“You do?”
“Not many people know this, but before your father, I fell in love with a man that I could never be with.”
“Why?”
She shrugged lightly. “He was already married. They weren’t exactly happy, but he never would have left her. I see that now.”
“Who was he?”
“That’s for me to know. A woman has to have her secrets.”
“But…what happened? Did he know you were in love with him?”
As if she was transported to another world, my mother smiled unlike anything I had seen. She beamed as if she was the happiest person.
“He was handsome and charming. And honestly, I hadn’t noticed him until this one night at a drive-in movie. I was with some friends and he was in the car beside me. I’ll never forget the way he looked at me when our eyes met during the film. It was as if we were stuck in some bubble where no one else could see us.”
“Momma!” I gasped, surprised by the way she was fawning over this man.
“After the movie, my friends decided to go to the diner?—”
“Here?” I asked. “This happened in town? Then I know him.”
“We went to the diner, and he was there with his wife. They were arguing about something, and then she stormed out. I felt so sorry for him as he sat there all alone, so very unhappy. I could never imagine being that miserable with someone I was married to.”
“Did you talk to him?”
“Not that night. It was really like fate was bringing us together. We kept bumping into each other around town, and one day we started talking. He was the most fascinating man I’d ever met. Inever did understand how his wife could be so angry with him all the time.
“But then, after years of marriage, I started to realize that not everyone is well-suited for each other.”
“Were you and Daddy?” I asked, hoping the answer was yes.
“Oh, very much so. Your daddy could make me laugh unlike anyone I’d ever met.”
“But what about this man? What happened?”
“After a few stolen kisses, he told me he was in love with me. I was in heaven. I thought for sure he was going to leave his wife and we would live happily ever after.”
“Obviously, that didn’t happen.”
“No,” she smiled sadly. “His wife was pregnant, and no matter how much he wanted to be with me, he wouldn’t leave her.”
The look on her face actually made me sad. I wasn’t sure why. She was the other woman. She would have broken up a marriage, and for what? Love? Was that really enough? I wasn’t sure, but then again, I’d never been in love with someone who wasn’t available.
“Are you ever going to tell me who he was?”
“Some secrets are meant to be left alone. He’s my secret.”
Leaning against my mother’s shoulder, I took her comfort, knowing I wasn’t alone in my misery. She had lost two great loves, and now she was all alone. If she could push past the pain, I could do the same.
I would not fall to pieces over a man. Not now, not ever.
29
LIAM
Ma slammed the cabinet door,bypassing me without so much as a glance. It had been this way for the past week.
