Divided Interests (Southern Bride 3)

Walking up the front steps, I unlocked the door. “Nah. I’ll give you a call tomorrow.”

“Okay. Good luck tonight, and remember, keep your distance from him.”

With a firm nod, I replied, “Consider it done.” Even though every word of that was a lie.

Oreo sat at the bottom of the steps and looked at me as I shut the front door. Then she meowed.

“Oh right, like you knew I’d be back.”

She rushed up the steps and waited by my bedroom door.

After changing and putting on baggy sweats and an oversized T-shirt, I threw my hair into a ponytail and slipped on my sneakers.

“Let’s go see what he’s up to, Oreo.”

With a flashlight and my phone in hand, I made my way through the house and out the back door. Through the trees I could see the light better. Lucas was in the old greenhouse.

I had yet to explore that disarray. Mainly because the memory of me and Lucas standing in there years ago, talking about getting married, made my head and heart hurt.

As I made my way down the path, I thought back to William’s letter.

I give you this house for you to find the answers. You can’t find the answers, though, without the key.

One thing was obvious. William had wanted me and Lucas in this house together. And he wanted us looking for something that a stupid key fit into.

The path opened up, and I could see the greenhouse. The light shining inside cast the most beautiful glow in the trees. It took my breath away.

I walked to the glass door and quietly attempted to open it. I failed. A loud creak made Lucas turn and look at me.

“What are you doing here? I thought you went out,” he asked.

“Turns out my mood was ruined. I figured I would come back to the house and start looking for this chest or whatever. Why are you out here?”

Lucas stared at me for the longest time. He looked conflicted about something. Maybe he had been up to something and had been caught red-handed. Or maybe he had been hoping he’d have the place to himself.

“Okay, fine,” I said. “You can go ahead and stay out here by yourself, I’ll head back to the house.”

“No, wait. Don’t leave.”

Lucas closed the distance between us and handed me a small, old leather notebook. “I found this in Granddad’s room. Actually, in the closet that was Gram’s. Oreo had been sitting on an old chest of drawers in the room and knocked something off the back. When I moved it, I found this.”

I ran my fingers over the old leather book. Lucas’s grandmother’s name was carved into the leather.

May.

“This was May’s?” I asked, meeting his gaze.

“Yes, I think so.”

“You haven’t opened it yet?” I asked.

He shook his head. “After reading the first few words of her journal, I decided to come out here and read it.”

I opened the book and read the first page, understanding why he needed to be in the greenhouse when I read the opening line.

Tonight I sat in the glass house, alone in my thoughts. I’m not sure how I will ever be able to forgive him, but I know I must. I know I will, for I love him so. He has hurt me beyond all I could ever imagine. My heart feels as if it might stop beating altogether. All I had wanted was for us to share in this. For it to be ours. Both of ours, and he took that away.

My head jerked up. “May wrote this?”

He shrugged. “It’s her journal, so I’m thinking yes.”

I shook my head in confusion. “Who is she talking about? William?”

“I think so. By the date on the journal, she would have been twenty-six when she wrote it.”

Glancing down, I ran my finger over the date. “And it was in her closet?”

He nodded. “Granddad had never emptied it. Everything looks exactly how it was when she died.”

My heart ached. “Do you want me to read more out loud?”

“I’m almost afraid to. What if my granddad cheated on Grams? I’m not sure how I would feel about that.”

I swallowed hard and turned the page. The handwriting continued on.

The babe would be one today. My heart still suffers the pain of that dreadful day. The day God took my baby from me. My anger toward him is slowly ebbing. Maybe William and I will have another babe. Our baby, to share together.

My eyes lifted to Lucas. He had turned his back and was looking around the greenhouse.

“I think she’s talking about God.”

He spun back around. “What?”

“May, she lost a baby, I guess, after she had your father. She’s talking about forgiving God, not William.”

Relief washed over Lucas’s face, and he closed his eyes. “That would have really sucked if Granddad had turned out to be a jerk.”