My eyes widen and my stomach twists. “Mother, I’m not … I’m …”
“Oh, please.” She waves her hand like she’s swatting a fly. “I know that look. That foggy, I-don’t-know-what-day-it-is-because-he-smiled-at-me look. Let me remind you, I hated your last boyfriend. Smile like a politician, heart like a paperclip.”
I smirk despite myself. “What does that mean?”
“It’s a metaphor for a person who folds under pressure and rusts the second they get wet.”
I giggle. “Okay, that’s pretty good.”
“Anyway, I saw how much he hurt you. It was always written on your face. This new man … I can tell he brings you joy, and I don’t even know him. Duke, was it?”
“Yes, Duke Faraday.”
“There!” My mother says, spilling her tea as she points at the screen. “Right there. When you said his name, your entire face lit up. Oh, this is exciting.”
“Mother, what’s in that tea you’re drinking?”
She chuckles and takes a sip. “Why are you holding back?”
“Because he lives here. I live in New York. He’s all pine trees and mountain air, and I’m espresso and deadlines.”
“He can’t drink espresso?”
“I’m trying to be smart.”
“And how’s that working out for you?”
I gulp and look away for a moment.
She softens. “Roxanne, I know what it’s like to survive something and build walls so high no one gets through. When your father left, I swore off all men. But sometimes you don’t need more bricks, you need someone steady enough to walk beside you while the old ones crumble.”
“How do you always know what to say?” I ask.
“That’s my job as the woman who loves you most.”
I rub my eyes. “I messed everything up with him, though.”
She sets her tea down and pulls her wrap around her shoulders. “Tell me about him.”
The corner of my mouth tugs into a smile. “Well, at first, I thought he was a cocky, showboat of a man, but he … makes me laugh. And … and I love how he fidgets with his tattered ball cap when he’s nervous. He let me move into his house because the Wi-Fi is better here, and when he noticed I kept falling asleep at the desk, he carried me upstairs and tucked me into the guest bed. He brings me coffee every morning with a note that has a smiley face or some other kind of drawing on it.”
“He sounds like a dream.”
“Want to know the most painful fact about him?”
“Let me guess, he’s impossibly handsome?”
Heat rushes into my cheeks at the thought of him.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” she says, shifting in her seat. “Roxanne, this type of man who loves deeply, who’s an expert at both the little and big things, is rare. Don’t let a little thing like geography stop you two.”
I shake my head. “Geography is not alittlething here, but I see your point.”
“So how did you mess this up?”
“Duke said he was falling for me, okay?”
“And what did you say?”
