If only you weren’t a coward.
She curled even tighter into herself and fought back a sob.
“Honey?”
Her eyes flew open at her mother’s voice, and she swiped at her tears before she sat up. “Hi, Mom.”
“I was hoping to catch you before you left. I’ve got something for you.”
Carly sat at the foot of the bed, and Thea took the opportunity to tap out a quick text to Annabelle:Mom distraction is a go if you need it. Belly was too good a kid to actually sneak out, but it was still the sister code.
She hit Send and reached out for the framed photo her mom was holding. The tears she’d been trying to suppress hit her in force when she recognized the two people in the center of the shot. “Is this…?”
“You and your dad. You’d just turned six.”
She blinked to clear her eyes and studied the father and daughter duo standing on a front porch with an explosion of greenery off to one side. Her dad was crouched with his arm around her, his T-shirt and khaki shorts coated in dirt, and her knees showed a telltale layer of topsoil too. They were both squinting into the sun and beaming with identical smiles.
“Look closer at the background,” Carly said.
She looked past the two figures front and center and almost dropped the frame when she recognized the round-topped door they were posed in front of. “My house!”
“He was doing a landscape refresh when you and I stopped by to bring him lunch. You insisted on helping him with some planting. The homeowner came out to watch and said it was one of the sweetest things she’d ever seen.”
Thea brushed her fingers over the glass covering her dad’s broad grin as a tear tracked down her cheek. “I think I remember that day.”
“I hope you do. It was a good day.” Now her mom was the one barely holding back tears. “He loved that house. He used to tell me he imagined you living in one just like it someday.”
“You knew about my princess house?” Thea’s voice emerged thick from her throat.
“Of course. Your dad and I shared everything.” Carly tipped her head back, the soft line of her jaw working as she swallowed hard. “I was looking through old photos for Annabelle’s graduation announcement and stumbled across it. What are the odds, huh?”
Thea hugged the frame to her chest, almost too overcome for words. “I love it. Thank you.”
Her mom patted her knee, then said the worst possible thing in the world. “Aiden’s not with you today?”
Her stricken expression must have been answer enough because Carly’s face fell. “Oh. I see.”
“Another one bites the dust, right?” Thea didn’t even have the strength to put any heat behind it. No breakup had ever hurt like this one had.
“Honey, no. I’d never joke about that.” Her lips thinned. “And Peter’s not going to joke about it anymore either, not after Annabelle and I yelled at him all the way home from your new house.”
“You did?” She couldn’t help the little spurt of joy at the thought of those two sticking up for her.
“Of course. You’ve always brushed him off before, but you seemed really upset that night. So we let him have it.”
Thea closed her eyes and let herself imagine that scene for a few seconds. “I’m sorry I missed that.”
“And I’m sorry it didn’t work out with Aiden. He was always the nicest boy.”
She sighed. “He really, really is.”
Silence fell over the bedroom, punctuated by the party chatter barely audible from the yard.
When her mother spoke again, her voice was halting. “I… know what you really think about my marriage to Peter.”
“I doubt that very much,” Thea said flatly.
“You think I was scared to be on my own, so I married the first man who came along.”
