It sucked.
She sat up straighter on the stool. She didn’t deserve this.
If there was anything she’d taken away from the last few months, it was the truth in that thought. It had become clearer to her ever since Reese had purchased The Stone’s Throw and put her trust in Hallie, now that Sydney was back and she felt the unconditional love of a best friend who supported her no matterhow long it took her to figure things out, and… now that Brynn had come into her life. Brynn had shown her just how many incredible feelings on the feelings wheel she’d been missing out on.
“Hallie, did I lose you?” She knew that her mom had likely put her phone down and was staring at the screen to make sure that the call hadn’t dropped.
Briefly, Hallie considered hanging up and letting her believe that was exactly what had happened. Now that she knew why her mom was calling, she couldn’t wait for their phone call to be over. And she was really unclear if she wanted to have another one again at any point soon.
“I’m working right now,” she responded matter-of-factly, trying hard to keep her voice neutral. She felt the wobble in her throat that she hated, the one that happened whenever she knew a difficult conversation was on the horizon.
Briefly, she thought she might get to avoid it. She heard footsteps coming down the hallway that led to the first-floor rooms. She waited, but no one appeared. Probably one of the kitchen staff, she thought, realizing her disappointment that she had to listen to whatever her mom was about to say.
“Well, can’t you just take a break? I need to have the items shipped today if they’re going to get here before this weekend. I want the jerseys from when your brother played peewee football. We were going to watch the game this weekend, and they would look so cute on the twins.”
Hallie tilted her head to the side, trying to figure out what her mom was even talking about. What game? What jerseys? Just… what? Honestly, the confusion was a blessing because it stopped her from feeling so nervous. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about, and I find it really hard to believe that you need these itemssourgently that I need to leave work.”
“I don’t think I appreciate the attitude, Hallie. You don’t need to be so?—”
“Sowhat?” Hallie broke in, feeling her heart rate start to rise.
“Difficult,” her mom said, confirming the word that Hallie knew had already been on the tip of her tongue. She could hear the frustration in her mom’s voice, like Hallie was so clearly in the wrong. “Am I really asking that much? I can’t believe that you’re too busy to take care of this.”
It was a tone that Hallie had grown all too familiar with throughout her life. And, in this moment, all it served to do was make her dig in deeper, unwilling to cede an inch. She was so sick of being made to feel like her feelings were too inconvenient to even be considered.
The idea that “family helps family” seemed to be a one-way street. She pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep, steadying breath, refusing to let the happiness she’d felt only minutes ago be washed away. “I’ll have time to go in a few days,” she said, trying to find a tentative middle ground where she held her boundary but didn’t close the door on her parents completely. Progress was measured in inches, not miles.
Her mom’s scoff was like a muffled gunshot. Like disbelief had been fired point-blank at Hallie, and she jerked slightly in surprise. “That’s not going to work.”
Hallie picked up a pen on the check-in desk and began to twirl it around between her shaky fingers, willing herself to stay calm. “Well, unfortunately, it’s not like my family owns the place. I’m an employee here, and I have rules that I need to follow.”
Obviously, Reese wouldn’t care in the slightest if Hallie ran out for something, but that wasn’t the point. It was the principle of the matter! Her mom thought that Hallie’s time wasn’t as valuable as whatever last-minute request she needed to make happen.
“Is that what this is about? That we sold the inn?” her mom snapped. Hallie heard muffled sounds through the phone, like she was covering the speaker while talking to someone else. Probably her dad.
Maybe Mason, in his infinite wisdom, could teach them about the mute button one day.
“Since you brought it up, I’m not mad that you sold the inn,” Hallie said. “I’mhurtthat you didn’t even tell me it was happening until it was already done.”
Her mom was quiet for long seconds before she said, “Well, it wouldn’t have changed anything.”
And there it was. Another nail in the coffin Hallie seemed intent to fill with so much rotten proof that it overflowed.
What was it going to take for her to accept the reality of her relationship with her parents? Did they need to tell her in no uncertain terms that they loved her less? That they didn’t respect her? That her feelings were an afterthought, at best, in their own lives?
They’d been showing her for decades with their actions.
“It would have changed something for me. To feel included in our family, which is something that historically hasn’t been the case.” She rolled her shoulders, realizing how much tension had seeped into her frame. Just from this one brief phone call.
It was jarring to realize just how much this conversation was taking out of her.
Sensitive, dramatic Hallie. She knew the words that her parents used to describe her. Because, shocker, of course a six-year-old didn’t understand why her sibling got to do things like join sports and go to summer camps and have sleepovers with friends and she couldn’t. Why there never seemed to be enough energy and attention to go around.
Finally, her mom spoke. “I don’t know what you want me to say. We knew that you’d figure it out. You always do.”
“Because Ihadto figure things out, didn’t I? It’s not like you or Dad had any interest in helping me,” Hallie blurted out, surprised at the anger in her voice.
And yeah, she knew that she was angry at her parents. She didn’t need a feelings wheel for that, at least. But she’d tried to tell herself that she wasn’t the little kid anymore, the girl who needed her parents’ love and support to make it through life.
