“Well,” she said, satisfied.“That’ll do.”
I checked my phone again even though I knew there wouldn’t be anything new.
Nothing.
Mom glanced over her shoulder.“Is she here?”
I didn’t bother pretending.“No.”
Mom’s mouth pressed into a thin line.“Then why are you still standing in my kitchen?”
I exhaled slowly.“Because I don’t know if I should just show up again.”
Mom snorted and set the pan down.“Oh, for heaven’s sake.”
She turned, crossing her arms over her chest, and looked at me like she had when I was sixteen and trying to convince her a black eye had come from “falling.”
“Saint,” she said, “you made a mistake.You owned it.You apologized.Now you don’t sit around waiting for permission to fix it.”
“I don’t want to push her,” I said.
Mom stepped closer and stopped right in front of me.“And you don’t want to lose her,” she countered.
My jaw tightened.“No.”
“Then go get your girl.”
I huffed a quiet breath.“You make it sound simple.”
Mom lifted an eyebrow.“It is simple.Not easy.But simple.”
She reached up and straightened the collar of my cut like I was still a kid headed to church.“Belle is strong.That’s why you like her.But strong doesn’t mean she doesn’t want someone who chooses her.”
“I choose her,” I said immediately.
Mom smiled then, soft and knowing.“Good.Then go tell her that.”
I grabbed my keys with my heart thudding harder now.“I’m going.”
“Good,” Mom said again and turned back to the stove.“I pushed dinner back to three thirty.Don’t be late.”
I paused at the door with my hand on the knob.“Ma?”
She glanced back.“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
Mom waved me off.“Just bring her back in one piece.”
I stepped outside, and the snow crunched under my boots as I walked down the front steps with my breath puffing white in front of me.
I lifted my head and then I saw her.
Belle stood on the sidewalk in front of the house, bundled in her coat, with her hair loose around her shoulders.Snowflakes clung to the dark fabric of her sweater and melted slowly.In her hands, she held a white bakery box, the edges smudged faintly with flour, as if it had been closed in a hurry.
I stopped dead.
For a second, I thought maybe I was imagining her.Like my brain had finally cracked under the pressure and decided to give me what I wanted.
