“It’s great. Gigi has planted more vegetables and herbs. I hope to get out there on the weekend and help her dad with it.”
My mouth gapes. “You’re tending to your garden? With Gigi’s father?”
“Yeah. It’s therapeutic. Highly recommend it.”
“Mom. Have you ever gardened?” I grin at her.
“Darling, I design the garden and research the plants, but I have never placed my hand in a green glove.”
I raise my eyes at Byron. “Who are you, and what have you done with my brother?” Knowing he is content and his wife is good for him, I still raise an eyebrow in question because this is what we do. We taunt each other with nothing but sibling love.
Byron has always been the brother I relied on. Franklin had moved out to go to college when I was ten. Jobe was at an age when he was too cool to spend time with me. Byron and I were always close until those months when he didn’t speak to me because he found out about Brandon and my relationship. It wasn’t the fact I was dating his best friend. More the fact we both lied to him, the two people he trusted most. Then heartbreak brought us closer. Now, I sense he is annoyed with me.
“I could say the same to you.”
I glance at the time on my phone. “What time are you heading to the game?”
He downs the last of his tea, then stands. “Now.” Heleans over and kisses my cheek. “See you there.” He then kisses Mom on the cheek.
I smile at him. “Good luck.”
“Don’t need it,” he shouts over his shoulder.
“Sometimes I’d like an inch of his confidence.”
“Take him off the basketball court, dear, and he’s a different person. We all gain courage in different ways. Yours is behind a desk, and not any desk, I might add. You’re like your older brothers there. Byron, well, he is more like my grandfather.”
“What if I don’t want to be that person anymore?”
She gives me a long look. “I knew there was something different about you.” I look away for a moment before our eyes meet again. “There is a glimmer about you that I haven’t seen in years.”
I smile, liking the word glimmer. “I’m happy, Mom.”
“Hmm.” She reaches for my hand and turns it over, running a finger along the timeline of my palm. “What is this path if we’re not happy?”
“I tried,” I croak out.Tried not to want him so bad.
She pats my hand. “You give one hundred percent in whatever you do. Persist until it’s perfect. Only sometimes what you’re giving your energy to isn’t the thing that makes you happy. It’s a distraction from what you crave. Other people see you as a successful businesswoman with the world at your feet. You took the reins of this team and made it better. You achieved what you wanted to do but not what your soulneeds. What your heart desires.”
I take a quick breath and compose myself before her kind words undo me.
Mom shifts the pearls around her neck as though they’re choking her. “I always knew what you needed, and it was a matter of when it would happen.” She smiles at me, tiltingher head in understanding. “When he’d return… because I knew he was the one for you.”
I squeeze her hand back. “I’m scared.”
“Naturally.”
“Not just for me…”
“Is he worth the risk?”
The bliss had settled under my skin, and now, knowing the past and trying to foresee the future, I couldn’t answer her.
“Darling.” She pats my hand. “I’ll have a quiet word with Byron.”
Before walkingthrough the private VIP door, I stop to open the emails on my phone. I scroll the screen, ignoring the unread emails unless a subject looks important. Hundreds of staff are employed, and someone can attend to the problems if I’m unavailable. I’ve never had this attitude, but today, I just want to go to the game and support my team andmy guywithout interference or distraction. I want to be a fan with nothing else to worry about but to enjoy the game and cheer.
By the time I reach the hallway, I have staff on either side of me, walking at my pace, asking questions, and shoving phones in front of me. “Not today,” I say loudly. “There is someone else who can deal with this.”
