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I hold out my hand to stop her, but she slops another heaping spoonful onto the mountain of mash. I guess I’ll always be a “growing boy” to my grandmother. “She was busy tonight,” I tell her, not sure why I don’t want to admit that she was meeting her ex-husband for dinner.
I know, I know. She’s not going on a date with him; she’s trying to introduce him to his own daughter. I admire that about her. Witnessing her reaction to him on the evening we arrived, and then seeing how shaken up she was yesterday, I know it isn’t easy for her to let him in. Mia is strong—stronger than she even admits to herself—but she’s also fragile in unexpected ways. She’s brittle when she thinks she’s about to get hurt. She has vulnerabilities that she tries desperately to hide.
I love her vulnerabilities, her softness. I love everything about her.
In her position, I’m not sure I’d let my ex back into my life, even if I knew my kid had a right to know them. I wouldn’t be able to get over the bitterness.
Still, the thought of her out to dinner with another man—a man who has such a long, complicated history with her—makes the back of my neck itch. I’d rather she be here beside me and Colin as far away as possible. Last night sealed it for me. Spending time with Mia and Bailey felt like I was part of a family. I didn’t want to leave; I didn’t want to let her go see her ex today.
I wanted to wake up next to Mia and pad to the kitchen to make her coffee. I wanted to help Bailey make breakfast and listen to whatever crazy shit comes out of that kid’s mouth. I wanted tobethere. I wanted to belong there.
But I don’t—at least not yet.
“Where’s Mia?” Grandpa Arthur shouts, comparing his pitiful pile of potatoes to my ginormous mound. He frowns at his wife.
Maude pats his arm. “She’s busy.” She says it only slightly louder than normal, but Arthur seems to hear her. The two of them must have a connection that goes beyond volume and hearing.
They’re two humans so tightly twined around each other that it’s obvious to anyone that they belong to each other. They’ve been married seventy years—a lifetime. I’ve never been that close to anyone. There’s no frame of reference I can even use to imagine what it would be like to have a connection like that.
I wonder if my time in Lovers’ Peak was a hallucination. That feeling that I might belong to Mia, and she might belong to me… What if thatwasjust lust—or delusion? The relationship my grandparents have is so rare. What if it’s unreasonable for me to imagine that I could have the same thing?
It’s possible that last night wasn’t as significant for her as it was for me. I haven’t heard from her all day; maybe that’s a message in itself. She doesn’t think I belong by her side at all.
“What’s Mia doing tonight, Des? Why’s she so busy?” Grandma cuts a tiny piece off her single slice of roast beef and spears it with her fork.
I swallow my mouthful and take a sip of water. “She’s actually meeting her ex-husband for dinner.”
“Goodness!” Maude leans toward my grandfather. “Did you hear that?”
Arthur determinedly scoops mashed potatoes onto his fork and brings it to his mouth. “Hear what?”
A short translation later, and my grandmother turns back to me. “Why is she doing that?”
“He wants to spend time with Bailey,” I explain, discomfort twisting in my gut. “Mia wants to supervise.”
“Well, she is a mother,” my grandmother concedes, slightly mollified. “Will you see her afterward?”
I keep my eyes on my plate. “Probably not, Grandma. It’ll be late.” Needing to redirect the conversation, I nod to the back door. “Might be good to prune the hedges now, before the winter hits.”
The reaction is immediate: “Des, don’t be ridiculous. It’s best to wait until the end of the winter to cut back the hedges. I have high hopes for the garden next year, and I won’t let you go hacking at my bushes willy-nilly.”
“Any plans for roses? You said Agnes had beautiful ones last year, right?”
“That horrible woman!” Maude exclaims before launching into a rant about the local bookstore keeper, suitably distracted from the topic of my woman on a dinner date with another man.
Later, when I’m helping clean up the dishes, I get a phone call from the realtor, Samantha. She has offers on both of the condos on Seventh Avenue. The buyer wants to close on them as soon as possible.
My grandparents are delighted with the news—and more than a little relieved. Their money stress will soon be over—as will the reason for me to be in Heart’s Cove.
But that’s not quite true anymore. There’s another reason for me to stay here—a bigger reason. Mia and Bailey are here, which means there’s nowhere else that will be quite right for me.
The problem is, I don’t think Mia understands what I feel for her. I messed up so badly at the start of our relationship by not telling her it was me on the app and by raising her rent without speaking to her first, and I know she’s holding back from me.
Then I get an idea.
There’s something I can do to prove to her how much I love her. One simple act will show that I want to be with her. I want to build a life where Idoget to call Bailey my daughter. I’m serious about the two of them. No more dating apps, no fake dates, no dancing around my feelings and pretending anything about us is casual.
What we have is real, and I have the means to make Mia understand—but first, I’ll have to go back to Lovers’ Peak one last time.
