Free The Promise of Palm Grove by Shelley Shepard Gray Page A

aunt’s,” Ida said, not sounding all that impressed. “Your mother told us all about that.”
    â€œIt’s a great inn.”
    â€œIt is beautiful, that is true. I love the orange trees dotting the front lawn,” Jean said. “I bet it smells heavenly come spring.”
    â€œIt does. The orange blossoms are very pretty and do smell nice.”
    Ida crossed her legs. “It was kind of you to give us your bed.”
    â€œI want you both to be comfortable. Tomorrow, when I have a room available, I’ll help you get resituated.”
    â€œThat’s mighty kind of you,” Ida said. “Where will you sleep tonight?”
    â€œThere’s a small room near the kitchen with a pullout couch. I don’t rent it out much, but I’ll be fine in there.”
    If they could go to so much trouble to make sure she knew they hadn’t forgotten her, she could offer them her hospitality. Their slightly garrulous, very matter-of-fact ways stripped away a lot of the barriers she’d built around her heart . . . and those painful memories.
    They sat quietly for another few minutes, Ida gasping when she spied a shooting star.
    Smiling at Ida’s reaction, Beverly let herself relax. Perhaps this visit was going to go just fine.
    Then Jean coughed. “Beverly, dear, we should probably tell you something, in order to get everything out in the open, you know.”
    â€œOh?”
    For the first time, Jean seemed uncomfortable. “Well, you might not have heard this, but Marvin and Regina are happy together. They have a little girl now, too.”
    They had a baby? A new flash of pain lit her heart, surprising her with its force. It seemed that every time she thought she was over Marvin and Regina’s love affair, she’d discoversome new detail about their life and that pain would resurface just as if her heart had never healed.
    â€œI . . . I’m glad. Really glad,” she bit out. Then, before she said she was glad for a third time, she got to her feet. “Hey, how about you two relax here for a little bit? I should go inside and make sure none of the other guests need anything.”
    â€œAll right, dear, take your time,” Ida said.
    Beverly was pretty sure Ida added something after that, but she’d already walked through the screen door. Thankfully.
    All she could think about at the moment was that Marvin and Regina were happy. And that they had a baby. They’d thrived in her absence.
    Until that moment, she’d begun to believe that she’d been thriving, too. But maybe she’d only been focusing on the inn. Maybe she’d forgotten that there was more to life than putting all her efforts into making a comfortable space for people to spend a few days of their time.
    And though she definitely did have some good friends here, she spent many more hours of the day simply chatting with strangers, never letting them get too close. Never letting herself get too involved.
    She’d especially never taken the time to return men’s smiles when she passed them on the sidewalk. She’d definitely never accepted any invitations to go to breakfast or lunch. Or for walks on the beach. Or to grab a cup of coffee.
    She’d been carefully, deliberately, keeping herself alone.
    Just so she wouldn’t get hurt again.
    It had taken a visit from Marvin’s sisters to shake her out of her self-imposed isolation. To make her realize that she didn’t have to be alone, and once more, she hadn’t ever had to be that way.
    It was definitely time to stop living in what could have been and start making plans for herself. Maybe, just maybe, it was time to remind herself that she wasn’t old.
    That she certainly wasn’t too old to one day fall in love again.

Chapter 9
    L eona was having trouble keeping up with her two best friends. She had a very good idea that it was because they were currently acting nothing like her two best