She snorted. I settled in beside her, grabbing a pillow, taking comfort in her sturdy presence and the distraction of the TV.
“You’re old enough to…”
“Move out?” I suggested.
“Drive,” Mom said.
Ding-ding-ding.
“Speaking of driving…” I hugged the pillow to my stomach. “Okay if I borrow the car for a couple days? I need to move out of my apartment.”
“Car’s not big enough.”
“I don’t have that much. I emailed Paige—the graduate student renting my apartment? She’s taking over my lease. She wants to buy most of the furniture.” And most of what she didn’t, I would put out on the curb.
“You need a U-Haul,” my mother said. “Or a truck.”
“I don’t trust myself on the highway with a U-Haul. Or a truck.”
“So ask Joe.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I can’t. We had a fight.”
Steve Harvey invited another pair of contestants to face off at the podium.
“Bound to happen sometimes. You’re quick-tempered, and he’s stubborn. You’ll work it out,” Mom said calmly.
“I yelled at him at the Mustang in front of his ex-wife and half the fire department.”
Mom grunted. “You have a good heart. You’re like your dad that way. But sometimes you don’t think things all the way through.”
“I told him I loved him,” I blurted.
She muted the volume on the TV. “Did you, now.”
“He didn’t say it back.”
A silence, while the on-screen families jumped up and down in excitement.
“Don’t be too hard on Joe,” Mom said at last. “He’s finding his way, too. It’s been hard on him since your dad died.”
I’d always known my mother loved Joe. It used to bother me, as if she might run out of love if she spread it around. My dad was the one who understood me, who believed in me. But he’d believed in Joe, too. He gave Joe his start and made him partner. He’d been his friend, his father, almost.
I bit my lip. “I just wish he’dtalkto me.”
“Not everybody goes around sharing their feelings, Annie. Doesn’t mean they don’t have them.”
A huff escaped me, a laugh or a scoff. “That’s what he said about you.”
“He’s not so stupid, then. Just slow.” She glanced at me, almost smiling. “You never did want to walk when you could run.”
My heart expanded in my chest. I twisted my wrists, staring down at my matching tattoos. The chisel for my dad, the quote fromAnne of Green Gables.Tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet.
Working with fudge, when you made a mistake, you tossed out that batch and made a new one. Working with wood, you sanded it out or repurposed it as scrap. But when you made a mistake with people, it was harder to start over.
I ran my thumb over theyet. “I screwed up, didn’t I?”
My mother reached over and patted my knee. “Nothing wrong with making a mistake. As long as you learn from it.”
