"People make mistakes, even when their hearts are in the right place."
"What heart's in the right place when it's trying to break mine?"
"The kind that's loved you longer."
"That kind told you to go chasing a girl who's fixin' to dump you tomorrow."
Lindsey pursed her lips together. Will clamped down on the instinctive need to defend her.
Difference between his situation and Aunt Jessie's was that Lindsey was meant to be his.
He knew she'd miss him. He knew she cared. He knew she was scared.
And he knew he was man enough to be steady, to be her friend, even from afar, as long as it took for him to give her the courage that she'd once given him.
"I'll go take care of the sweet tea," Lindsey said quietly.
He let her go-not because he wanted her to, but because he understood she needed to.
"She still is, isn't she?" Aunt Jessie said. "She's still fixin' to dump you."
He wasn't here to fix him and Lindsey. He was here to fix Aunt Jessie and Sacha. "Why do you love Donnie so much, Aunt Jessie?"
She sucked a big breath through her nose, her brows shooting halfway up her forehead. Her eyes went misty, and she touched a hand to her heart. "He knows me. Right here. Like he's known me all my life. I know you don't trust anybody new, and I know Mari Belle don't trust anybody male, but Donnie doesn't want anything from any of you. He wants me to be happy being me. Lord knows he's not perfect, but he's perfect for me. I've never wanted more to keep my vows to any man like I want to keep my vows to him. And if you're taking sides, you-you can-"
"Not taking sides." He wasn't one who could argue with listening to his heart. Even when he knew he was heading for stormy weather, even when he knew it would hurt, he couldn't help but follow his heart now that he'd found it again.
Looked like he and Aunt Jessie both had some of what his Momma had had. "Just want you to be happy, Aunt Jessie. And you don't look real happy today." None of the women in his life looked real happy lately.
She turned to the window. "Life ain't always beautiful."
That was the honest truth.
"How about I go get you a glass of sweet tea too."
"You're a good boy, Will. Always have been. I just don't want to see you get hurt."
"Want the same for you, Aunt Jessie."
In the kitchen, Lindsey had found the old flowered Corelle glasses and the jug of sweet tea. Will settled his hands at her waist and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "You try any yet?"
"I thought you'd like to see the show."
Will forced a grin. "You eat Kimmie's cupcakes, you can drink sweet tea. I got faith in you."
She wrinkled that cute nose, but when he let her go, she held the cup to her nose, gave a big sniff, and then took a gulp.
The shudder wasn't as big as he expected, but it was still cute and funny as all get-out.
"That is sweet," she said.
He clinked his own glass to hers. "Welcome to the South, pretty lady. You notice if there's any okra in the fridge? Not letting you leave without trying some of that too."
"I wouldn't even know what it looks like."
"Looks like a big ol' bag of dee-licious."
While she humored him with a halfhearted laugh, he grabbed another glass from the cabinet. Didn't like standing there pretending everything was fine, because it wasn't.
Lindsey didn't want to be there. Aunt Jessie didn't seem to want either of them there. And Sacha would be gone before Will was done delivering Aunt Jessie's tea.
Here it was, his last day of being plain ol' Will Truitt before he spent the next nine months being Billy Brenton, and everything was all wrong.
He wanted Sacha to come over and make her secret cornbread recipe. To stay. He wanted Aunt Jessie to fuss that Will was making a mess helping bread the okra. He wanted Paisley to jump around, interfere with everybody and chatter away. He wanted Wrigley underfoot, and Mari Belle's dogs too. He even wanted Mari Belle sighing over some such thing or another.
And he wanted Lindsey to fit into it all.
The front screen door banged against the doorframe before he could carry Aunt Jessie's glass in to her.
"Nat's first husband was a real prick," Lindsey said softly. She had a clear view of the living room. Will didn't hear anyone talking, so he guessed Aunt Jessie had stepped out front.
Hopefully not to give Sacha a what-for. Will angled closer to Lindsey.
Donnie's truck was in the driveway.
Will's heart kicked up like it was fixin' to win a NASCAR race.
