Mac avoided his gaze. ‘Teachers move around the country when good jobs come up. I’ll find some to apply for. That way I won’t be on your doorstep.’ He leaned back and linked his fingers behind his head in a boyish gesture. ‘I can’t think of any other way to make reparation. I can’t make a public apology and sacrifice the happiness of my wife and child. I sent you the letter because I was trying to make things right for Grady. He said he was seeing you and you were refusing to let me apologise in person. As a teenager, he was mad about you, but I didn’t realise that properly till I’d mucked everything up. He was so upset when you stopped talking to him that I felt even worse than I already did. So I tried to clear the way so he could see you now.’

Laurel had to lean against Grady as the room began to spin. ‘I thought it was to make yourself feel better.’

His eyebrows lifted. ‘Well, it wasn’t and it didn’t. You’re my very own Ghost of Christmas Past, Laurel, the personification of my greatest regret. I was horrified when you came back.’

She licked her lips. ‘It will be tough on Tonya and Niall if you relocate.’ And Daisy would be devastated to lose Niall.

His gaze dropped. ‘Families have to relocate because of careers. Tonya and I have talked about the possibility in the past. We never discounted it.’ He unclasped his hands and rubbed his palms on the legs of his jeans. ‘There’s no perfect answer to this mess but it’s the least damaging solution I can come up with.’

Laurel remembered how adrift she’d felt at leaving the village when she was just a couple of years older than Niall. She thought of Grady, beside her, quivering in shock and Mac interceding with Pippa, acting like a proper big brother to take the pressure off his sibling. She groaned. ‘You’re making me responsible for your family’s happiness.’

‘No,’ Grady contradicted her, voice shaking. ‘He’s making himself responsible. He can’t rewrite history. This is the best he can do.’

Hopelessly, she cried, ‘I don’t want to leave you behind, I don’t want Mac to take Niall and Tonya from all they know. But I can’t take you away, either.’

Silence. Then Grady said, ‘You could still choose to stay. I want you to.’

Laurel turned and slid her arms around him, hiding her face against his shoulder while her thoughts whirled. Mac loved Grady and Laurel loved Grady and the person who held the key to keeping everyone in Middledip was her. But could she use it?