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“Mom…”
“No, now it’s your turn to let me finish. If you love Jesse, you should give it a try. Some marriages do work. Or maybe you could just live in sin and not get married.”
Sydney let out an unladylike snort of laughter and her mom joined her. “I know you’re not old fashioned enough to think like that. Of all my friend’s parents, you were the most progressive.”
“I was the smartest you mean.”
Sydney laughed again, a laugh she felt right down to her abs. “Yes, mom.” She squeezed her mom’s hand.
“Never thought I’d heard the day my child admits to me being smart. I’ll have to mark it down on the calendar.”
“Who has those anymore?”
“I do. Get one free from the gas station every single year. Anyway, honey, you could start somewhere. Start small. See where things go. I’m sure if you and Jesse sat down with his parents, they wouldn’t pressure you into anything. They would respect your space and your boundaries, because they love him and they want him to be happy, and if you’re his choice, they won’t do anything to jeopardize that for him.”
“Yeah, well, that’s easy to say, and really hard to do. I know I would be the one who ended up messing things up and then everyone would hate me. I don’t want to hurt him or toy with him. And even if I thought it would work out, I already burned that bridge. Like, really burned it. With fire and gasoline and maybe dynamite burned it. I messed everything up. I blew the best shot I had at being happy with someone, because for me, I always knew it was Jesse or no one. I’ve known that forever.” She pushed her shoulders back in an effort to hold her head high. “I’ll be okay. I’ll be happy being single, like you. We’ll be two free women. We can travel the world. Do whatever we want. Free spirits that won’t ever settle down. Every day can be a new adventure.”
“Honey, I’m not saying no, because that sounds like a great time and I love the heck out of you. You’re my baby girl, no matter how old you get, and I want you to be fully happy. I don’t want you to live with regrets. If you’re sure Jesse was the only one for you, I’m pretty sure that’s a good indication that it could have worked.”
“It’s okay, mom, really.” She knew she was going to have to do something drastic to prove it, so she let the tears burning the backs of her eyes fall and she let her mom sweep her in for a hug.
By the end of it they were crying together, but after a good solid sob session, they were able to pull back and give each other watery smiles.
“I’m going to refill our glasses now and we’ll toast to getting the heck out of this city and figuring out what we’re going to do next.”
“Never really liked my job,” her mom smirked.
“I know. You complain about it all the time. That’s why I thought you wouldn’t be sad about leaving.”
Her mom’s smile was less watery as she lifted her glass. Her eyes sparkled with a glint that if Sydney didn’t know her mother better, would have thought was a little devious.
“To our future of unending adventures,” her mom toasted as she raised her glass.
Even though her heart wasn’t in it, Sydney raised her glass and clinked it with her mom’s. She even managed to force a smile.
CHAPTER 17
Jesse
Jesse could literally count on one hand the number of times he’d talked to Sydney’s mom on the phone in his lifetime.
One.
It wasn’t that she wasn’t a phone person, because when cell phones came around, she was constantly texting Syd, just like an annoying friend, much to Sydney’s annoyance, but she never had any reason to call him. His mom, sure. Even his dad a few times, for emergency issues like plumbing fixes or when their internet malfunctioned. Stuff like that, since Sydney didn’t have a dad around to do that kind of stuff and his dad was fine with filling in. Once, she even called to give his brother shit about putting gum in Sydney’s hair. Yes. Seriously.
She’d never had any reason to call him though.
So, when he answered the number he didn’t recognize, he was so shocked to hear that it was Bobby Anne, that he had to sit the hell down on his kitchen floor. Actually, he missed the chair he’d tried to go for, and literally fallen on his ass.
“I know this is probably a bit of a surprise…” You could say that again. “But I needed to call. For Sydney’s sake, because she’s my daughter and I love her. I hope it’s okay that I got your number from your mom. They still have their landline phone and I still remembered it.”
