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“Mom—”
“—but I did not raise my daughter to give up,” she finished, cutting off my protests.
“He said ‘no’.”
“You said you didn’t even get to introduce yourself, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right,” I sighed.
“Then he doesn’t even know what he is saying ‘no’ to, Valerie.”
“Mom—”
“I’m sorry he was rude to you, but I don’t know why you let that man get to you. None of the others have affected you like this,” she noted. Like I said, I’m straight with my mom and she’s straight with me. She knows about all the rude encounters I have had; not because I liked ranting about those things to my mom, but because she was my only friend.
The truth was, I didn’t understand why Denver Langston’s words got to me. I hated it. I was off my game, because of him. He threw me off my game the second he pinned me against his barn…
“There’s a lot riding on this account, Mom,” I said softly, looking at my lap.
The shadow over our lives leeched into the conversation, and even though the phone, both of us could feel it. I swallowed the lump in my throat.
“Vallie,” she whispered, “You don’t have to do this. You can come home, work at the flower shop. Be with me—”
I looked at her. “For how long, Mom? Huh? A month? Two at the most after I run out of money for your treatment?” I snapped.
“Vallie…”
“I will not sit at home and pretend to be happy while I watch you die,” I hissed, clenching my teeth, my eyes burning. I shook my head. “I will not, Mom.”
“You don’t have to waste your life for me, baby girl. I’ve lived a good life. I had a successful business, and I raised a beautiful, strong daughter. You on the other hand…honey, your twenties have passed you by.”
“I’m twenty-seven, mom,” I returned, pulling my hair over my shoulder.
“Twenty-seven,” she said, nodding. “You have no friends, besidesme.You don’t go out. You have a job—one you’re working forme, to paymybills—that takes you to the most beautiful places in the country but that you don’t experience. Then, you come home and take care of me. That’s not the life I wanted you to live, Valerie.”
“The only life I want is one where you’re in it, Mom,” I whispered, my voice shaking. Tears streamed down my cheeks, landing on my blue sweatshirt. I got it in a Christmas gift basket from the company. The logo, Moonie Pipelines, was etched on the front in bold lettering. I didn’t wear it because it was my company’s. I wore it because it was the only thing that could keep me warm at night.
“I love you,” she said after a moment of silence. “But I will not sit here and watch you cry over me.”
I looked up at her and she pressed on. “You are a beautiful woman, Vallie. You have your whole life ahead of you, but I’m not going to argue about this with you anymore. So, the way I see it, you’ve got two options…”
My lips tugged up, forming a small smile. She used to always give me two options when I was kid.
“Option one, you call it quits, drop that stupid company, forget all about that cowboy, and come home to me. Option two, you wipe those tears, tell your boss you would like another chance, go back to that cowboy, and try again.”
I stared at her, smiling.
She shook her head, smiling back at me. “We both know option two is your choice. So, let’s cut the shit.”
I nodded and crossed my legs. “Tell me about the pumpkins again.”
An hour later, I hung up with my boss, my jaw on the floor.
They were giving me another chance, but not before Mr. Moonie himself spoke to me. In person.Tomorrow. There was a charter airstrip just outside of Hayden, and there would be a plane tomorrow morning I was supposed to be on. It would fly me back to Denver, where Mr. Moonie was, and we would be having lunch.
All because Denver Langston told me no.
Chapter Five
