“I made them wider.”
“Logan made them wider by standing up for the woman he loves. Which is what you asked him to do.”
I stare at my coffee. She's right. I asked Logan to choose me when it counts, and he chose me in the most public, permanent way possible — at his mother's dinner table in front of his entire family. And then I punished him for it by walking away.
“You’re running away from the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to you,” Clara says. “You told me so yourself.”
I try to recall that memory. “When did I tell you that?”
“Saturday night at midnight, when you'd had several glasses of wine and couldn't stop crying. You don't remember?”
I don't remember. Saturday night is a blur of wine, tears, and my mother's voice replaying in my head.
“What else did I say?”
“You said Logan is the best man you've ever known, and you're terrified that loving him will cost you everything. And then you said you were going to bed and hung up.”
I press my fingers against my eyes. “I'm a mess.”
“You're not a mess. You're a woman who is scared because love is asking her to do the one thing she's never been able to do.”
“Which is?”
“Stay and fight.”
When we hang up, I see that Harper had tried to call me. I push calling her back until after lunch. I’m tired and emotionally drained.
When I finally do call her back, she sounds worried, and guilt comes over me.
“How bad is it?” she asks.
“Bad. I told him I needed space.”
“Jasmine, why?” Her voice is careful. “He did what you wanted him to. Why would you punish him for that?”
I don’t know what I’m doing anymore. All I know is that I felt overwhelmed and confused.
“And you're pulling away because it worked?”
“I'm pulling away because it costs too much.”
“I know this is about Cat. Jasmine, she’s a grown woman who is choosing to punish her son for loving someone she doesn't approve of. That's Cat's choice. Not yours or Logan's.”
I lean back in my office chair and look at the ceiling. “You’re so lucky that you get along with Cole’s family.”
“Cole's family is normal. Logan’s is a Greek tragedy. But that doesn't mean you walk away from the best thing that's happened to you because the in-laws are difficult.”
“They're not my in-laws.”
“Yet.”
I grimace. I can’t imagine Cat being my mother-in-law.
“Don't let Cat Shaw win,” Harper says. “That's what she wants. She wants you to leave so she can have her son back under her control. If you walk away, she gets exactly what she got ten years ago.”
On Saturday morning,I drive to Long Island. I need to see my mother. When my life feels like it’s going out of control, she’s the one who manages to remind me of what matters.
The boutique is already open. Since the first time she opened the boutique, she’s opened those doors every single day and on time. I love her consistency. It makes me feel safe.
