Page 33 of Healing Home

BB smiled sadly. “Yes, I saw it. Mary is a sweetheart.”

“Why don’t you come down for dinner one of these days? We could get the family together. We haven’t done that for a while.”

Though it held little appeal for her right now, BB agreed. Maybe it would be good to see her sisters. “Call me next week or text me a time and I’ll be there.”

“Okay. Love you, sis.”

“Love you too, Carolina.”

Frankie seemed to sense her mood because she got to her feet and came over to lean against BB’s leg. She leaned down to pet her dog. “Thanks, girl. I appreciate you walking all the way across the room to comfort me. That shows real canine loyalty.”

She smiled slightly, rubbing Frankie’s ears. The dog leaned into her touch happily.

BB looked around. The house was a mess. She needed to clean. Slipping off her chair, she arched her back, bones popping. Man, how long had she been sitting?

Since she’d left Coronado, she’d kind of gone into auto-pilot. Yes, she was getting her work done and still managing to find irony and humor in her life, but it had kind of lost its shine. Even going over to see George and Harry hadn’t lifted her spirits like it normally did, though she did get some good Sonya material. For some reason poop and fart jokes rolled out of the little boys like water, thrilling them endlessly, and frustrating their uptight parents. BB jotted a few notes on her phone, laughing, and headed home.

Mary texted her the next day asking her how she was doing. BB told her fine, but she thought they both knew that was wrong. Mary texted her back a big heart.

Yeah, that was about right. BB never considered herself especially emotional, but in the time since Link had been gone, her emotions had been in a whirl. Nothing satisfied her, and the strangest things made her teary eyed. There was an Old Spice commercial that absolutely gutted her because the main character reminded her of Link, tall and strong on the beach. Her bed suddenly seemed especially cold and she had to buy a heated blanket, which was ridiculous because it was summer. She also bought a body pillow to curl up with.

None of those things made her miss him any less though. If anything, they highlighted what was missing. Link. She’d fallen for him.

Was it possible to fall in love in two days? She never would have thought so, but all indicators were there saying otherwise. Maybe it wasn’t the quantity of time you spent with a person, but the quality.

Once she realized she was in love with him, things became a little easier to deal with. She went through her sketchbook and redid a few of the funny panels. She’d left the one Link had wanted on his kitchen table, as well as the one with baby Ethan, but she had other portraits of him that he hadn’t seen. She worked on those and it made her feel close to him.

Did he feel the same way, though? He hadn’t said anything about love or permanence or anything before he’d left. Then an errant thought struck her. Maybe he couldn’t.

BB had been hired to come in and welcome him home for three days. The three days hadn’t quite been up before he’d left. Maybe he thought she was only there because of obligation.

That made her heart hurt. She should have told him how much she enjoyed him, and their time together. If he felt like he was an obligation there was a chance he would never say anything to her.

Before she could think better of it, she grabbed her phone. Let me know when they’re coming back, please. I want to be there for Lincoln.

Will do, Mary promised.