Brave the Storm, Season 2, Episode 3 (Rising Storm) by Lisa Mondello Page B

allowed herself to remember at all. But right now she was facing her sister’s wrath. Well, maybe that was overstating it a bit. Although when Rita Mae had practically run Chase out to his car she hadn’t exactly been full of sunshine and happiness.
    “Well, you’re going to. You were practically making out—”
    “Making out? For God’s sake, we aren’t teenagers.”
    “Could have fooled me.”
    Anna Mae fisted her hands in frustration. “I thought you were the one who said I needed to talk to Chase about what happened. That I couldn’t ignore it. Well, we talked.”
    Rita Mae folded her hands across her chest. “Is that what that was?”
    “What did you think was going to happen?”
    Rita Mae’s arms fell to her side. “I don’t know. It’s always bothered me that you’ve spent your life alone. Ever since the baby—”
    “Don’t!” Anna Mae warned.
    “You’ve shut yourself off from having any kind of a life without Chase. Don’t get me wrong. I get it. George and Chase are cut from the same cloth. Men like that are better left for women with shallow expectations. But that’s not you, Anna Mae. You don’t want that kind of life.”
    “How would you know that?”
    Rita Mae took a step back. “Because I know you better than anyone else in the world.”
    “Really?”
    “Yes, really.”
    The years tumbled in front of her. It was easy to be comfortable in the life she’d led since Chase had left Storm. But now that Chase was back, that little piece of her, the one that she’d buried along with the child they’d lost, was screaming out to her to remember who she was. She couldn’t go back. That would never work. But she had been dead inside. She hadn’t even tried to make a life and ended up a spinster. Sure, she had a couple of nice businesses with her sister. But that’s all she’d allowed herself over the years. She’d never taken the chance for something more that might have led her out of Storm.
    She looked at Rita Mae and the realization that life had moved on without her was glaringly obvious. The reason why she’d come home from New York City after that brief time of living there, the reason she’d stayed in Storm when she knew Chase was leaving, was no longer valid.
    “I know it’s been a long time, Rita Mae. But surely you remember what it was like to be in love.”
    Sadness flashed across Rita Mae’s face. “This isn’t about me. Vietnam killed a lot of dreams for a lot of people. Not just mine. Unlike you, the man I loved died. He’s never coming back.”
    “I know. And I’m not trying to minimize that. But the reasons I came back to Storm are no longer valid. Our parents died a long time ago. We built a life here and practically raised Mary Louise by ourselves. And she’s a fine woman who doesn’t need us the way she did.”
    “What are you saying?”
    She braced herself, not sure how Rita Mae would take what she was about to say. “I realized something today. I never stopped loving Chase Johnson.”
    “Did you tell him that?”
    “No.” She placed her hands on her face, feeling the rush of blood that her admission had given her.
    “Well, that’s good. He’s liable to take advantage of that, and you, if you tell him.”
    “I’m not a child. I’m an old woman.”
    Rita Mae pffted and looked away.
    “Well, I am,” Anna Mae insisted. “I have fewer days ahead of me than I have behind me and I don’t want to waste the days I have left wrestling with regrets. I’ve had too many years of that.”
    “Anna Mae, listen to yourself. You have no reason to believe he’ll stay here in Storm. His life is in Nashville. With music. Your life is here. So what do you do if he decides to go back again? I don’t want to see you go through that heartache all over again.”
    “It might be different. I don’t know.”
    “Where do you think our brother is right now?”
    She shrugged.
    “Yeah, there you go. Neither do I. We get a Christmas card and a birthday card for