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“I’ve been trying to understand for years,” she said coolly. “And yet, it never seems to make sense.”
“What doesn’t make sense?”
“How a mother can care so little about her daughter.”
Gabi looked flustered. “Everything I do is for you.”
“No,” she said, her blood boiling in her veins. She desperately wanted to scream. “Everything you do is for a version of me that you hope for. Not the version of me that you have.”
Her mouth fell open. She stammered, unable to form sentences.
So, Rory did it for her, digging the knife even deeper. “I must be such a disappointment to you. I’m not bookish or going to Yale. I’m never going to be your best friend like Lorelai is to Rory. So maybe you shouldn’t have had me at all.”
That must have struck a chord, because Gabi’s face went stark white at her words. She didn’t bother to wait for her response, flinging open the front door and heading for her car.
Wiping away her tears, Rory grabbed her phone and pressed Call on a recent number.
He answered after two rings.
“Hi,” she said, her voice hoarse.
“Rory,” Jay said. “Baby, what’s wrong?”
Chapter Nine
The way he said it—baby—all warm and soothing, had fresh tears pooling in her eyes and words tumbling out of her mouth. Her phone was on speaker on her lap as she drove to the grocery store, where she remained parked in the lot as they continued talking for another half hour.
She did leave out some details from her story, like the part about how uneasy she felt about Tyler’s relationship with Zoe. But between sniffles and sobs, she told him everything else—about her mom and what she’d found in the attic, about Melanie, about soccer being over and how ill-prepared she felt for her new job at the school yearbook. She touched on what was going on with Tyler and his new girlfriend, including how he brought Zoe to her soccer game that day. Kept it vague, skimmed over the trigger points.
“Damn,” Jay said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Tyler with a girl. Right? Unless I wasn’t paying attention?”
Rory closed her eyes as she rested her head back on the driver’s seat. She was supposed to grab some snacks for tonight but was now sufficiently late in delivering them. Talking to Jay made her feel calmer though, and the last thing she wanted to do was hang up.
Especially after the way he’d called her baby.
“No, you’re right,” she answered. “I’ve never seen him with a girl.”
“Probably because he’s always been so obsessed with you,” Jay mumbled. “But hey, looks like he’s moved on.”
Her stomach dropped. She hated that it mattered so much to her. Was there a chance that he was doing it to spite her?
No, he’s not like that, she reassured herself. Even if Tyler was different from the others, he was still a guy. Moving from one girl to the next was like a teenage rite of passage…right?
She sighed as she got out of the car, making her way toward the entrance of the store. “What snacks should I get for tonight?”
“Takis, duh,” Jay said. “Oooooh, and what about those, like, Reese’s snack mix bags?”
“I see college hasn’t changed the range of your palette.”
“Basically the only thing that hasn’t changed.” His honesty resonated through the phone’s speaker.
Her heart twisted. She’d spent all of this time talking about herself and hadn’t even bothered to ask him about college or how he was doing. Given his incessant texting and his ability to chat with her for almost an hour on the phone, let alone on a Saturday night, something was definitely off.
“Shouldn’t you be out partying?” she asked.
“Overrated,” Jay answered.
Her mind drifted to all the times Jay had itched to go to parties over the years, always trying to weasel his way out of closing the shop or sending them rallying messages. “I’m sorry, but that’s the least Jay-like thing you have ever said to me.”
