“So, since my last visit, you’ve turned my room into a craft room, huh?”I ask, because she’s starting to sound suspicious.“I guess I’ll be sleeping on a bunk bed,” I muse.
“Copeland, are you sassing me?I needed a place for all my quilting supplies.”
“No, ma’am,” I grin even though she can’t see me.
“She’s single,” she blurts, and my breath stalls in my lungs, my mind fighting to process her words.“I know you don’t want to talk about her, but Ellison is single.She has been since the day you left.I’ve never heard about her dating, and this is a small town, Copeland.I would know.”
“She’s single?”I ask, my voice cracking.
“She is.”
Fuck.I run my fingers through my hair.After all these years, she’s still unattached.I never wanted to hear about it, but now, I’m wondering why I didn’t let them tell me.I could have gone back to Magnolia Ridge and fought for answers.Fought for her.For us.Instead, I hid behind the pain and the fear of what it would be like to watch her love someone else the way she’d loved me.
“I’ll get the bunk bed ready for you,” Mom tells me, and I can hear the smile in her voice.“Just tell me when you’ll be here.”
“Mom,” I say, clearing my throat.“That was a long time ago.”
“You’re not going to deny your mother who’s fighting for her life, are you?”she asks.
“Too soon, Mom, too damn soon,” I grumble.
“Oh, hush,” she scolds.“I want both of my boys to be happy and settled.You’ve never loved another after Ellison Moran, and honestly, Copeland, I think she feels the same.”
“Felt.Past tense.”
“I brought you into this world.I wiped your ass, and I know all of your tells.There is nothing past tense with the way you feel about the oldest Moran girl.”
I smile because I can picture her standing with her hands on her hips, giving me that mom look that she’s perfected over the years.It’s the one that says, “I have eyes in the back of my head, and I know all things, so just try me.”
Besides, she’s not wrong.There will never be a day when my heart doesn’t belong to Ellison Moran.
My Ells.
“Too much time has passed.”Even as I say the words, I don’t believe them.Hope blooms inside my chest.Could Ellison be mine again after all these years?I’m pissed for all the time I wasted.All it took was my mother saying two little words, words I told her and my family I never wanted to hear, but now that they’re out, I can’t unhear them.
She’s single.
“Just keep an open heart and an open mind,” Mom says.
“Yeah,” I answer, my voice raspy.“I’ll keep an open mind.”I don’t say anything about my heart, because it’s been closed to anyone but Ellison since the moment my lips first touched hers all those years ago.
My mind takes me to a moment, another regret where Ellison is concerned.I remember getting that phone call.I wanted so badly to go to her.I wanted to wrap her in my arms, along with her sisters, and hold her.I wanted to tell her that everything was going to be okay, but she was no longer mine to comfort.
I went home anyway.I didn’t tell anyone I was coming.I stood at the road during the graveside service and watched as my once-best friend, Bowen, wrapped Ellison in his arms.He had Ellison on one side and Courtlynn on the other, holding them both tightly.
Macklin, one of my other close friends from high school, had her younger sister, Baylor, in his arms, and Dixon, the fourth of us in our friend group, was holding on to Leighton.The seven of them stood in a small circle beside their grandparents, grieving their loss.
The guys and I kept in touch with a call or text message here and there, but seeing them in her life the way I craved to be, it cut deep.Even though they knew talking to me about her was off-limits, the relationship still felt strained.They were pissed that I left.They didn’t understand, and of course, I never tried to explain it to them.
I told myself that if she needed me, I’d make myself known, but it was plain to see she didn’t need me.None of them did.
My brother, my mom, and Macie had been there, and they had each other.They didn’t need me either.I said a silent goodbye and caught the next flight back to North Carolina.That was the last time I laid eyes on her, and suddenly, that’s all about to change.
She’s single.
She was always meant to be mine.
Now’s the time to fight for my mother and for me.It’s time to break open the past, battle for answers, and fight for the only woman I’ve ever loved.
