Page 41 of Lavender and Linebackers

This makes me angry.

“Well, here’s a better question for you. Why did you stop talking to me?”

He continues to stare at me. He won’t answer me. Not yet, maybe not ever. That anger slips to disappointment as I linger on that burning question. Why? What did I do wrong?

“Right.” I glance in the back at the large check and know it’s time to go. “Thanks for the ride.”

With that, I’m out of the truck. I grab the check from the back seat, slam the back door, and I’m running up the stairs and away from him.

I don’t even bother to look back.

What’s the point?

Chapter 14

Ryder

When I was in the seventh grade, my father finally decided he didn’t want to be married to my mother anymore, and he left us. Permanently. You would think at twelve, after years and years of yelling and walking around on eggshells, that I would have recognized there were serious problems, but I didn’t. That was my normal, and I had no clue they were headed in this direction. What’s funny is that I’ve often compared their separation to my own with Alice. Apparently, I couldn’t read the room then, just like that fateful day over four years ago.

My mother said things between them had been fading for a while, and while I understand that almost fifty percent of marriages end in divorce, what I didn’t understand was how he could screw us over so royally. We were his family until he decided we weren’t, and everything about our life changed. The first being them selling my childhood home on the lake and my mother and I moving into an apartment near school. My father moved into another nice new house, and he used to tell me that I could come live with him whenever I wanted, but I knew it was a ploy to get me away from her and under his thumb. One I wanted no part of. Once I made that clear, he ceased communication, and I’ve never been able to decide whether that made me happy or sad.

My mother, however, said she was fine with the apartment, that she was just happy to finally have something of her own. She went back to work and is an office manager in a veterinarian’s office. She said this job filled her need to own five pets, and like me, she has only one. A cat named Cupcake. I’ve since offered to buy her and Cupcake a house, but she says she doesn’t want to deal with the upkeep, and that she’s happy here.

As for Alice, I had no idea she didn’t feel the same way. This future that I thought we were building, I should have known it was being built with playing cards. One strong gust was all it took for the whole thing to come crashing down.

“I hope you’re hungry because I made a lot of food,” my mother says, sweeping into the small dining room.

“You didn’t have to do that,” I tell her, glancing at all of the dishes on the table. Dishes that look fancy and non-American.

“Well, I did a thing,” she says conspiratorially. This dining room table and chairs were all she asked for when I received my signing bonus. She was beyond excited to have a beautiful wooden table with fabric-backed chairs, and I saw her eyeing a chandelier, so I bought that too as a surprise. She’s definitely made this room look good with a mixture of earth colors like white, beige, brown, and dark green.

“Do tell.” I take my seat while she pops open a bottle of wine.

She pours me a glass, then sits down. She presses her lips together to prevent a smile, but it’s there. Her eyes are sparkling, and she’s super excited about whatever it is she’s going to tell me.

“A few months ago, I started taking these online cooking classes.”

I know I look surprised, because I am. “That sounds fun.” And it sounds great for her. She’s always loved cooking.

“Well, I started a social media account and post videos of me cooking. I watched a few tutorials about how to make them.”

“Okay.” I’m starting to feel a little skeptical. “How’s that going for you?”

“Well, I have over two hundred and fifty thousand followers, and I’ve started getting brand deals,” she says proudly.

My eyes nearly bug out of my head. “What?”

“Isn’t that exciting?” She clasps her hands together in front of her.

“Yes, I’m very excited for you. But what brought all this on? What made you think to do this?”

Her expression slips a little, and she looks off to the side while biting her bottom lip.

“Mom.”

Her eyes find mine again, and she straightens her back. “Well, no one taught me per se, but I follow Alice and her friend Kelli and see all of the things that they do. I took another influencer course for thirty-nine dollars, and they walked me through setting up the account, how to pick something niche that I love, and then how to make the algorithm work.”

I lean back in my chair. I don’t know if I’m more shocked that she’s done this or that she follows Alice. Actually, it’s that she’s done this. She loved Alice. Of course she kept up with her.