The Memory Keeper: A Heartwarming, Feel-Good Romance(62)

“Wonder where she’s been this whole time?” Georgia asked.

“No idea.” Hannah left the door and checked the names written on the side of the coffee cups Georgia had set on the counter, grabbing hers. “What kind did you get me?” she asked.

“Honey and almond milk.” She lumped the sack on the counter. “I got us muffins too. I ate mine already.”

“That sounds delicious,” she said, wiping her forehead with her paint-streaked arm. She checked her phone and there were no new messages. She’d texted Ethan this morning to ask again if he’d stop by, but she hadn’t heard from him. She’d told him she’d be there all day.

“Need anything else before I head out to my interviews?” Georgia asked.

“I think I’m good here,” she replied.

“Jerry, come!” Georgia called, scooping up the Chihuahua into her arms. “You sure your dad’s okay with me taking the truck?”

“Yes, he’s totally fine with it.”

“And you’ll be all right here at the store?”

“Of course. I’m painting all day, and even if I have to walk home, it’s totally doable. Gran does it all the time. The weather’s going to be halfway decent today, so the walk should be nice.”

“Text me if you need me.” Georgia grabbed her coffee, slipped Jerry into his bag, and walked out into the sunshine.

Hannah felt a swell of optimism as she walked to the back of the room and turned on the old record player. “Rockin’ Robin” began its tweedle, causing her to spin around, forgetting about everything for a minute. She closed her eyes and twirled, letting the sound take her back to simpler times. It was the most cheerful she’d felt in a long time, until the bells on the door jingled.

Christie stood inside, the door swinging shut behind her.

Hannah jogged back to the record player and turned it off with a scratch, before going up to the front to greet Christie. “Hello,” she said, approaching her cautiously.

“I was just wonderin’ if you were here for Ethan,” she said, squaring her chin proudly even though she seemed anxious.

“What do you mean?”

“Because if you are, I need you to let us be.” She ran her hand nervously through her wind-blown, wispy hair. “I’m askin’, woman to woman, for you to back off.”

What was she talking about? “I came home because my gran is sick in the hospital,” Hannah said. “I’ve been in touch with Ethan because he was my best friend. And I’m not taking him anywhere, so you have nothing to worry about.”

“I’d like you to leave us to our life together. It’s already hard enough without you interferin’. I came in to tell you—please—don’t ask him to paint anything. He said you wanted him to paint somethin’ in here.”

“Why shouldn’t he paint?”

“Because it puts these big ideas in his head.”

“What’s so wrong with big ideas? He’s very talented.”

“He’s got commitments now.” She pursed her lips in disapproval. “Look, when we started datin’, I got pregnant, and he had to go to work for his dad. Paintin’ reminds him of everything he gave up to be Wesley’s father. And he confessed to me once that he feels guilty for ever wantin’ any life other than the one we’ve got, so I know he thinks about it.”

“He can have both. He doesn’t have to give up painting,” Hannah said.

“I think he’s afraid of where it might take him if he were to give it his all.”

“What do you mean?”

“If by some miracle he were to break out of this town, it would eventually take him away from us. What if he ended up in some art gallery in New York City, or somethin’ like that? We wouldn’t know what to do up there. He and I would drift apart, and the next thing I know, Wesley wouldn’t know his father or have anything in common with him. And that’s best-case scenario.”

“What’s worst case?”

“He’d waste his whole life tryin’ to be somethin’ he’s not. Me gettin’ pregnant changed things for him, but I think it just made him finally grow up.”

Hannah thought back to all the times in high school when Ethan had been frustrated with her for planning to leave. But now, she wondered if it was because he too wanted to follow his dreams, and for some reason he didn’t feel that he was capable of doing it.

“Chasing your dreams isn’t only a childhood endeavor—it shouldn’t be something he has to ‘give up.’ And there’s art here too, you know. He could stay close to his roots and paint around town and in Nashville, like he’d been doing.”

“But eventually, he’d move on,” Christie said, her face worried.

“So you’re saying that Ethan isn’t using his God-given talent because of fear that it might give him success? That doesn’t make any sense at all. I think the fear here is yours—you worry that you’re a second choice in his life, and I doubt that very seriously.”

“Sometimes you just gotta live the life you’re given, ya know?” She gritted her teeth. “You roll into town with these grand ideas, puttin’ thoughts in his head, confusin’ him. Just let him be. We were all just fine before you came.”