”

“But you travel to so many exotic places,” she said.

“I know. I have an insatiable curiosity about things I haven’t seen and I do have to make a living. Not always in exotic places, though. I’ve traveled to many ordinary towns to witness a soldier coming home from deployment or being released from a hospital on his new legs. I shot some amazing soup kitchens and some real raw homelessness. But I love places few people get to go. I think that, like you, there’s a puzzle in my head and I’m putting the pieces in place.”

“I don’t know how I can ever thank you for your kindness and generosity to me and Noah,” she said. “It’s been such a privilege to see some of your work.”

“Now you’re just flattering me,” he said.

“Ha! Not at all. I envy you that talent and drive. I have no idea what to do with my life! My job is a good job. The company is a good company. It pays well but it’s only rewarding to me in the area of income. Everything else about it has worn me down.”

“Hannah, that happens to most people, I think. No matter what field. I was a different kind of photographer before my divorce. I shot weddings, ball games, school photos, babies and Christmas card photos. Then I had this uncomfortable freedom and I started to change.”

“Did I tell you when I was here last? Did I tell you about our team building exercise?”

“Well, that you were here for a company retreat. Right? I was away.”

She told him about the trust exercises, about the sexy moderator, about her male colleagues getting stoned, about going home to find her fiancé boinking her administrative assistant.