Page 64 of Parentmoon

“Honey.” I exhale, stepping closer to him and placing my hand on his forearm. “You’ll never be like him. You will provide for Keli. You will take care of her. You love her.” I pause. “Being here with her, does that mean you’re back together?”

Michael squints over the water to the horizon. “Yeah, we’re working it out.”

My heart does a triple backflip. Inhaling with excitement, I clasp my hands and tuck them under my chin. I’m so happy for them.

“But there’s a catch.” He looks back at me. “And this is where the fighting began.”

They fought. All couples fight, but the argument had to be something huge to break up an engagement.

“The house is in Texas.”

“What?” I blink rapidly and drop my hands to my sides. Nothing surprises me more.

“It’s on the family’s land.” Michael watches me. “The house was supposed to be a wedding gift. A surprise actually, but Keli was contacted by the general contractor by mistake. That’s when she learned about it. She confronted her dad, but when it was all said and done, Keli admitted she wants to move back to Texas.”

Michael watches me for a reaction but I’m still too stunned.

A house.

In Texas?

“We talked about moving to Texas someday. She told me about the house, not wanting to keep it a secret because she knew it would be too much of a surprise on our wedding day. She knew I would struggle with moving sooner rather than later.”

“Why?” I swallow around the full-sized boulder in my throat. I don’t want Michael to move but if that’s what Keli wants, if that’s what he needs to do, they should accept this gift.

“I can’t leave you.”

Tears prickle my eyes and I blink several times again. I’m torn between the honor my son is giving me and the need to let him go. “Yes, you can, baby.”

“Mom, you’re all alone. I don’t want to leave you behind, and I can’t be down there worrying about you up in Chicago.”

His concern for me is so freakin’ noble. My son. My protector through all the fights with his father. My silent shield with a tight hug when he was a child and stronger sympathy as he grew older.

“You don’t need to worry about me. I’ll be fine.” I wave a hand, blowing off the notion while I’m slowly dying inside. It’s not like I need to spend every second with my son and his new bride, but the idea of them only thirty minutes away versus thousands of miles is a strange comfort. Texas isn’t around the corner from Chicago.

“Anyway, Keli was right. I wouldn’t have handled that kind of surprise on our wedding day. I didn’t handle it well a week before the date. The fight was so big, Mom.” Michael moves his hands, mimicking an explosion as he blows out a breath to match the improvisation. “It was all if you want to move, then go. And if I want to stay then I didn’t love her. And things just escalated.”

“But you do love her, right?”

Michael’s eyes soften. His shoulders relaxing. “More than anything.”

“Then sometimes you have to compromise, and if that means moving to Texas for a generous gift like a house, you need to go.”

“Well, the house is one reason we flew down here together. We wanted to talk about the gift with Dallas, put some stipulations on it. Like maybe we’d move in a year.”

I shake my head. “You can’t put schedules on some things, like falling in love and having babies. When it happens, it happens, and if the house is available now, then you go.”

Michael swallows at the mention of babies, eyes widening a bit. I’m not trying to rush grandchildren by any means, and the thought of them being raised in Texas while I’m hundreds of miles away makes my heart sting. I want us to have a close extended family which is something I didn’t have as a child, but maybe that’s asking too much.

Thank goodness for airplanes and long weekends.

And I guess gratitude goes to Dallas. With a house as a gift, my son will never have to struggle like his father and me did. Taking away the concerns of a mortgage can certainly lessen the strain on newlyweds.

But why didn’t Dallas mention the house? Did he know the reason Michael and Keli fought? How could he keep from me that our kids were coming here?

Michael tips his head to suggest we keep walking. “Now tell me about Dallas and you.”

Oh boy. Where to begin? Taking a step forward, I decide to keep it simple.