Page 5 of Footprints in the Sand (Coleman #13)

Chapter Five

G etting Finn out of the house wasn’t as difficult as Eva had expected it to be.

After her return to Martha’s Vineyard from The Jessabelle House, where she’d met Rachelle and found herself launched into the most insane plan of her life, a plan of “switching lives,” she’d gone with Theo back to his apartment, where she’d made a little nest for herself on his sofa and pondered what to do next.

Theo was irate about Finn’s “thievery,” which was what Finn was calling it, and he thought Eva should call the cops.

“He didn’t really do anything illegal,” she had to say over and over again.

But Theo’s commitment to her and his sudden hatred for her boyfriend warmed her heart. She had people on her side.

She was terrified to tell her parents, especially her mother. She didn’t want to break her mom’s heart, to show her just how far away from a “wedding and grandchildren” life Eva really was.

From Theo’s sofa on the night after her return, she finally got up the nerve to call Finn. He answered on the third ring, his voice shivery and weak. “Eva,” he said, instead of hello. “Are you all right?”

Eva gritted her teeth to keep from sobbing.

At the sound of his voice, a million memories raced through her mind’s eye: picnics and sailing adventures and soft kisses and coffee in the morning, rainy-day drives and movie theaters and trips to Italy.

Why had he done this to her, to them? What had he thought he wanted to prove?

“I wanted to let you know that I need you out of the house as soon as possible,” Eva explained firmly, because she didn’t want to give him an inch.

“I’m already applying for apartments,” he said. “I know it’s your name on the lease. And my family isn’t here on the island anymore, anyway. It makes sense that you stay.”

Eva was off the sofa and gazing out the window. She could picture Finn at their place, wearing a pair of ratty pajamas, maybe drinking a sad little beer. A part of her wanted to throw the whole Greek trip out the window, hurry home, and burrow herself against him.

But she pushed herself to ask, “Why did you do it?”

Finn stifled a sob. “I’m asking myself that every single day.”

Eva wasn’t sure what to say.

“I’ll be out by the beginning of June,” Finn said.

For the following week, Eva stayed at Theo’s place, still pretending to her parents and friends that she and Finn were right as rain.

At dinner with their mother one night, Meghan said it was unfortunate that Finn couldn’t join them, and Eva had to bite her tongue to keep from telling her mother the truth.

“We love him to pieces, you know?” Meghan said to Eva then, her fork heavy with fish and potato.

“We don’t want you to rush into anything, of course, but we want to think about venues and money and paying the down payments.

We want to make sure everything’s arranged perfectly for the big day.

Maybe there’s a way to hint to him that you need this soon?

You don’t want to get married after thirty, do you? ”

Theo swooped in after that, changing the subject to their mother’s best friend’s bookstore and a reading by Estelle Coleman that was scheduled for the following week.

“Are you going?” Theo asked. “I’m thinking about it.”

It was the strangest conversation jump in the world, but one Eva was grateful for. Their mother blinked at Theo with confusion and asked, “Are you reading romance novels these days?”

Theo shrugged. “A guy can love, can’t he?”

“I suppose so,” Meghan said, still perplexed.

“Maybe that’s why I keep going through these epic breakups,” Theo suggested, wagging his eyebrows. “I’m looking for the one, and I can’t stand when it doesn’t live up to the movies and books!”

Meghan laughed and looked at Eva. “Your brother is something else.”

Eva’s heart felt squeezed with sorrow. She was going to miss her brother to death.

Could she do Greece without him?

When Finn fully moved out of the house and left the island for Boston, he texted Eva to tell her it was all clear and ready for her.

Via a system Eva eventually agreed upon, he transferred some money into her account, while keeping their joint account open as well.

What she had was enough for now, but it was also painfully low in a way that didn’t recognize the difficult work Eva had done over the years, nor the painful days she’d spent asking for raises and budgeting.

It was hard to believe she had to start over in this way, as well as the romantic way.

FINN: I know you can never forgive me for what I’ve done. I’m going to do everything in my power to pay you back one day.

Eva wanted to text back that she wasn’t holding her breath, but she kept it in.

Without Finn’s belongings at the house, it felt big and vacuous and strange.

Theo suggested that they throw a little house party, but Eva still didn’t want too many people to know about the breakup before it was necessary.

She decided to invite her best friend Rainey, telling her they were having a movie night because Finn was out of town.

Rainey arrived with heaps of snacks: chocolate bars and Twizzlers and bottles of wine. She scooped Eva and Theo into hugs and then blinked around the living room, furrowing her brow.

“Something’s different. Are you redecorating?” she asked.

It was then that Eva burst into tears. For the next half hour, Rainey and Theo poured her wine and listened to the details of what she was feeling, how she so desperately wanted to forgive Finn and invite him back, and how, despite that, she wasn’t sure if she could ever see his face again.

“He disrespected you in the worst way imaginable!” Rainey kept saying. “He doesn’t deserve to kiss the ground you walk on!”

Theo shook his head and sipped his wine angrily.

Outside, dark clouds spat rain. They put on a film called Almost Famous and sat cozied up, watching it.

Halfway through, Eva paused it and told Rainey her other news, the news she kept forgetting—about her big summer in Greece.

Rainey’s jaw dropped. “That isn’t what you need right now,” she said.

“You need to be surrounded by people who love you! You need to be on the island! You need to be here!”

But Eva had already made up her mind.

“Does your mom know?” Rainey asked, her eyes buggy.

“My mom doesn’t know anything yet,” Eva admitted. “I’m waiting for the perfect time to tell her.”

Theo snorted. “There’s no perfect time. She’s going to hate it, and you’re going to have to go through with it anyway.”

Eva knew he was right.