Page 70 of Lease to Love

I paused, then added, “Smiles at pigeons.”

“Tuh,” Ma laughed. “And she's with you? The man who came out the womb with his eyebrows touching?”

I laughed. I'd seen the baby pictures.

Five seconds on Earth and I'd apparently already decided I was over it.

“I know.” I shook my head. “Erik said the same thing.”

“What did he say?”

“Told me to try not to cut her with my rough edges.” I quoted him.

Ma was quiet for a moment. Then her voice changed. “And he's right.”

The smile faded from my face.

Ma kept going. “I know you haven't had the best luck trusting people.”

I looked toward the muted television.

“And I know you came there with a mission after me and Daddy had to leave Brooklyn.”

The nostalgia hit before I could stop it.

Brooklyn.

Fort Greene.

Our old apartment.

The diner he took us to every Friday that had somehow become a wine bar.

The bodega that sold fifty-cent chips when I was a kid and now sold five-dollar bottles of kombucha.

The Corcoran Group sign that went up on our brownstone before we'd even finished moving out.

Then my first company.

The business I'd started in a studio apartment five minutes from here with nothing but ambition, a pawn-shop laptop, and two men I'd trusted like brothers.

The same men who'd kicked me out immediately after the IPO.

I swallowed.

I hadn't realized I'd stopped breathing until my lungs demanded it.

“Romey?” My mother's voice pulled me back.

“Yeah, Ma.” I cleared my throat. “I'm here.”

“You've been an army of one for a long time, Romey.” Her voice softened. “And you closed every door, window, and crawlspace to your heart a long time ago. A long time.”

I looked down at my hands.

“And it broke your mother’s heart.” She sighed. “So I'm glad you finally learned to let in a little sunshine.”

I closed my eyes and chuckled. Because of course she said it like that.