“I’ll try. I almost made it, Grandma.”
He pulled sausage patties out of the fridge and got a pan, then turned the oven on, poured fries on a sheet pan and threw them in before the temp was even ready.
Twenty minutes of silence later while he prepared their early dinner, he put both plates on the table.
He knew damn well she was erecting the lecture in her head. Most likely going to be a skyscraper at this point.
She picked up the sandwich and took a bite. He did the same.
“Chance.”
“Here it comes,” he said. “What time does your shift start?”
“Don’t be a wiseass.”
“Get it from my grandma.”
She sighed again. “I start in an hour. Just hear me out. You’ve got the drive to make something of yourself.” She held her hand up when he opened his mouth. “Stop. I’m talking. You’re going to listen.”
He nodded his head. He wouldn’t disrespect the only family he had. Maybe he’d done it earlier in his life, but once it was only the two of them, fear of being abandoned overrode it all.
She was all he had.
“Go on.”
“You never let anyone see the real you. I know it’s there. I know you want something better for yourself.”
“And for you.”
“Then put your actions where your words are. Stop feeling sorry for yourself by always saying people expect shit from you and letting them believe what isn’t true.”
He continued to eat and took the scolding on the chin like always. “What do you want me to do?”
“Make something of yourself,” she said firmly. “Like you and I both know you can do. Do it your way, not the way you think it has to be done. Until you can accept that, you’ll continue with this cycle.”
That was the last thing he wanted, but didn’t know how to get out of his own way.
1
SET ME UP
Seventeen Years Later
“Jocelyn,I’m not in the mood for a lecture.”
“It’s not a lecture. Come on, Mom. There is no reason for you to be here five days a week working from opening until closing.”
“I’m not retiring. I don’t care what you say.”
She hissed out some air between her teeth. “I didn’t tell you to retire. I said to go part-time. You started to, then you picked back up. Why?”
“I didn’t go part-time. There was a lot going on. Last year I was helping Elise with the wedding. Then after they were married, it was time to chill for a bit. The holidays followed and I had a lot to do and catch up on. It was nothing more than that.”
“That’s right,” Jocelyn said. Her brother Gabe married Elise Kennedy last November. Elise’s mother had little say in the wedding, but Jocelyn and her mother—mostly her mother—stepped up. “You always spend so much time making the holidays perfect. I love that. You even took time over thesummer. Now suddenly you’re back here five days a week for full days. Why? Don’t you trust me to run things?”
There might be some steam coming out of her mother’s nostrils soon if she didn’t back off. “Jocelyn. Don’t go there. I trust you and Gabe to take over the business. But it won’t be tomorrow. There is a lot going on here, but you’ve got free rein of the finances now, right?”
She sighed. “Yes.”
