Page 126 of Love, Second Chances and Other Nonsense
“Excellent choice,” Adam says, his focus entirely on Louisa, effectively dismissing Darlene. “I’ll have the same.”
Darlene hovers for a moment, clearly disappointed by Adam’s lack of engagement. Finally, with a small huff, she turns to me. “And for you, hon?”
“The veggie omelet, please.” I hand her our menus, my smile firmly in place but my eyes cool enough that she gets the message. With a last lingering glance at Adam, she retreats to put in our order.
“Every time,” Adam murmurs once she’s out of earshot. “It’s like they think I’ve been living under a rock and am desperate for updates on the town drama.”
“You’re still big news around here,” I say, reaching across the table to squeeze his hand. “The prodigal son who abandoned the family business and came back looking like he joined a biker gang.”
He laughs, and the sound still makes my heart skip after all these years. “If only they knew how boring we really are. Early to bed, early to rise, spending our days chasing after this little monster.” He tickles Louisa, who squeals with delight.
Watching my husband and child, I think of Darlene’s words, “What happened between your sister and her fiance”. Such a simple phrase for the spectacular implosion that followed our departure five years ago. Although Adam and I weren’t around for it, we hear bits and pieces of what happened every time we visit.
Millie’s public meltdown in the hospital waiting room had consequences beyond embarrassment. As a nurse at the same hospital, her behavior raised serious red flags with administration. It wasn’t the first time she’d displayed concerning behavior at work. She’d apparently been becoming increasingly unstable in the months since Adam left Iowa. The hospital placed her on administrative leave and encouraged her to seek mental health support.
Millie refused. Instead, she stopped communicating with her employer altogether, which led to her termination.
Rhonda was desperate to ‘fix’ Millie after that, and she got this idea that if Millie had a relationship of her own, she’d stop obsessing about Adam.
So Rhonda played matchmaker, introducing Millie to the son of family friends, an accountant named Thomas who worked at the same firm as Hailey. The relationship moved swiftly;the engagement announced barely six months after they were introduced. The whole town rallied around them, relieved to see Millie “moving on” and eager for a happy ending.
And then, Millie, coming home unexpectedly in the middle of the day, found Thomas in bed with none other than Hailey Kelley.
Apparently, the neighbors said they could hear the screaming from three buildings away. Millie forced Thomas out of their apartment in his underwear. Hailey tried to sneak away in the chaos, but Millie caught her before she got to her car. The police were called. And Millie was arrested for assaulting her former best friend.
It turned out to be exactly what she needed, although it didn’t seem like it at the time. She was put on an involuntary psych hold. She got real help for the first time in her life. Started therapy, first inpatient and then outpatient, got on medication, and apparently began to understand how Rhonda and Paula had manipulated her and Adam for years. One day, after what Rhonda’s neighbors described as an “explosive fight”, Millie moved out of her mother’s house. She left Mount Pella entirely and cut contact with both her mother and most of her former acquaintances. Some people who claim to still be in contact with her swear that she moved to Florida and is working as a nurse again. But nobody knows for sure.
Rhonda still tells anyone who’ll listen that she doesn’t understand why Millie turned against her.
As for Hailey, for once in her life she’d miscalculated in a way that she couldn’t come back from. She’d always had a mean streak, but she had always been smart enough to stay on the right side of the right people. But betraying Millie, who was not only her best friend but the girl that everyone felt sorry for, crossed a line. Her friends dropped her. She lost clients at work. She couldn’t stand not being queen bee, so she eventually leftMount Pella too. According to Gerald, she lives in Chicago now. Neither Lauren nor Adam is in contact with her.
After Hailey was discovered with Thomas, decades of friendship between the Kelleys and the Greenes went up in smoke overnight. Paula blamed Rhonda and Millie for driving her son away and for Hailey’s social downfall. Rhonda blamed Paula for raising a daughter who would steal her friend’s man and a son who ran away from those who depended on him.
Paula found that the image she had worked so hard to cultivate was in ruins. Her son and oldest daughter were estranged from her. Her husband had divorced her. Her youngest daughter was disgraced. Her closest friends turned their backs on her. For a woman whose entire identity was wrapped up in appearances, it was a devastating fall.
Darlene returns with our food, setting down a stack of pancakes studded with blueberries for Louisa. Our daughter claps her hands in delight.
“I heard you’re in town for Lauren’s baby,” Darlene says, unable to help herself. “Boy or girl?”
This time, Adam answers. “A boy. Jackson. He’s beautiful.” There’s genuine pride in his voice. His relationship with Lauren has only grown stronger over the years, and he’s thrilled to be an uncle.
“That’s nice,” Darlene says, clearly hoping for more details. When none are forthcoming, she sighs and walks away.
Adam winks at me across the table, and I hide my smile behind my coffee cup. We’ve gotten good at these deflections over the years. Mount Pella is never going to stop seeing Adam as the golden boy who rebelled or me as the outsider who stole him away.
“Careful, Lou,” Adam says, helping our daughter pour syrup on her pancakes. “Just a little syrup.”
Naturally, “just a little” turns into a sticky puddle that threatens to overflow her plate. Adam quickly moves her milk glass out of the danger zone, and I hand him a stack of napkins, our parenting choreography well-practiced after three years.
Adam cuts Louisa’s pancakes into bite-sized pieces. His hands, which are both strong enough to shape hardwood and gentle enough to braid our daughter’s hair; move with practiced ease.
Back in Oregon, Adam splits his time between helping at Louise’s Table and crafting furniture in my grandfather’s old workshop. At the restaurant, he handles the tasks that used to make Uncle Peter pull his hair out; payroll, ordering, bookkeeping, social media. But it’s the furniture making that truly sets his soul free. There’s a waiting list now for his pieces, each one meticulously crafted by hand.
As I eat, I think about another relationship transformed, this one by forgiveness and second chances: the one between Adam and his father. Five years ago, Gerald Kelley was a man who’d spent his life avoiding conflict, bending to his wife’s will, failing to protect his children. His transformation from distant father to doting grandfather has been an unexpected gift. After his heart attack and divorce from Paula, something in Gerald seemed to awaken. He had a determination to live differently, to be present in a way he never had been before.
When he first came to visit us in Oregon, Adam was wary, still learning to trust that his father’s change was genuine. That first visit was awkward, full of halting conversations and careful navigating around painful subjects. But on the third day, Gerald asked Adam if he’d take him fishing.
“It was like being with a different person,” Adam told me later that night. “We talked more in those four hours than in my entire childhood. Told me he was proud of me. That he always had been.”
