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“Oh, honey, call me Tabitha, please.”
I chuckle. “Okay, Tabitha.”
She’s already asked before, but my good manners will dictate that I refer to her as Mrs. Cohen the next time I see her. My mother drilledthatinto my head early.
We sit quietly, side by side, watching Reid and Junie in the water. She’s doing their routine—climbing up on his shoulders, jumping off, then swimming back—and they both look like they’re having a blast.
“He’s good with her, your daughter.” Tabitha glances at me. “You said her name is Junie?”
I nod. “Yeah. And he’s great with her, actually. But the real star of the show is Sydney. Those two are besties.”
She hums. “So…are you two…together?”
Internally, I sigh. I assumed there might be some confusion about our friendship the more we spent time together, especially in public spaces. Reid seems to think it’s not a big deal, and I’m trying to follow suit, but it’s hard to get asked if you’re in a relationship with someone you have feelings for who just wants to be your friend.
“No. We’re just friends.”
“Yeah, that’s what Reid says, too.”
I shrug. “Life’s complicated, you know?”
At that, Tabitha chuckles. “Oh trust me, Iamaware.” Then she sighs. “But part of me hoped he would get over this…silliness of what happened with Sarah and find someone who loves him the way you’resupposedto in a marriage.”
Her words flutter around in my mind, and I try to plug them into the holes in what Reid has said to me over the past few months. I’ve never pressed him on why he kissed me thenpulled away, why he’s not interested in a relationship. That’shisbusiness. But I have always assumed it had something to do with Sarah and why the two of them got divorced. Now Tabitha’s confirmed it for me.
I want to ask her about it. Something tells me she’s one of the few people who truly knows what happened between them, a rarity in a small town where everyone knows everything. For whatever reason, both Sarah and Reid have been completely mum about why they split. The few tidbits Ihavepicked up are all barely blips on the radar and mostly result in one thing: they just decided it was better to be friends.
That fucking word. My new least favorite in the English language.
“Marie said he wants to be single forever,” I say to her, hoping she’ll provide some further clarification without me appearing too…desperate. “That was surprising to me.”
Tabitha nods. “It was surprising to me, too. In some ways.” She sighs. “In others, maybe I get it. But I know my son. Once he’s set his mind to something, there’s no changing it.” She chuckles. “If there was a way I could convince him to change his mind about anything, it would be this. And that’s coming from a woman who is desperate for her son to like the new man in her life, too.”
She sighs again and returns her eyes to Reid and Junie in the water.
“Motherhood is the hardest thing you’ll ever do with your life,” she tells me, a truth I become more aware of with each passing day. “Especially when you have to let your children make their mistakes.”
Junie’s still too young for that to be true just yet, but the sentiment isn’t lost on me. Especially when considering my relationship with myownmother, the trouble she’s watched me get myself into over the years. She’s always been there todry my tears and then spin me right back around to meet the consequences of my actions, face first.
I think about our conversation last week. Maybe I need to give her a bit more grace. We’re all human, after all.
Tabitha and I move on to less emotionally laden conversation topics after that, thank god—the bookstore, her recent trip to Hawaii, the renovations at Dock 7. It’s a really nice chat, and I have to say, I really like Reid’s mom.
A while later, Reid and Junie plod up to us from the water, and I tug out a towel just in time to wrap Junie in it before she collapses in my arms.
Tabitha pats me on the arm as she prepares to stand. “Enjoy these days, sweetie,” she says, a kind smile in her eyes. “They don’t last nearly long enough.”
She pushes up out of the chair and nods at Reid before heading over to sit next to Lois at the picnic table a few yards away.
Reid finishes drying off then drops into his newly empty chair.
“Have a good chat with my mom?”
He says it casually, but I can tell there’s curiosity there.
“I did.”
He pulls out a fresh beer from the cooler next to his seat. “Talk about anything fun?”
