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“I’d never be ashamed of you, Hawk. I’m ashamed of them.”
Hawk glances outward, making sure they’re good and gone. “Yeah, I can see why you are.”
“They’re so unreasonable. I’m not even a human being to them. I’m a tool.”
“What do they even want you to do?”
“Go to grad school. Then business school. Then be a good little management drone until it’s time to take over the family business.”
“That sounds boring and soulless as hell.”
I nod. “It is.”
“And they’ll leave you with nothing if you don’t?”
“My mother is a woman of her word. She’s backstabbed longtime friends of hers just because they outlived their usefulness to the business. I have no doubt she’ll shun me if I’m proving too inconvenient.”
“From the sounds of it, you’re being pretty inconvenient to her already.”
“Exactly. It’s why she will just cut me off. And I’ll be on my own. Van Schneider will just be a useless last name to me, and I’ll have to get a job at McDonalds.”
Hawk cocks an eyebrow. “You already have a job at a bakery, Lavender.”
“Oh. Right. And I guess she can’t take that away from me.”
“She can’t take a lot of stuff away from you. The friends you’ve made. The connections you’ve had. And she can’t take me away from you.”
I smile somehow, through the tears. “I know. But... just... What if this stuff doesn’t work out? My life’s always had a thick, secure safety net until now.”
He embraces me closely. “You’ll be fine. I love you. And I’ll always be there for you, without any expectations or ultimatums.”
In his arms, I feel safe. Secure. Almost hopeful for the future.
He’s only been in my life for a week, though.
My mother has been for twenty-one years.
It should be an easy choice.
It’s anything but.
NINE
hawk
Little baby Serena technically isn’t a baby anymore. She’s turning eighteen, old enough to vote, smoke, and strike out on her own, but unfortunately she isn’t going to be doing any of those things today and will continue to annoy me with her presence.
The entire Moore family has gathered for the event, and a good deal of her friends too.
And I’ve brought Lavender along for the adventure. She isn’t family yet, but she’s on the fast track to being so.
“There are so many people here,” she whispers to me as we walk through my grandfather’s homestead.
He had a cabin he built, one that he kept adding on to over the years. Although it’s pretty much a mansion now, it still looks like an old-fashioned cabin. It’s about two floors but spreads so far with all the extensions. He always wanted to have a place that his family could come home to, even as their lives spread them throughout the world.
Most of my family still called Evergreen Valley home, so they still had their own homes to return to, but Grandfather always put value in being prepared for the worst.
There’s a whole cookout going on as we walk along. The grill is smoking, and long picnic tables are full of cold dishes, like potato salad, macaroni salad, and just plain old salad.
