“Really?” My mother’s voice rises an octave. “So…the two of you are…spending time together?”
I frown. “Mom. Is that your way of asking if we’re sleeping together?”
“Of course not.” Mom sounds affronted. “A lady would never ask such a thing.” She pauses. “But if you happened to mention that something like that was going on, it wouldn’t be a bad thing.”
I’m so shocked I can’t think of what to say at first. My mother is interested in hearing about not just my sex life, but whether or not something is going on with me and Ace? I always thought she disliked him, thought him beneath us. Had that changed now because he’s helping me?
“Shannon?”
“Sorry, you caught me off guard. I didn’t think you liked him.”
“It’s not that I didn’t like him, I just wanted more for you. In case you’ve forgotten, I was married to a military man and I was alone a lot. Years. I didn’t want you to live that life. Unfortunately, it seems that none of the things I wanted for you were what was best for you. You’re not me, and while it’s taken me thirty years to learn that, I’m trying to be better going forward.”
“Oh, Mom.” I’m simultaneously happy and sad about that, but it’s better for both of us to focus on the good stuff.
“So…was there anything you wanted to…mention?”
I smile to myself. “About me and Ace? Maybe.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Shannon, yes or no?”
“Goodness, it almost sounds like you…want us to be together.”
“I want you to be happy and I know you had a crush on him in high school. Also, your father told me how you asked about him just before your wedding. I wish you’d come to me to tell me you were that conflicted about Douglas.”
“You wouldn’t have listened to me back then,” I tell her gently. “And anyway, that was all fantasy. Now that he’s here, it’s reality. Dad didn’t even know where he was back then.”
“I guess hindsight is always twenty-twenty.”
“I suppose it is.”
“So, what are you guys doing next?”
“You mean on the cruise or something else?”
She chuckles. “On the cruise, of course.”
We talk about the plans for the week and she tells me to call her once we get to Switzerland. I disconnect feeling happy but slightly out of sorts. I’ve never had a phone call like that with my mother, both lighthearted and sincere. And she acknowledged my sex life, something else she’s never done before.
I’m genuinely confused, but really glad we’ve reached this point in our relationship. She’s all I have really, since I’m an only child and she is as well. My father had a brother who passed away, and he had two boys that are much older than I am, but other than exchanging Christmas cards, we don’t have much of a relationship.
“How was your mom?” Ace asks as I joined them back inside the shop.
“She wanted to know if you and I had gotten naked yet.” My eyes twinkle and Ace just stares at me.
“She hates me,” he says after a moment.
“Apparently not.”
“Wow.” He shakes his head, clearly perplexed. “I don’t even know what to say about that.”
“Me either, but it feels good to have this kind of relationship with my mother after so many years of being at odds.”
“Not close to your mom?” Aubrey asks softly.
“Not until after my father died. Now that it’s just us, I guess she has no choice but to be nice to me. We went to a therapist, though, a neutral party to help us navigate through some of the hostility. Mom finally understands that I’m nothing like her, so she can’t expect me to make the choices she makes, and I needed to wrap my head around the idea that just because I didn’t care for her methods didn’t mean she didn’t want what’s best for me. It took us a while, but counseling helped and the last year or so has been so much better. Of course, I’ve been living six thousand miles away from her, so that might be part of it.”
We chuckle and I hurriedly drink my coffee so we can get back out to the market. We only have a few more hours before we have to get back to the boat and I want to see everything.
