Page 96 of A Return For Ren

“And your name means blooming flower,” Poppy said. “Couldn’t be any more perfect, don’t you agree? It’s like you were meant to be one of us all along.”

“We know ‘ren’ is a lotus flower in Japan,” Lily said. “If we go by Poppy’s words, you two have to figure this out and you will. You need to talk it out with each other too.”

“Like you and Zane did so well there when Brittany came to town?” Rose asked when she stepped back.

“Brat,” Lily said to her baby sister. “Rose is right. Learn from your brother and me. It seems to me you and Ren are on the right path. You’re scared of the past disrupting the future. I’m sure Ren has some of the same feelings. Maybe even just being back in Mystic.”

“He never talks about his father,” Zara said. “I’ve tried to gently bring it up a few times and he changes the subject and I let him. I still don’t know why he ended things with me when he did.” She’d thought about it for years. She understood why he did it, he’d said as much. But it was the timing of it.

The anger behind his words when he’d never been that mean to her before.

So many things were unanswered and she wondered if that was part of what was keeping her back too.

“You need to ask him that,” Rose said. “Don’t let him change the subject. At some point you need to clear the air to move on. If anyone knows that about the past, it’s us. It’s me.”

Each of the girls had their own demons they’d had to move past.

Lily’s marriage to an older man and the gossip around this town in regards to that.

Poppy and Reese’s relationship from years ago that no one knew about and Poppy’s insecurity about the men she loved in her life leaving her.

Rose felt like she had to hold it all in. She struggled to let anyone know what was going on with her and recently it was discovered she’d been in somewhat of an abusive relationship in college with an older man.

The foundation the girls set up months ago in memory of their mother was to help others in the same situations these girls had faced.

Students that didn’t have money for college. That came from foster care or abusive relationships and home lives.

They were giving back, but in order to do those things, they had to free themselves.

That was what Zara was going to have to do and she might have to force Ren too.

If he didn’t or couldn’t, they wouldn’t be able to move on and that might hurt more than anything.

31

Needed That Comfort

Aweek and a half later, Ren was packing everything up on Saturday morning while Max took his nap.

He was going back to Mystic for two weeks.

He’d wanted to go last week, but Zara convinced him it was better to do two weeks on and two weeks off and she’d come on the weekends, weather permitting.

The weather sucked last weekend so she didn’t come. They’d started to get snow on Friday night when she wanted to leave and it didn’t end until late Saturday. There was no reason she needed to drive to visit for the night and he’d told her that.

They’d video chatted for an hour and Max got to see her. His son was thrilled and he knew Max would be more so when he saw Zara later today.

His mother was going to take Max for a few hours on Sunday too. He’d promised her she could have Max when she wanted. There were no bites on the marina and he hadn’t expected it this fast either, but since it was slow there his mother wasn’t working as long.

He hoped it did sell by spring though so his mother could start her retirement before the busy season did come into swing.

Once his car was loaded, he went back to empty the garbage and pack any food that wouldn’t last. He was going to throw it out and Zara told him to stick it in a cooler and bring it rather than waste it.

He supposed there were times in life he didn’t think of those things. Or didn’t care was more like it. But if he was going to be doing this all the time, it would be wasteful.

Colin would come and put his trash out for pickup this week. He owed his best friend a lot.

Dee had been thrilled to have Max again for two weeks, but he could see Max was growing bored at the house only having Laine to play with. His son was used to much more interaction now.