#
The rest of the day passed in a blur of nervous energy. I tried to work. I had all the photos from the engagement shoot that needed to be edited, and emails to answer about an upcoming show I had at a gallery in Blue Point Bay. But I couldn’t focus. My mind kept drifting to tonight. To Dex. To what it would feel like to walk through town holding his hand without looking over my shoulder.
“You’re pacing,” Mom said from the doorway of my room around four o’clock.
I stopped mid-stride. “I’m not pacing.”
“You’ve circled this room approximately forty times in the last ten minutes.” She came in, sat on the edge of my bed. “First date jitters?”
“Is it a first date if we’ve already been dating for two months?”
“It’s your first public date. So yes.” She smiled. “You really like him, don’t you?”
“Mom…”
“It’s okay to admit it, Leigh. You’re allowed to be happy.”
I sat down next to her, suddenly exhausted. “What if I’m making a mistake? What if we’re moving too fast? What if everyone’s watching and judging and…”
“Then they’re watching and judging,” she interrupted gently. “And it doesn’t matter. Because you’re living your life, not theirs.”
“That’s very zen of you.”
“That’s me learning from twenty-seven years of mistakes.” She took my hand. “I spent so long worrying about what people would think, about doing the ‘right’ thing, about playing it safe.And you know what I got? Decades of regret and a daughter who didn’t know her father.”
“Mom, you were protecting me…”
“I was protecting myself. From judgment, from complications, from having to be brave.” She squeezed my hand. “Don’t do what I did, baby. Don’t hide from something good because you’re scared of what might happen.”
“How about we make a deal?” I said, having a sudden moment of epiphany. “I’ll go out and be young, and carefree, and enjoy myself…” She looked at me suspiciously like she already knew what was coming. “If you promise to do it too.”
“The young might be a bit of a stretch for me.”
“Don’t try to dodge my point. You and Jasper should go out. Not with me and Dex, that would be weird. But you should go and do something fun. You’ve missed so much time and you should make up for it. If I don’t have to care about what the town might say, then neither should you.”
My mom opened her mouth to object, but she couldn’t unless she wanted to admit that I might have something to worry about too. When she snapped it to, I knew I’d won and she glared at me softly.
“When did you learn how to do that?”
I laughed wrapping an arm around her and leaning my head on her shoulder. “I just want you to be happy. I’m glad you decided to stay in Willowbrook. Even if I decide Blue Point Bay is where I need to be. I’m glad you finally chose something for yourself.”
“You could do that too,” she pointed out, then she hugged me back fiercely before quickly standing from the bed and heading to the door. She paused in the doorway, turning back to look at me with that misty look that mothers got sometimes. “I like seeing you happy, Leigh. I didn’t realise how long it had been since I’d seen you like this. You need to fight for that, honey.”
And then she left before I could say anything else.
She was right though. We needed a solution where we could all be happy and giving up and just accepting the end wasn’t it.
#
At exactly six o’clock, Dex’s truck pulled into the driveway.
I’d facetimed Wren and she’d help me pick out a dress. Of course that meant having to listen to her . “You’ll need at least one dress that says ‘I’m put together but also casual and definitely not trying too hard,’“ she’d said. At the time, I’d rolled my eyes. Now I was grateful.
I grabbed my bag and headed downstairs before I could second-guess myself again.
Dex was waiting on the porch, and the sight of him made my breath catch. Dark jeans, a button-down with the sleeves rolled up, hair slightly damp like he’d just showered. He held a single sunflower, not a whole bouquet, just one perfect bloom.
“Hi,” he said, and his smile was nervous. Dex Moore, confident mechanic who could fix any engine, who’d faced down my brothers without flinching, was nervous about our date.
