AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Believe me,” Eleanor said gently. “I thought the same thing for weeks before I finally agreed to have dinner with Henry. And the chair…let’s just say my decision to get rid of it didn’t happen overnight.”
Callie lifted her gaze. A suffusion of love, heartbreak, and tenderness filled her mother’s eyes.
“I loved your father with my whole heart,” Eleanor continued. “But there’s no limit to one’s heart. Love isn’t finite. Enjoying the company of another man doesn’t mean I love your father any less. It just means I’m open to possibilities again.”
“Do you love Henry?” Callie pushed the question past a lump in her throat.
“No.” Eleanor sat back, her forehead creased. “Not yet. I think Icouldlove him one day, but I’m in no hurry. Neither is he. Right now, we’re just enjoying being together. It’s so nice not to be alone.”
Callie deflected a stab of hurt. She disliked thinking that she and her sisters weren’t enough to keep their mother from feeling “alone,” but she also understood on a deep level she didn’t even fully recognize.
Callie had had her family throughout her life, and yet only in the past three weeks with Jake had she experienced an intimacy she’d never known. It was a kind of harmony, as if the discordant notes in her life had started fitting together in the exact right way.
She let out her breath in a long exhale. She didn’t want her life to be ruled by how things used to be or how she wanted them to be. But it wasn’t easy to let go.
“I hope I can meet him one day,” she finally said.
“Of course. He wants to meet you too. I’ve told him all about you and your sisters.” Eleanor patted her daughter’s hand. “Now since I’ve told you about Henry, are you going to tell me about yourfriend?”
Callie’s heart skipped at the thought of Jake, but she kept her voice casual. “I’ve just been hanging out with an old classmate from high school. He’s back in town for a little while, and we reconnected. No big deal.”
She rose to her feet, ignoring her mother’s flash of disappointment. Of course Eleanor would be disappointed to think Callie hadn’t met a man she was serious about.
But there was no sense in telling Eleanor about all the “in love” emotions ricocheting around her heart. The butterflies and shivers and quickening pulse. The way everything inside her lit up when Jake smiled at her. The longing to be with him and no one else.
And especially how much she ached inside at the thought of him leaving.
“I should get going.” She set her mug in the sink, resisting the urge to wash it along with the coffeepot. She picked up her purse. “If you…well, if youwanthelp with the living room, you know where to find me.”
“Of course. Thank you.”
“Bye, Mom.” Callie gave her mother a quick hug and started toward the front door.
“Callie.”
She turned, her heart clenching at the depth of love and concern in her mother’s expression.
“It’s been an incredibly difficult year and a half,” Eleanor said. “We’ve all had to deal with a lot of hard things. But we can’t get stuck in them. At some point, we have to keep moving forward.”
“I know.” Callie’s throat tightened. “But knowing and doing are two different things.”
“You’re so good at the knowing part.” Eleanor smiled sadly. “It’s the doing that sometimes trips you up.”
“I’m trying.”
“I love you.” Eleanor wrapped her arms around her daughter. “No matter what I paint or what furniture I give away or who I’m having dinner with, I love you with more than my heart, more than my soul, more than everything I am.”
Callie closed her eyes and tightened their embrace. There were still a lot of things she was struggling with—there always had been and always would be in life—but the certainty of her mother’s unconditional love wasn’t one of them.
