Page 148 of Romeo

Me: Tell me something good.

Her answer came almost immediately.

Ma Belle: Granny made peach cobbler

A smile pulled at my mouth.

Me: Something better.

Ma Belle: Sugar gave me a raise

Me: Better.

Ma Belle: I’m running out of good things.

Me: You haven’t mentioned that you missed me yet.

Ma Belle: That would require me to miss you

I laughed softly knowing I deserved that one.

Me: Cruel, Cher.

Her next message wiped away the smile.

Ma Belle: You’ve barely texted me all week.

There wasn’t any accusation in the words I could argue with. I’d done exactly that.

Me: I know.

Ma Belle: I thought maybe you didn’t want to anymore.

I sat straighter. Of all the possibilities I’d imagined when I started pulling back, that one had never occurred to me. Fiona had spent enough of her life watching people leave. And I’d just spent a week quietly teaching her that my attention could disappear without explanation.

Me: There hasn’t been a single day since I met you that I didn’t want to talk to you.

Ma Belle: Then why didn’t you?

I rubbed a hand over my face.

Because everything in Diamond Creek had been loud and ugly, and Fiona lived in the quiet part of my mind. Because I didn’t want to carry the clubhouse into every conversation with her. Because some nights I was so damn tired that I knew I’d give her a few scraps of attention and call it enough.

All of that was true.

None of it meant I’d made the right choice for her.

Me: Because everything here got loud, and I didn’t want to give you whatever was left of me at the end of it.

Ma Belle: I would’ve taken whatever was left.

I closed my eyes.

Of course she would.

Fiona knew what it was to live on whatever remained after life took its share. She probably understood that kind of exhaustion better than I wanted her to.

Me: You deserve better than leftovers.