Lindsey could solve this. She could tell them all who was right-Sacha or Aunt Jessie.
And then Will could put his family back together.
Lindsey put a hand on his arm. "I broke my own rule and told Nat she shouldn't marry him. I tried the you're not happy tactic instead of the because I can see it route, but it didn't matter. People believe they love whomever they believe they love. And it sucks for the people who get hurt in the name of love."
"He's not a bad guy," Will said. "He's just kinda useless. Got some kind of inheritance, and he's been chasing bad business ventures for as long as Aunt Jessie's known him."
"You think she's his backup plan when the cash dries up?"
He shrugged, watching Jessie hustle up behind Donnie on his way into the house.
"When they got married, Sacha said they'd make it," Will said. "Never said that about Aunt Jessie's other husbands. Just said getting married was the right thing for Aunt Jessie to do at the time. Thought maybe somebody in our family could find that true love this time."
"Has Sacha ever been married?"
"Nope. Says knowing too much gets in the way of following her heart."
"Hmm."
"Hmm, interesting, or hmm, you can relate?"
The screen door opened. "Donnie, please, not now," Jessie said. Her voice was hushed, cracked, as though she didn't want it carrying through the house.
As though she didn't want to be saying it at all.
Will stepped into the living room and sized up his uncle-in-law.
The older man was plump, with a receding hairline and a bulbous nose. His usual outfit was a three-piece suit, but today, he was in baggy jeans, sneakers and a loose brown polo sporting dust streaks.
Looked like the streaks Will's crew got moving boxes of merchandise around.
Will's gut tightened. "Afternoon, Donnie."
The older man wouldn't meet his eyes. "Afternoon. Didn't realize you were in town."
Aunt Jessie was hugging herself, shifting from foot to foot.
"Y'all have plans this afternoon?" Will said. Bright. Happy. As if he were standing on a stage, playing for a crowd instead of watching something he didn't understand going down in his aunt's living room.
As if his heart wasn't pounding like he'd run ten miles.
Lindsey put a hand to his back, a subtle I'm here.
"Don't want to make a big fuss," Donnie said, "but I finally figured out I ain't what Jessie needs. I'm clearing out my stuff. Won't take long."
"He's staying," Aunt Jessie said. "Will, tell him he needs to stay." She looked past him, pointed to Lindsey. "You. You're supposed to know these things. You tell him he needs to stay."
"Jessie." Donnie started to look at her, but his eyes pinched shut, his mouth twisted, and he turned away from her. "Don't need to be making this harder."
"Then don't leave." Aunt Jessie sent a desperate look at Will. "He's the love of my life, and that woman said he needs to go, so he's going. Tell him not to leave. Tell him to stay."
Beside him, Lindsey's gaze flitted between Aunt Jessie and Donnie. There was a wrinkle in her nose. Her brows shifted down. And she studied Donnie's retreating backside with a singular concentration that gave Will's heart the shivers.
"Why are you doing this?" Lindsey said quietly.
Donnie froze.
Will did too. He'd heard her lawyer voice, her telling-a-fun-story voice, her bedroom voice, but he hadn't heard this voice.
The you're wrong on a cosmic level voice.
"What's really going on, Donnie?" Lindsey said.
Donnie's face had gone pale, and he seemed to be struggling with what to do with his hands. "It's what's best for everybody. I ain't in her future. Suppose all y'all heard that by now."
"Why aren't you in her future?" Lindsey said.
"Quit asking him questions and tell him he needs to stay right here." Aunt Jessie had always been prone to tears, but these tears were different. These were heart-cracking, life-shattering, world-ending tears.
"I don't know what the truth is," Lindsey said, "but you owe it to your wife to tell her all of it."
She had Donnie's full attention now. He mopped a hand over his pale forehead. "Ain't your place-"
"Did you cheat on her?"
"Of course not."
"Did you want to?"
"Now that's just plain insultin'."
Will wasn't Donnie's biggest fan by any stretch of the imagination, but there was an honest ring to the man's answer.