“How are you feeling?” I ask.
“I have a mild headache, but the doctor said that’s to be expected.” She slips her fingers around her mug and lifts her tea to her lips. “How are you? Landon explained what’s going on at school.”
“I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen. I hope it all blows over, and Mrs. Morales realizes her energy is better spent on helping her daughter navigate what she’s going through.”
Marie’s eyebrows droop. “I feel sorry for Jayden. She doesn’t deserve to be treated like that by her own mother.”
I nod. “Not everyone was lucky enough to have a mom like you.”
She reaches out and covers my hand with hers. “I’m so glad you and Landon are back in each other’s lives. I wanted to reach out to you so many times after your father passed, but I didn’t know how it’d make you feel.”
“Please, don’t worry about that. It’s all water under the bridge now.”
“Landon was worried you wouldn’t forgive him,” she says.
I glance down at my hands in my lap. “I didn’t know he’d already forgiven me. I thought he’d hate me forever.”
“Pfft.” Marie chuckles. “That boy doesn’t have hate in his heart. Not for anyone but his father. Certainly not you.” She pauses as her eyes bounce between mine. “He cared for you very much.”
I chew on my bottom lip, glancing back at the house. “I did too.”
“I think it’s fantastic that you’re giving each other a second chance now.”
A light chuckle bubbles out of me. “I’m not sure what I’m doing. This is all strange in an ironic way.”
“Life is funny like that.” She lowers her voice as she speaks. “My son is too humble to tell you this, you know, but he donated to your father’s fundraiser every year.”
My eyes narrow. “What?”
Marie smiles. “Since the day you created the run, he’s been donating to the cause.”
My mouth falls open as my heart stutters in my chest. “But I created the fundraiser...”
“Seventeen years ago.”
For seventeen years, I’ve thought Landon Fletcher hated me. I’ve assumed he didn’t think of me once he left.
But for seventeen years, hehasthought of me. Enough to send money for my father’s memory. Something he knew was important to me.
I blink, swallowing past the dry lump of sand in my throat. “He didn’t come to the funeral. I didn’t even think he knew about the fundraiser.”
“He felt terrible with the way he treated you before he left for college. It took him a long time to stop beating himself up about it.” She pauses, her eyes welling before she continues. “Thank you for looking out for him. I’ve never said it to you before, but I’ve always appreciated the way you stood up for him. I hate myself for the things I put him through back then. And now...” She blinks up to the sky. “He’s always taking care of me.”
I sit forward and wrap my arms around her, swallowing the emotion lodged like a ball in my throat. “You did the best you could with what you were given. It wasn’t easy for you either.”
“But he’s my son. I was supposed to protecthim. Not the other way around.”
I pull back and point to the house. “That man in there? He loves you more than anything in this world, and he would do it all over again if it meant you’d be where you are now, away from that monster who hurt you. That’s what family does for each other.”
Marie sniffles and cups my face with both hands. “I hope you consider me family. I know you feel like you don’t have any, butfamily isn’t always bound by blood. We’re bound by the love of the people who show up for us and have our backs.”
My bottom lip trembles. “The truth is, I wanted to reach out to you too. I wanted to check on you, and make sure you were okay. I should have.”
Marie shakes her head. “No, you had your own life to worry about.” She smiles as a tear rolls down her cheek. “And look at you now, this beautiful, strong woman.”
I don’t feel strong. At least, it wasn’t my choice to be. I lost my mother at a young age, and then I lost my dad. Life turned me into this hardened version of my former self, and I don’t know how to be any other way. I’ve been alone for so long, I got used to it.
But when I look at Landon, I don’t see a cold, lonely man. He’s been through some of the worst things life has to offer, yet it hasn’t turned him into steel.
