Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 117177 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117177 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
“I’m just saying . . . Please don’t use words like that, no matter how you feel about Miranda. It’s not nice, and you’re classier than that.” I felt proud of myself for speaking up, but my inner pat on the back stalled at the sight of mom’s chin wobbling.
“You like her, don’t you? Is she going to steal you from me too?”
Just like that, I felt slapped in the face with remorse. “No, Mom, no, of course not.” I slipped my arm around her shoulders and gave her a comforting squeeze. I didn’t remind her that Miranda hadn’t stolen Dad, because what was the point? It didn’t make it any less painful for her. “I’m trying to make this work for us all.”
“And what about me?” Tears glistened in those pretty but icy eyes. “What about your mother? Don’t you care your father hurt me? Don’t you care he shacked up with her and her offspring in a house he never deigned to provide for us?”
“You know he can’t afford that house.”
“Exactly. He’s willing to bankrupt himself for her happiness and he couldn’t even wait for—” She sucked in a harsh breath and pulled out of my hold. “That’s not the point. I’m your mother. I carried you for nine excruciating months, and I deserve more loyalty than you’ve been showing me lately.” Mom stood abruptly. “I’m not hungry.”
“Mom,” I pleaded.
“It’s fine.” She gave me a flat smile. “You don’t want to take sides. I get it. It’s hurtful, but I get it. I just wish, for once, you’d stop straddling the middle of an argument and choose a side. The right side. Your father left me, bought a house he can’t afford, and then put a woman half my age in his bed.”
Not half her age. Nor did he leave Mom. Anger stifled inside my throat at her rewriting of history.
“That you won’t stand by me hurts. But you’ve always had a weakness of character. You get that from your father.” She straightened her dress as if she hadn’t plunged her nasty words into me like a knife. “I’m going to change. Jenna and I have a double date for dinner tonight. You can see yourself out.”
As she stalked out of the room, I wanted to shout after her, to yell at her she was so blinded by her own mistakes she couldn’t see the truth for the trees!
But if she wanted to push me away, then fine. I was done.
I marched into the sitting room, grabbed my purse, and then moved toward the front door, adrenaline pumping, my skin hot. Then my stupid hand stalled on the door handle. The urge to fix this was real.
Out of nowhere, Christopher’s face floated across my vision, words from one of his videos in my ears. He spoke of moving on from relationship problems that couldn’t be fixed, how sometimes you just had to make peace with it.
I turned to look over my shoulder at the stairs that led to the second floor. I could climb those and beg my mother for forgiveness for a crime I hadn’t committed, or just for today I could make peace with the fact that for now we were broken and couldn’t be fixed.
“Just for today,” I whispered, tears burning in my eyes.
Then I walked out.
I fought with myself the entire way, but I stayed strong. I gave myself grace for once.
Twenty minutes later, as I waited in Newark Penn Station for a train back to the city, I heard my cell chime in my purse. My stomach did a little kick when I saw it was a text from Mom.
I can’t believe you walked out without apologizing. You owe me lunch next weekend, young lady.
With an aggravated sigh, I hung my head, wondering for the millionth time how it was possible to love someone this much who irritated the hell out of me. I would never understand my mom. And I guess I just had to make peace with that too.
* * *
“I want to set you up with someone— Ooh, who is that hottie? He looks familiar.”
Feeling caught, I wanted to click Christopher’s image off the page, but I knew that would only encourage Althea’s curiosity. “It’s Darcy Hawthorne’s ex-boyfriend. The astronaut. Captain Ortiz.” I couldn’t look as she bent over my computer screen. “He suddenly RSVPed to the engagement party, and I just wanted to learn a little more about him . . . just in case. It’s not every day the ex-boyfriend shows up.”
“Oh my God, you’re such an overachiever. Though this is pretty nice extracurricular work. That boy is fine.” Althea sat down on the edge of my desk. “Darcy Hawthorne has it all. Fine fiancé, fine ex-boyfriend. And an astronaut to boot, so you know he’s smart and brave too. Some people have all the luck.”