“Yes. We both think it would be better to avoid the messy situation that we found ourselves in growing up.”
“I’m familiar with the mess,” Carla said.
“I know,” Heather responded. “I wasn’t casting any blame. It must’ve hurt you very much, what happened between my mother and your husband. I know that it’s ancient history now, and both of them are gone. But it doesn’t change the fact that it’s a painful history.”
Heather wasn’t being disingenuous. She might believe that Giuseppe and her mother were the love story, but it didn’t mean there was no cost to it. As a kid, she had filtered that out. Because it had been inconvenient to think about it or dwell on it. Because it didn’t feel beneficial. But as an adult, she could look at it with a little bit more complexity. Now that she was not looking at Romeo as an enemy, now that she was actually giving some space to how his relationship with his father had been damaged, and it was entirely on him, she was just…seeing it differently.
“I was very hurt by it,” Carla said. “Thank you.”
“I promise that I don’t want to hurt your son in any way. And we’re going to be the best parents possible for your grandchild. You’re their only grandparent. The only one they have left. The only one they’ll ever know. That’s an incredibly special position.”
It wasn’t about placating her, or managing her, though she was well aware she was doing that, but it really was about the relationship. Romeo couldn’t fix the relationship with his father. He was gone. Their child wouldn’t have another grandparent.
“That is a very…kind thing to say,” Carla said.
“It’s true,” Heather said.
“We’re building a family. I think it can be a good thing.”
“I would like to wear green to your wedding,” Carla said.
“Of course you can,” Heather replied.
“I prefer a Kelly green.”
“You can wear whatever shade you want. And I will choose whatever shade I like for everything else.” On that she was firm. His mother would not be taking over every aspect of the wedding.
Of course, maybe it didn’t matter if the wedding was… Was it a sham wedding? They were getting married for the baby? They weren’t in love—they…
They certainly had a sexual relationship. Right now. But all of their paperwork had all those contingencies, and if they had sex while they were married, the stakes of it all went up.
But it was the only marriage she would have.
She had never really dreamed of marriage, or having children. Because the way that Romeo had obsessed her, wrapped himself around her desires and her fantasies at such a young age, had kept her from doing so.
And now she was marrying him. Consigning herself to life with him while they raised their child—it was what they had both agreed on. But she couldn’t see life after Romeo, because she had never been able to see life after Romeo. And in the one moment when she had thought she might have a life after him, she had cut her own fantasy short by finally snapping the thread that had stretched between them for all this time.
She’d crossed a line with him and couldn’t go back. So as far as she was concerned, the marriage was real.
The marriage wasreal.
What she didn’t know was how to ensure it was still about their child.
Because right now that was a distant hope, and Romeo was here now. She wanted him, she craved him, but she also knew they’d only been getting along for about forty-eight hours.
That thought echoed inside of her as she tried to finish her tea. But that left so many unanswered questions. If it was real, then what were her feelings toward him? And what was she going to do when they walked down the aisle with all that paperwork between them?
Was there a world where they could try to make something real out of all of this?
When they left, he walked around to her side of the car and pulled the door open. He looked at her for a long moment. “You did amazingly well.”
She got into the car, and he shut the door, and she released a shuddering breath on a realization.
She had never really hated him at all.
The way that she handled his mother had been skillful on a level he had never seen before. Moreover, she had made it seem easy. He had expected some kind of blowup, but that hadn’t occurred. Instead, Heather had seemed to know exactly what to say and what to do. And though his mother was…happy with the arrangement, at least for now, he knew better than anyone how quickly his mother’s moods could change. But he was pleased to be in the middle of a good one now.
Everything was working out well right now. But he had never been more aware of exactly what was at stake. The ecosystem was fragile. Between him and Heather, everyone and his mother. The environment that they were bringing their child into had the potential to be volatile. He had never experienced family any other way.
