It hadn’t happened all at once, it wasn’t like I met Rick and he told me I had to do x, y, and z if I wanted us to be together. No, it was the slow nudging to lose weight, to keep dyeing my hair a certain color because that’s how he liked it, to get back in shape after having a baby so that he would still find me attractive, not to mention cooking and cleaning everything on my own, raising said baby without his help and still being expected to help run a business and look a certain way. It was exhausting and insidious. It wore me down like water creating the Grand Canyon. I suddenly realized just how controlling he’d been. I knew the next time I found someone I wanted to be in a relationship with they would have to accept me as I came, with no changes, because that wasn’t going to fly anymore.
“What are you thinking about?”
I turned and found Henry watching me. “I don’t know. I guess how much I really missed this place. How much I gave up for Rick.”
His gaze returned to the screen. “I never liked Rick, but he made you happy, so I let it go.”
Turning on my side, I snuggled in the blanket and focused on the movie. I want to say I was completely enraptured by the film and that my eyes didn’t close but that might have been a lie because halfway through, Henry tapped my leg. “Is that your phone?”
I sat up and pulled my cell from my back pocket. I hadn’t even heard it because it was buried under the big blanket. It wasn’t because I had been drifting off to sleep. “Oh, it’s Travis!” I was excited to hear from my son. He didn’t call often enough. “Hey, Pumpkin, how are you?”
“I’m good! I just came home to do laundry. It was kind of weird how quiet the house was.”
“Ah, are you missing mama?”
He scoffs. “Nah, I love you, but I don’t mind just being able to focus on my friends and school.”
“How is all that going?”
“School? Well, I’m doing well in my classes. Just finished a big test, and I feel like it went well. Super ready to graduate. Friends? Well, I didn’t tell you this because I thought you were dealing with enough, but Becca and I broke up. A while ago.”
My heart froze in my chest. I thought they would be together for much longer than that. She’d been one of the sweetest girls Travis had ever brought home. “Why didn’t you tell me?” My hand had gone to my chest, clutching at my shirt, which was ridiculous. My son was still young enough to be playing the field. Did people still say that? Anyway, he didn’t need to bind himself to someone like I’d done with Rick.
“I didn’t want to upset you. I mean you just disappeared back to Mystic Hollow, so I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I figured you had enough on your plate.” He was starting to sound defensive, so I knew I had to rein it back in unless I wanted a grumpy Travis on my hands, and with how rarely he called, that was the last thing I wanted.
“That makes sense, but you can always call me and tell me anything, Pumpkin. You know that, right?” I asked, wanting to make sure he wasn’t holding other stuff back because he thought I was too fragile.
“Well, if that’s the case then I sort of started seeing someone else…”
I perk up. “Seeingsomeone else?”
“Oh, mom, it’s not serious or anything.”
But it had to be serious if he was even mentioning her. He never mentioned girls. The only other girl he’d ever seriously talked to me about was Becca, and apparently that was done and dusted now.
“Tell me about her.”
He hesitated, and I heard him starting the washer. I swear that boy only ever called me when he did laundry. “Her name is Jacqueline. She’s in the engineering program with me. She’s kind of… different.”
“Different in a good way?”
I can almost hear him blushing. “Yeah. She has this laugh. Like, when she laughs, I can’t help but smile. And she wears sparkly headbands and sings when she walks and… well, she’s just fun to be around.”
“So, are you dating or just hanging out?” I hold my breath. He’d always kind of been the friend to girls. I remember in high school he always felt like the jerks got the girls that he really liked, but he just wanted them to be happy.
Sure, he’d brought a couple girls over and said they were his girlfriends, but it was only ever once or twice, and they usually stopped hanging out quickly after that. I always thought it was just because he was so smart and kind. Girls that age weren’t always ready for someone like Travis.
He told me he wasn’t sure what they were yet, but I could tell from his tone that he wanted it to be more than just hanging out. I hoped my baby didn’t get his heart broken. If he did though, he was a big boy and could handle himself. I had loved the idea of him moving to Mystic Hollow though and I made a mental note to ask him about that the next time we spoke. Although I would probably forget unless I wrote it down.
When we hung up, I filled Henry in on his nephew’s life before we settled back in to finish the movie. “Remember when we were kids, we’d do our hair all crazy and put our underwear on our heads and have a pajama day?”
He chuckled. “Yeah. That was a long time ago.” His gaze drifted back to the movie, not giving me nearly enough reminiscing about the underwear-head thing. “Be right back,” I muttered.
I ran down the hall and grabbed my granniest pair of panties, put them on my head, then pulled my hair out through the leg holes to stick up like crazy.
As I ran back down the hall, I sang an old song we used to drive each other nuts with. “This is the song that doesn’t—” I stopped short when I jumped off the stairs and saw Henry standing with someone in the foyer.
“Hey,” Daniel said lamely.
