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“Well, my room is top of the stairs to the right. If you’d rather sleep in Nikki or Posey’s old room, you can.”
He scrunches his forehead. “Why would I want to do that?”
I shrug and keep my voice even. “I’m just leaving it up to you.”
He stares at me like he usually does when I act out of character. And the truth is, I do feel out of sorts after listening to him speak so casually about leaving, and I feel out of sorts after arriving here. I need to stop though, because we both agreed to what’s going to happen.
“I’m sorry, I’m just… it’s just the wedding is almost here and I’m a bit stressed.”
He takes my hands and pulls me up, leading me to sit on his lap. “I know. I can’t believe it, and I still don’t have my grandma and dad back on talking terms.”
“You’ll figure something out. I guess I should go finish things up at the inn so I can be home at the same time you are.”
“And I have an appointment coming in soon.” He pats my ass for me to stand.
He cleans up our mess and I pick up my purse, heading to the door.
“Okay, so I’ll see you at home?” I ask, opening the door.
“Yep.”
His smile says nothing is amiss, so why do I feel as though there’s something off about us?
I gofor my final dress fitting and my mom joins me since all the last-minute things are done and she’s feeling left out.
“How are things?” she says when she gets in my car.
“Perfect. Did you see Gavin gave Noah one of the open storefronts for a studio?” I pull out of her driveway to head to Anchorage.
“I heard about that. Is he going to continue with that after the wedding?” The hesitation in her voice over whether she’s overstepping is clear, but it’s not like my mom to ever skirt around a topic. She’s usually blunt without apology.
“Is that your way of asking if he’s going to stay in town?”
“Marriage is hard. Even harder to grow together if he’s gone all the time.” She stares out the window as if she’s not trying to lure me into a conversation.
Pulling onto the highway, I don’t say anything right away.
“Have you thought of… traveling with him?” my mom asks.
“No. I don’t know.” I shrug and swallow hard.
Another round of silence commences. I’m not sure how to take this coming from my mom.
“You should. Travel with him.”
I turn to her briefly before putting my attention back on the road. “Why would you say that?”
She shrugs but turns in my direction. “Oh, Mandi. What do you want to do?”
“Um, run the inn. Same as I’ve been doing all this time.”
She frowns for a beat. “Do you though?”
“Okay, Mom, what are you getting at?” I continue to drive, although I wish we weren’t having this conversation in the car.
“Don’t think I don’t appreciate everything you’ve done for me. All those years after we left Arizona, after Rylan was born. You’ve always been the one I could depend on. And I’ve probably taken that for granted. So, I want to ask you what you want to do? If it’s running the inn, then great. But if it’s not, then that’s okay too.” She pats my knee.
“Can I be honest, Mom?”
