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“Tasha sounds so sweet and caring.”
“She is, Mom. Fixing up her cabin, helping the puppies, the work she used to do as a graphic designer—all of those things light her up and make her happy.”
“She sounds amazing, Daniel. The boys seem to love her. She’s wonderful with puppies. And she loves your videos. If you ask me, you should snap her up right now. And of course you and the boys should fix her roof.”
Despite his mom’s edict, he ran a hand through his hair, thinking of his earlier concerns. Questions that had been echoed by Evan, although in a much harsher form. “I agree, we should definitely help with her roof. We’ll start tomorrow, even if we have to think on our feet to convince her.” He’d made up his mind on that before he even took the phone from Will. “But what bothers me is that I still haven’t figured out what drove her to give up her career and come here to live in a run-down dump in the woods. And why she’s so intent on going it alone.”
“I’m sure she has her reasons for wanting to be left alone and to keep herself closed off to everyone,” his mother said, echoing Sebastian’s thoughts. “Very good reasons, I’m guessing.”
Though his mother was talking about Tasha, Daniel couldn’t help but wonder if she was also referring to herself—as if she’d once been in a similar sticky position where she’d thought she needed to hide out, away from everyone she cared about and who cared about her.
It was that weird note of personal experience in her tone that made him antsy.
“But maybe,” his mother continued, “what she really needs is the right person to come along and show her that it’s safe to open herself back up. Someone who isn’t going to run when she gets scared and tries to push him away, even if it’s the last thing she really wants to do.” She paused for a moment. “Take it from me, I know all about it.”
Daniel’s heart pounded loudly, pulsing in his ears. Was she going to divulge something about her relationship with his father that he’d never known?
“How do you know?” The words croaked from his throat.
“Will was so tough. Matt was so desperate to show he didn’t need us. Sebastian wanted to hide his artistic talent for fear of ridicule. And Evan couldn’t admit how badly he needed a mother. None of my boys were anywhere near ready to open up when they first came to live with us. Your father and I had to be so persistent, even if it sometimes felt like our love was driving them away, rather than bringing them closer.”
But what about Dad? Did something happen between the two of you?
Though the questions were on the tip of his tongue, they never made it all the way out. Not only because he was nervous about hearing her response, but also because something told him his mother wasn’t ready to completely confide in him.
And if there was anything to confide, was it his business to dredge it up all these years later? Especially if it changed everything he’d believed to be true for so long…
“What if I think I’m helping,” he finally said, “but really I’m only mucking things up more for her?”
“You might make things worse.” His mom was always cheerful, but never sugarcoated. “Or maybe that’s just the excuse you’re giving yourself, the worry you’re clinging to, so that you don’t have to risk putting your heart out there for her.”
He’d taken risks in a dozen different ways—he’d put his money on the line, gambling with his patents, hoping he could actually sell the products, risking the whole operation by going global, overextending his resources. Even the DIY show had been a gamble. He thought of the moment Tasha had paused the video on that first day, leaving his mouth gaping. That was all people might have seen, just a gaping mouth. It had been wild speculation.
But the truth was that in all his risk-taking, his heart had never been up for grabs.
“What’s really holding you back, Daniel?”
He wanted to ask her the same thing. Instead, he answered the question about Tasha. “I’m just wary because she’s wary. I can’t help feeling she’s hiding something.”
“Maybe she is. When you’re young, you don’t always make the right decisions. You get yourself all mixed up. You’re not even sure what’s right or wrong anymore. You do what your family thinks you should do.”
“Your family?” He stressed that one word. His grandparents had been gone by the time he was a toddler. He’d never known them. And oddly, now that he thought about it, his mom never talked about them.
He could hear her breathing, as though she’d been running. Or was panicking about something. “I meant Tasha’s family. I’m just being hypothetical. You know what I mean. You just…” She trailed off into nothingness.
But he no longer believed that she was being hypothetical. Or was simply talking about Tasha.
“Mom—”
“I have to go now, Daniel.”
“But, Mom—”
“I said I have to go.” If he wasn’t mistaken, she’d actually snapped at him. His mother, who never snapped, who always had words of wisdom, who always knew exactly what to say. Then she did the weirdest thing of all. “I’ll talk to you later.” She didn’t even say his dad was calling her back to watch the movie. She was simply gone.
Daniel stared at his phone, half expecting the line to still be open, that she was coming right back. But his screen went blank.
This was more than mere bumps. His mother
