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46
NAMES AND RINGS
CASSIE
A few days later, I’m leaning against Josh, checking out my calendar. God, I’ve gotten so behind on my studies. Still, I have a request. “Take me to the boat?” I ask him, pretty much wrung out of all emotions. I’m numb, yet at the same time, I feel so much damn pain. How can these two happen at the same time?
“Sure,” he says. And that was the plan.
Until I get a text. That changes stuff.
While he’s driving, I take a second to apologize. A long-due apology. “I’m sorry for flaking out, pulling away, all that.”
“Shit. You had a lot hit you. Our getting back together, being disowned by your mother, your father showing up.” He waves his hands as though saying,and all that.
I nod, not talking, just thinking, feeling, and at the same time, avoiding feeling.
He continues, “That was enough to fuck up your head on its own. Then, I drop the adoption bomb on you. Then I dropped the boys being fathered by Jeremiah on you.”
“Then I talked to my mom.”
“You okay?”
“I’m actually better than I’ve been in a while.”
“No shit.”
I’m still studying the text. Deciding how that changes stuff exactly and reach a snap decision. “There’s someone who wants to talk to you.”
“Where?” He cuts me a glance. “What do you mean?”
“Can we take a detour? At a coffee shop nearby.”
He noses his new truck into the parking lot and sees who’s waiting. He pulls a face, then cuts himself off and goes stoic.
It’s my mother.
“What’s this about?” he murmurs, voice neutral.
“She wants to talk to you.”
“Hmph,” he says, opening his door, then mine.
Mom looks like she always looks. Well put together. Designer clothes. Perfectly coiffed.
“Need anything?” My mother waves toward the counter and takes out a credit card. “It’s on me.”
Josh says he’s fine, but I order both of us a latte and let Mom pay, then grab us a table.
When the barista calls out my name, I leave them in an awkward silence and grab our beverages. Mom already has hers.
After I plant myself next to Josh on the upholstered bench—across from Mom—she clears her throat.
“I owe you an apology,” she tells Josh. “And a thank you. For showing the box to Cassie. For letting her share it with me. For letting me know that Jeremiah is gone.”
He nods, then thinks better of it and softly says, “You’re welcome.”
I’m proud of him. I know it’s not easy for him. It probably never will be. Maybe not for either of us. She did take Sophie away from us.
