Her brows lift like she knows I’m stalling.
I look away, rubbing the back of my neck. “I mean… you’re opinionated.”
A soft, almost self-mocking smile touches her lips. “I used to think that was a good thing. That it meant I stuck to my morals. But now…” She taps the pen against her notebook, staring at a spot on the desk. “Now my oldest is chasing after someone who left him. My middle son went through something enormous and didn’t even come to me. And my youngest daughter…”
She shakes her head. “Well, Chloe dropped out of law school because she never wanted to be a lawyer in the first place.”
She lets out a breath that sounds like defeat.
“I keep wondering how I got so many things wrong.”
My brows shoot up at that. I knew about Harvey’s quest to win Lauren back from the new boy toy, but Chloe, that’s new.
“Chloe said that?” I ask.
Mom gives a tired little laugh. “Not in so many words.” She sets the pen down and folds her hands, staring at them like they might answer for her. “I suppose I did push her. You boys took after your father, and I wanted her to trail after me. I never stopped to ask whatshewanted.”
“Mom,” I say softly, not sure what to say that won’t sound useless. She gives me a sad smile before I can try.
“It’s alright,” she murmurs. “It’s not your burden.”
I smile back, even though it feels thin. “I should get going.”
She nods. “Of course. Be careful.”
I rise from the chair and make it halfway to the door before something in me pauses. I turn back.
“I love you, Mom.”
Her face softens in as she smiles. “I love you too, honey.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Lorelie
“Mom! Look at me!” Milo yells from the swings, where Patrick is giving him a push that sends him practically to orbit.
I rock the stroller gently and call back, “Good job, buddy!”
We’re at the park for our “family day.” It’s Saturday, Patrick took a half-day, and I didn’t have a shift, so we picked Milo up from school and brought both kids out for some fresh air. Agnes is asleep in the stroller, one chubby fist curled around the blanket, completely oblivious to her brother’s squeals.
Patrick and I haven’t really spoken since the mess in the therapist’s parking lot. I don’t know why he still gets under my skin. We’re separated. Soon to be divorced. This shouldn’t bother me anymore.
Genesis thinks it’s because I still have feelings for him, which is absolutely not the case. The man cheated on me, lied about it, then lied about drinking on top of that. I donotlove him. Like… absolutely not.
And yet my chest still tightens when I look at him laughing with Milo.
It’s just nostalgia. I miss the companionship, not the man. And I’lltotallystart dating, once we’re actually divorced and my heart has had a chance to heal.
Until then, I’ll focus on my kids and my career. The former is amazing. The latter is… getting there.
Our old director, Caroline, quit when she moved to Oregon with her husband. Good forus, bad forher, because Oregon helpedhim realize he’s gay. Anyway, he’s living there now with his twenty-year-old boyfriend, and Caroline came back to start over single at forty. They didn’t have kids, so the separation has been easier in a way. She’s taking it like a champ.
She’s even started hiking with Gail. And she told me once that when the papers are signed, I’ll feel relieved, not destroyed.
Honestly? She might be right.
She also reworked the entire schedule the second week she was back, fixed the on-call shifts, cleaned up the chaos Murphy left behind, and actually asked for staff input like a normal human being.
