“She said she wasn’t.”
“Women lie,” his mother said. “I used to tell your father I wasn’t mad or upset when I was. It’d only make things worse in that moment. But your father always knew the truth and we’d work it out another day.”
He wasn’t so sure he wanted to talk about this, but just like his father knew his mother, Brooke Ridgeway knew every one of her kids.
“It’s been a rough couple of days.”
“She seemed fine yesterday.”
“I don’t know if she’s putting a front on. I can’t tell,” he said.
“Clay. You can tell. You can see everything. Don’t lie to me.”
He hated getting caught and then called out.
He saw everything.
The love in Meredith’s eyes. It was right there in front of his face and he was holding out against hope she didn’t say the words.
When they came, he froze. Internally his mind went blank.
It was probably worse than trying to talk and he should have listened to her.
“She told me she loved me last night.”
“Okay,” his mother said. “I can see that. You wouldn’t have said it back and that upset her?”
“How did you know I wouldn’t say it back?”
“Because you’re the one of my kids that tells no one what you feel until you’ve worked it out in your head that you know one hundred and ten percent it’s what you think it is. There is no way you know this early.”
“That about sums it up.”
“Did you explain that to her?”
“I tried. She didn’t want to talk about it. I let that go and this morning tried again.”
His mother laughed. “Clay. You’re the last person who should force someone to talk when they aren’t ready.Really?”
“Yeah, well, it seems I’m making a mess out of a lot of things.”
“You’re not. You’re too hard on yourself. Give Meredith a few days to think it over. She’s a smart woman. She knows what is going on with you. I’m positive she can see it. But she’s emotional and probably embarrassed.”
“She said that.”
“There you go. She’s being honest.”
“It doesn’t make me feel any better about it.”
“This isn’t about you, Clay. You need to get that out of your head. This is about the woman who just drove away from here. She’ll be back. Don’t worry.”
“Because she works for me.”
“That’s it,” his mother said. “Because she works for you.” His mother walked by him, smiled and shook her head. “Idiot.”
That was exactly what he felt like when he was sitting at the table drinking his coffee and waiting for his phone to go off telling him that Meredith got home safely.
He tried to zoom in on his laptop to get a better look at her face. There were no tears on her cheeks, but her middle finger came up to scratch her chin as she unlocked the door.
