I could’ve been upfront that way. Told her about Cheryl so that she wouldn’t have been so blindsided by that voicemail. Although I still somewhat blamed Cheryl for that, it was almost like she knew exactly what she was doing.
My eyes flickered to the clock, just after eight pm. One quick-thinking decision had me pulling a U-turn and driving towards Melody’s mom's house. I was too impatient to wait until tomorrow.
I needed Melody to hear me out and I wasn’t getting anywhere with my millions of phone calls and text messages.
“We need to talk.”
Oh god.
My first reaction was to question what I’d done wrong. But then I thought, I’m twenty-nine, my mother didn’t invite me over to give me a lecture.
“What is it? Is everything okay?” My second instinct was to worry that something was seriously wrong. Had she pulled her back out again, or developed another infection, maybe she was just tired and fed up. Was this finally the speech about how they were my children and I had to be home more with them.
If it was, she wouldn’t be wrong. I had cut back a lot of my hours over the years, I was almost down to part-time. But deep down there was still a voice that said I could cut back even more, spend more time with Ava and Hallie.
I’d been waiting and trying to prepare myself for this speech since the day I decided to go back to work. I knew it was inevitable.
“You should sit down.”
Fuck.I took a seat, my hands sweating and my heart rate launching through the roof.
“Callum came by.” She smiled tightly, her shoulders pulled back and her hands clasped in her lap. She wasn’t kidding.
What the hell!
“WHAT? My god, Mom! I thought you were gonna tell me that you’re dying or something.”
She chuckled, “I’m fit as a fiddle. And it’s true. I’m sorry sweetie, but he does know where I live. I can’t erase that information from his memory.”
She was right, as usual, as I was acting like a bratty teenager. I quickly pulled myself together enough to sit down at the dining table next to her. My eyes flickered over to where Ava and Hallie sat hypnotized in front of the television. We need not worry about being interrupted or overheard, Cinderella was on and doing her job of filling my baby girls’ heads full of fantasies.
“What did he want? I mean, I can imagine. So, what happened?”
“He wanted to see you, but since you weren’t here he asked if I’d pass along a message. Will you at least hear me out?”
I thought on it for a second before giving a reluctant nod. What harm could it do to humor my mom? She got up and disappeared into the kitchen. When she returned a minute later, it was with a giant bouquet of beautiful red and pink roses.
She handed them over before retaking her seat.
“He begged that I convince you to talk to him. He has a lot to say, but I think it best that you hear it from him. I know you must be hurting, over whatever happened but I really do think you should at least give him the chance to explain.”
“Why are you on his side?”
“You know that I’ve always liked Callum.” She winked, “he’s a cutie, and one that you shouldn’t let slip away again.”
“Mom!”
“I’m teasing. Just hear what he has to say. If it’s complete bullkaka then you have my support in slapping him and kicking him to the curb.”
“You show support in some weird ways, you know that?” I tried to lighten the mood, and it worked, she laughed and pulled me in for a comforting hug.
“I know.”
“We better get going,” was my reply. I would’ve thought up an actual excuse but I didn’t have the time, I just needed to get out of there. I needed some breathing room to think over what she’d said.
My mom's opinion meant a lot to me, I wasn’t going to blow it off without consideration. Maybe she was even right in what she’d said. I knew I could be a bit of a hothead at times, my mom used to say that was a trait I must’ve inherited from my father.
She didn’t talk about him much. He’d died in a car crash before I was born and Naomi didn’t remember much of him at all. We were such a close-knit family because we were all we had. It was us against the world. Sometimes it was hard to think of it being any other way.
