Page 53 of Temporarily in Love

“Hmm,” was all Mom said as she sipped her coffee.

“What?”

That was some passive-aggressive Irish Mom crap if I ever heard it.

“Do you want to go back?” she asked.

“Well…I have a house, so I kinda have to,” I said unconvincingly.

In the heart of my heart, deep down, if I was being one hundred percent honest with myself, I knew going home would be painful. It would be like ripping my heart from my chest when I left. I wasn’t sure I could handle it again.

Mom peered at me over her coffee cup with a waiting glance. It was that ‘mom look’ when she wanted me to spit out what was on my mind. I knew that look, and I wasn’t going to participate.

“Lila…” she said in a warning tone.

“What?”

“Have you even applied to any new jobs?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“Why not? Honey, you can’t live on your savings.”

Well, I probably could, but my mortgage on the house in Palo Alto was astronomical, so I’d need to downsize. I had a lot of experience under my belt, so I knew I could land at another firm quickly. But I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a lawyer anymore.

“Lila, do you not want to be a lawyer anymore?” Mom asked.

I looked up at her in shock. How she knew what I was thinking was beyond me.

“I don’t know…”

“Well, what do you want to do?”

“I want to buy the bar,” I admitted.

Mom looked stunned at my confession. She sat back in her chair and stared at me for a couple of seconds. It looked like she was taking a little time to process it.

“What would that mean?” she asked.

I shrugged. “I’m not sure, but I want the bar to stay in the family. I have the capital to do it.”

“Would you move back?”

I could buy the bar and let my parents or Brian continue to manage it as they saw fit. I could go back to California and find a new job and move on with my life. But when I thought about doing that, I wasn’t sure that was what I wanted. When I first came to town, that was definitely the idea. Now, I wasn’t so sure.

“Not sure. What do you think about that?”

Mom took a sip of her coffee as she thought about it. “You’re gonna need to convince your father. But…if that’s what you want to do with your money, I’m okay with that.”

“I need to think about it,” I admitted.

She nodded, but the conversation abruptly stopped when my dad came back into the kitchen dressed for work at the bar. He and my mom left to open the bar while I looked at my finances.

The truth was, I felt more fulfilled by waiting tables the past couple of weeks than being in the courtroom. Or drafting up cease and desist letters. Or countersuits. I had a lot of things to think about, none of which I was ready to deal with. There was one reason I was thinking about a career change. I just wasn’t sure it was a good idea to uproot my life for a man.

Chapter Sixteen

DECLAN