"Look what I found," she says, walking over.
She holds up a gold chain with a sparkling letter A.
My heart stops.
"Oh my God!" I jump to my feet. "You found it!"
"I didn't find it." She presses it into my palm and curls my fingers around it. "I just had it someplace safe. Until you found your way back."
I stare at her. Tears fill my eyes so fast I can barely see.
"Why didn't you tell me? That LA was an awful plan? That Ace was it for me? Because you knew, didn't you?"
Dad was the one who was eager for me to see the world, my mom wasn’t. She strokes the hair from my face the way she's done since I was five years old and crying over something I can't remember.
"Harper, baby. You were twenty years old. It wasn't my place, even as your mom, to tell you how to live your life. Sometimes you have to make the mistakes. You have to walk the wrong path to learn where the right one is."
I sniffle. Turn the necklace over in my palm. The gold is warm from her hand, and the little A catches the light.
"I bought this when I was seventeen. Because I couldn't get a tattoo of his name."
She laughs. "I still wouldn't recommend that, Harper."
"I'm an adult, remember? Bad decisions and all that."
She stops and studies me the way only mothers can. That look that peels back every layer and sees the girl underneath the woman.
"What?" I ask.
"I feel like I've got my baby back." Her voice wavers. "I've been worried sick about you. Every time you called, I knew. I just knew you weren't yourself in LA."
I swallow the lump in my throat. "I was never going to be happy away from New Falls. Away from Ace."
"I know, sweetheart. I feel the same way about your father."
I clasp the chain around my neck. The A sits right below my collarbone. Right where it belongs.
My phone rings on the floor. I frown, glancing down.
Hudson.
The name on the screen turns my stomach cold in a way I can't explain.
"I need to get this," I say. "I'll meet you downstairs, then I can drive us to Ace's rodeo."
Mom nods. "Okay, honey."
As soon as she's gone, I pick up the phone and answer, but I can’t bring myself to speak.
"Ah, Harper." Hudson's voice is smooth.
My hand tightens around the phone.
"Everything okay?" I ask.
He clears his throat. "It will be. Look, there's been a change of plans."
I sit on the edge of the bed. My fingers find the A at my throat without thinking.
