AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It was amazing, really. I just didn’t want to encourage her to keep… sharing.
“Are you ready for that, too?” I asked carefully. “Like, packed? Or do you need any help?” They were staying here in Whistler for a few days after the wedding, but then they were flying down to St. Barts for a week.
“Oh, yes. We’re all packed.”
“Good.”
I’d packed up my bags to travel back to California, too. Everything was here with me. I’d leave here the day after the wedding to drive straight to the airport and fly home.
Home.
It really didn’t feel much like home anymore, if I was honest with myself. Not since coming back here and reconnecting with my family and Alyssa. And realizing how nothing had really changed here except, in a way, everything had. It had moved forward. And I’d missed out on all of it.
Going back to San Diego meant missing out on all of it in the future, too.
They’d all be here and I’d be missing out on them.
And on Shane.
“That’s it, then,” I reassured her. “Checklist complete. Everything you need to be a bride.”
“Thank you, so much, for all your help.” Mom took another look at herself in the mirror. “Are you sure this is it, though? We’ve remembered everything?”
I slid my arms around her waist from behind and rested my chin on her shoulder, meeting her eyes in the mirror.
“Everything is perfect, Mom.”
She sighed. “I don’t know why I’m so nervous. It’s silly.”
“You’ve had four years to prepare for this one. You’re more than ready.” I sighed, too. “And I’m sorry. If I was ever really a part of the reason you put off marrying Jacob for so long, then I owe you a huge apology.”
Mom slid her hands over mine and her eyes got glassy. “This one’s going to last, Jolie. I promise you.”
“You don’t owe me any promises like that, Mom. We’re both adults.”
“I know. But I’m your mother. I should provide stability in your life, no matter how old you are. And I haven’t done that very well.”
“Mom, you tried. Every time you got married, I knew you wanted it to last. You wanted me to have a dad who was… you know, better than him.”
She turned to me and cupped my face in her hand. “I really did. He’s your father. I’ll always be grateful that he gave me you. But he wasn’t a good dad and I never forgave him for that. Not until I met Jacob.” She lowered her forehead to mine, like she did when I was a little girl and we shared a secret. “You know what I learned?”
“What, Mom?”
“I couldn’t actually have a happy life, a true love, until I let my bitterness and anger towards him go. Until I forgave him for being a rotten husband and a terrible father. And until I accepted that it wasn’t my fault.”
“It wasn’t your fault, Mom. Dad is who he is. You couldn’t have changed him.” I took a breath and admitted, “I couldn’t, either.” Sadly, I’d found that out the hard way when I tried to inspire some change in him and failed. That first year in California was damn hard.
It was a hard life lesson that I sorely needed to learn, apparently.
Mom studied me. “I’m so sorry for that. That you didn’t get a good father figure growing up.”
“I have one now. Thanks to you.”
She smiled. “You do have one now. And Jacob is so very fond of you, Jolie.”
“Yeah. I know. I can feel that. I like him, too.” I hesitated. “I think… I love him. Am I allowed to say that? It feels weird.”
Mom got all choked up about it, though. “Of course you’re allowed.”
