Page 66 of Mr. Principal

She laughed and that made me look at her in surprise. “If someone really loves you, they can’t just stop loving you, Mom. That’s not how love works. Auntie Piper said that Carter has loved you since college. He’s not going to just stop loving you now because you guys had a little fight.”

“Well, it wasn’t exactly a little fight.”

“Stop making excuses, Mom. If you love Carter, just go over to his house to tell him. You went to Daddy’s house to get me back. You were really brave. You can do it again. Just go to Carter’s house and say, ‘I’m sorry I dumped you. I love you. I want you back.’”

“What if he doesn’t want to be with me anymore?”

She looked at me as if I were stupid. “Then I guess you’ll just have to hang out in bars with Becca. She told me she hates the bar scene but she doesn’t know where else to find guys.”

“Becca said that?”

She nodded. I made a mental note to tell Becca to stop talking about bars with Meredith.

“Well, Becca has a point. How about I call her and have her watch you for an hour while I run over to Carter’s place?”

She nodded happily. “Sounds like a plan.”

Before I could lose my nerve, I picked up the phone and called Becca. She promptly arrived ten minutes later.

“Go get ‘em, tiger,” she said to me as I grabbed my purse and looked in the mirror one last time before heading out the door.

I smiled and hoped I appeared confident, but I wasn’t. I was scared he wouldn’t open the door to speak with me. I was afraid he’d just ignore me. Or worse, I was afraid he’d tell me he didn’t love me anymore.

So, as I drove up and parked in front of his car, I was a big ball of fear.

And of course, I found him shirtless, working in his garden. He had on a baseball cap and low riding shorts.

I couldn’t help but stare at his chest. He was still beautiful. Apparently, he hadn’t fallen into a bucket of ice cream after I dumped him. I couldn’t say the same about myself, I thought as I sucked in my tummy and straightened my shoulders.

“Come on, Dana. You can do this.” I gave myself a little pep talk before I opened the door and stepped out.

He looked up at my car but didn’t acknowledge me. He just kept working in his garden. I stood at the gate that led to his walkway and waited for him to say something, anything to me.

“I see you’re busy,” I said with a shaky voice. “Want to take a break for a moment to talk?”

“No,” he said, not even turning around to face me.

I instantly wanted to run back to the car and hide, but I was done running from Carter. I was a grown woman and it was time that I started acting like one.

I opened the gate and walked up the walkway and stood next to him. “Look, can you at least hear me out?”

“I’d rather not,” he said as he continued working. I watched how quickly his hands moved over the area in front of him, pulling weeds quickly and efficiently. While I thought of what to say my eyes wandered over the entire garden. Everything was in bloom. I could smell the jasmines again and he’d installed little lights around the perimeter in various sites. The sun was going down and the lights were starting to turn on. I guessed that they were solar powered.

I turned my eyes back on him and thought about all the time he must have dedicated to his garden. He was patient. Good at nurturing things. He was a natural caretaker. Persistent, gentle, forgiving. Everything I wasn’t, but everything that his love had taught me to be.

I squatted down next to him, in my little sundress and heels. “Can I help?”

He still didn’t look at me, he just stood up abruptly and walked to his garage. I stood there awkwardly, wondering if that was my sign to leave.

I was turning away when he reappeared suddenly with an extra pair of gloves. “Here,” he said, still avoiding eye contact as he handed them to me.

He didn’t say another word. He just silently worked in his garden. I watched him for a second then got on my knees in the dirt and started weeding his flower bed.

We worked in silence until finally, it was driving me crazy. “I wanted to thank you for having your stepmom represent me in court. She was amazing. She pretty much crushed Tom’s lawyer.”

He grunted and busily spread some mulch. “She’s a force to be reckoned with.”

“Yeah,” I said, not knowing what else to say. “Well, we won in court. I still have primary custody.”