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She nods.
My mom has always been my biggest supporter. Especially when I was snowboarding. She was there for a lot of the practices. She was at every competition. She never failed to show up. Mom raised me while my dad worked, always insisting that snowboarding was expensive and someone needed to pay for it.
“Have you talked to your dad?” she asks, sipping her lemonade.
“Nope,” I answer.
“He’s been staying in the city a lot lately,” she admits. She glances around until her dark eyes stop on the window.
“Is he still seeing her?” I ask.
I’m talking about Amy, the woman half his age, not much older than me, who he cheated with. They continued their relationship after the divorce, but I always thought it would fizzle out at some point. It hasn’t yet.
She shrugs, her eyes still unfocused. Finally, she shifts her gaze to me. “You’d know more about that than I would.” She gives me a small, sad smile.
“I don’t talk to him,” I declare.
Her hand lands on my forearm. “Zane …” She sighs. “What happened with your father and me is between us. It has nothing to do with you.”
“Maybe. But it still affects me.”
“I get that. But don’t shut him out because of some sort of solidarity with me. I’m a big girl. I can handle it.”
But I wonder if she really can handle it. The affair seemed to bring out insecurities in her that had never been present when I was younger.
The doorbell rings before I can respond. Her hand leaves my arm as she rises to answer the front door.
“You expecting someone?” I ask.
“Alice was planning to stop over for lunch.” Her voice fades as she moves into the hallway.
I hear her greet a woman at the front of the house. A moment later, my mom’s best friend, Alice, follows her into the kitchen. All my mom’s friends have rallied around her since the divorce.
“Hey, Zane! I didn’t know you’d be here.” Alice leans over and gives me a hug.
I squeeze her side and release her. “I just dropped by to check on Mom.”
Mom is at the counter with a few bags of takeout. She pulls out two large salads and a pizza.
“There’s plenty of food if you want to join us,” Alice offers.
“Thanks, but I just ate at the coffee shop.” I finish my glass of lemonade and leave my seat, setting the empty glass in the sink.
“You won’t believe what I heard.” Alice turns to my mom.
I smirk because I know they’re about to start gossiping and trading information. Small towns tend to breed a lot of rumors for some reason.
“And that’s my cue to go,” I say, turning to leave the room.
“Wait, Zane,” Alice says. “What was the name of that surgeon who worked on your knee?”
“Dr. Childress.”
She nods. “Childress, right. He’s not in the same group with a Ron Cooper, right?”
Ron Cooper. That name sounds familiar. Isn’t that who Willow works for?
“I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure Childress is with a different orthopedic group. Why?” I ask.
