AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My mind flits over the beginning of our conversation—Reid’s decision to be single forever, briefly touching on his marriage, watching your children make mistakes—and I shrug.
“Just mom stuff.”
Reid hums, and part of me thinks he doesn’t believe me. That he knows Tabitha and I got into some much deeper topics than I’m being completely honest about.
But then he smiles and tilts his head back against his seat, closing his eyes.
“I might want summer to be over, but right now? This feels really nice.”
I nod, tilting my head back as well, my heart feeling full with Junie snuggled against me and Reid at my side.
“Yeah. It really does.”
chapter eighteen
Reid
“I like her.”
I glance at my mother then back out at the water where Busy and Junie are playing with an inflatable alligator.
“I like her, too.”
“You know what I mean,” she says, patting her hand on my knee. “I like her foryou.”
“Yes, mom. I do know what you mean. I just wish you’d stop meaning it.” I take a sip of my beer. “And you’re sure you didn’t say anything about…”
“I said I didn’t, Reid. Do you not trust me?”
Shrugging, I set my beer back in the indention on top of my cooler.
“I trust you.”
“Good.” There’s a long pause before she speaks again. “Though I think you’re making a mistake by not talking to her about it.”
Sighing, I scratch at the stubble on my face.
“I already explained to you why I’m not sharing this with anyone. Alright? And I don’t want to argue about thiseverytime I see you.”
She licks her lips and crosses her arms, her way of sayingFinewithout actually saying it.
After I got back from swimming with Junie, Busy became more quiet and reserved, which of course just made me suspicious about her conversation with my mother. She said they talked about mom stuff, but I’m not so sure. Even so, Busy hasn’t mentioned anything about…anything, so I guess I just have to accept what she’s said.
As the sun begins to dip in the sky, we all start packing up. The tent comes down and the chairs and coolers get tucked into the backs of cars. Hugs are exchanged. Then Syd and I hop into Busy’s SUV with her and Junie and she drives us all back to the other end of the lake, the windows down and the breeze blowing the wild tendrils of her blonde hair.
I get what my mom means when she saysI like her for you.Because I do, too.
For a long time, I thought my life was going to end up pretty much like anyone else’s. Grow up, find someone I like, get married, have a few kids. Up until a few years ago, that was the direction I was moving in.
Sarah and I met in high school when she and her family moved to Cedar Point in the middle of our sophomore year. We were friends for years before one day, I was standing across from her at the coffee shop—where she was a manager at the time—and it occurred to me just how beautiful she was.
I asked her out that day. We moved in together inside of a year, and before I knew it, I was proposing and we were having a small ceremony in my parents’ back yard. We weren’t that young at 26 and 25, but there was definitely still a youthful kind of energy about us. We dated for three years before we got married, and we were married for three years before we got divorced, something I’ve always thought was interesting. Like it took us just as much time to fall in love as it did to fall out of it.
Though I guess that’s not fair. We didn’t fall out of love. Not really.
Now, I can look back and see that…maybe we weren’t ever really that in love to begin with. Maybe it was more that we were convenient for each other, or we loved the idea of what lovecouldlook like, even if neither of us understood what kind of commitment it truly takes.
There’s no way you can know when you promise for better or for worse if you really understand what it means, and when Sarah was faced with the realities of ‘for worse’ far sooner than she imagined, she took the out I gave her. Ultimately, I know it was for the best, but the truth of what it feels like to be abandoned is difficult. Challenging on the good days, devastating on the bad.
