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“Maybe you can help. She won’t leave him. He called, and she jumped all over that call. Cat, this is what I was going to talk about tonight. He cheats. A serial cheater, actually. And I don’t want you to think that’s in our blood. I’m not—”
“Him. Or my father. Or Mitch, or anyone else I’ve ever known. I know. And you’re right. Maybe I can help. I know my mother’s regrets. If she gives me the opening, I will talk to her.”
I kiss her. “I’m crazy about you, woman. Another something we need to talk about, because this isn’t going away.” I lean back to look at her. “What happened with your brothers?”
“One family at a time,” she says. “Yours first.”
“Speaking of family. Can I use your phone to call my sister?”
“Of course.”
She hands it to me, and I’ve finally calmed Stacey down when we reach the lobby of my building and end the call. “She wants to talk to you. We don’t have time, but beware. You’re now on my sister’s radar.”
Cat laughs, this sweet, bubbly sound that brings me down about ten notches. We step onto and back off the elevator on my floor when she stops me. “I drank three glasses of wine. Am I talking normally?”
I smile. “Yes, actually, you are.”
“Huh. I don’t get it, but good.”
We stop at my door. “Let’s hope I didn’t save my drunk talk for your mother.”
“At this point. I’d rather you use that frank talk you do with me with my mother.” I open the door and take her hand, leading her down the hall.
“Mother?” I call out.
“In the kitchen.”
We follow her direction and when we walk into the kitchen, she’s standing at the island with a glass of wine in her hand, mascara down her cheeks. Her hair is a mess. “Who’s this?” my mother asks.
“Cat. Someone who matters to me.”
“Hi,” Cat says. “You’re really beautiful.”
“Thank you,” my mother says. “You’re dating my son.”
“Yes,” Cat says. “I am. I like him when he’s not being an asshole.”
“He’s very arrogant,” she says. “But not like his father.”
“He told me that,” Cat says.
“Cat, why do you have mascara under your eyes? Did my son make you cry?”
And then Cat does the most incredible thing. “Because I thought Reese stood me up, but of course he wouldn’t, and I would have known that, but it was bad timing. I talked to my father, who I haven’t talked to in months because, you see—I hope it’s okay that I know this—he’s like your husband. He cheated on my mom, and she died of a stroke, unhappy because she never left him. But two weeks ago, he had a stroke and no one told me. And he’s still an asshole, but I don’t want him to die.”
Cat starts crying and my mom starts crying, and two of the most important people in my life are hugging and they barely know each other. But then, Cat apparently has a way of making the Summers fall instantly in love.
Hours later, my mother is in the bed in my spare bedroom, and I am finally able to sit with Cat in the chair in my bedroom, her by my side, her hand on my leg and mine on hers. For a good hour, we sit there and talk about her father and her brothers. “Bottom line,” she says. “Nothing has really changed.”
“You talked to your father. That’s big.”
“We talked. That’s all that changed. But for your mother I think a change really is going to happen for her.”
“She says she’s leaving him,” I say. “She’s never said that before, but it’s hard to know where this leads when she goes back home Monday. My father always wins her over.”
“I predict that won’t happen this time,” Cat says. “She’s stronger than you realize. I read some books on the psychological factors of people staying in these situations because of my mother and my father. Basically what I learned is that, we as humans, radiate towards the familiar. The familiar is safe in our minds, even if it’s really destructive to our lives. We’re creatures of habit. But your mother came here, outside her safety zone with your father. To me, that says that she was testing the waters, seeing if she could leap to the next dock and still settle her feet firmly on the ground.”
“Maybe. We’ll see.” I pull her legs to my lap. “Moving to a completely different subject. Anything on your book deal?”
