AllFreeNovel
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She has a point. I do have a service that does my laundry. I travel a lot. “Well, thanks.” “I feel bad for your housekeeper.” She touches my leg over my comforter. “Everything okay with you and Calista?”
“We’re not together, Mom.” I sit up in bed, not wanting to do this twenty questions thing. Thank God Fisher kept our making out to himself or this interrogation would be ten times worse.
“It’s sweet what she’s doing for Maisie.”
“It is.”
She stares at me for a moment, and I look away. She wants me to crack and blab everything going on inside me, but I’m not there. I don’t even understand half of it myself.
“You could have shown Maisie too?”
“I could’ve, but I’ll be going home soon, and this way, Maisie will have Calista around. Plus, Calista needs soccer back in her life. It’s a win-win.
Her eyes zero in on the laundry and sadness washes over her. “That’s always hard to hear.” She collects a sweatshirt off the chair.
“What?”
“That you consider Chicago your home.” She looks around my room and smiles softly. “You’re my only child who is hell-bent on living far away. Did I suffocate you? I know it was different for you because most of your siblings were out of the house by the time you arrived. Your dad and I were older when we raised you.”
“Shit, Mom, no. But I can’t play professional soccer here.”
She nods, tears building in her eyes. “I know, but when that career ends, you’re not coming home, right? That’s what the breakup was about between the two of you all those years ago.”
I run my hand through my hair. “I don’t know. I mean, yeah it was, but…” I cannot give my mom false hope. “I wish it was different, but it’s not.”
She nods. “I know. Thanks for coming to dinner last night. Everyone was very happy to spend the time with you.”
“Really? It didn’t seem like it. All I got was grief about how my nieces and nephews don’t know me and how I can’t buy their love at Christmas.”
My mom shrugs. “You can’t have everything in life, Ry. I wish you could, but you can’t. It’s a hard pill for your siblings to swallow that they’re at the bottom of your list of priorities, and they express that. But it doesn’t mean they don’t love the time they do get to spend with you.”
I sit there quietly, not sure what to say.
“One more thing, and I know it’s none of my business. I’ll say this and then leave.”
I groan. “What?”
“Since you came back, you’ve spent a lot of time with Calista. And it’s so clear to everyone in both of your families that you two still love one another. I can’t imagine how unimportant she must’ve felt all those years ago in order to leave you. Sometimes I curse that I ever put you in soccer, but your dad tells me how wrong that is because of your love for the game. But a sport doesn’t love you back. It doesn’t take care of you when you’re sick or listen to you when you need someone to vent to or tell you everything will be okay when you’re overwhelmed. You won’t grow old with soccer, Rylan, and that’s just the facts. All this to say that I hope you know what you’re doing, and if you don’t, you should really consider stopping before you hurt Calista again. I know the man I raised, and he wouldn’t want to hurt the woman he still loves.”
She shuts the door behind her, and I look out my window at the perfect view of the bay in the distance. I sit there contemplating my mom’s words for a few minutes before my phone dings with a text from Calista.
Great news! I finished the slides. We’re all set, so go enjoy the rest of your vacation with your family.
Also, our fight made Buzz Wheel. *eye roll emoji*
I pull up the Buzz Wheel app and find a picture of us outside Terra & Mare with a caption, “Trouble in paradise so quickly?” I read through the comments and there are numerous theories as to what we were arguing about. Most are absurd.
I still want to see you.
I’m going to meet Mandi and Maisie at the gym today if you want to join us. 4 pm when she’s done at school.
I toss my phone on my bed and run my hands through my hair, tipping my head down. This is why I rarely come home. It’s so much easier living in complete denial of my feelings for Calista and pretending like she doesn’t exist.
Since I still want to talk to Calista about what happened last night—and preferably not in front of my sister and niece—I drive over to the cabin, hoping she’s there. Thankfully, her car is in the driveway when I pull in.
I knock even though the door is probably unlocked knowing Calista.
I hear movement, then she opens the door. “I told you it’s all done.”
