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Aria’s phone buzzed in her pocket, and she removed it to find that Cole had called her four times in the past ten minutes.How hadn’t she felt the vibrations?
“Hey,” she answered, turning away from her mother so that she faced the fridge.
“Hey! Whitney said she just saw you. You ran off somewhere?”
Aria’s throat was tight with confusion. “I had to go home.”
Cole’s voice dimmed. “Oh. Is there something wrong? Are you sick?”
“I’m not sick,” Aria explained. “I’ll call you later, okay? I can’t talk now.”
“Um? Okay?” Cole sounded flabbergasted, as though he wanted to demand why Aria was suddenly giving him such mixed signals. Finally, they seemed on the path to some kind of romance. She didn’t want to make it seem like she was pulling away.How could she assure him that all she wanted in the world was him? How could she explain that she wanted to be wrapped in his arms as the sailing party erupted around them?
“I love you, Cole,” Aria said spontaneously, surprising herself. And before he could answer back, she hung up, gasping quietly.
Behind her, Bethany echoed the word, “Love?”
Aria turned to blink down at her mother, who looked weak and imperfect, so unlike her normal persona.
“Why are you here, Mom?” Aria asked, silencing her phone.
Bethany deigned to sip the tea, which made her wrinkle her nose. “I got a call yesterday about you.”
“What do you mean?”
Bethany sighed and placed the mug of tea on the bedside table without a coaster, which would have been grounds for prison back in the house she’d raised Aria in.
“Professor Judah Heskew,” Bethany said finally. “He said you were on campus recently, asking him questions about me.”
Aria studied her mother for a long moment of silence, waiting for her to say something else. When she didn’t, Aria retrieved the newspaper clipping from the counter, which she handed over to her mother. For a long time, Bethany studied the image, her lips round.
“Where did you get this?” Bethany asked.
Aria shrugged. “Someone mailed it to me.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Why would I kid about that? The better question is, why wouldn’t you tell me that you went to Savannah College of Art and Design?” Aria demanded. “And why wouldn’t you tell me that you knew Professor Heskew? I swear, I must have mentioned him to you hundreds of times.”
“You haven’t said much to me over the past few years, let alone mentioned Judah’s name,” her mother said.
Aria’s eyes widened. Never in her life had she assumed Bethany Baldwin was capable of feeling hurt by something Aria had done.
“I remember the first time you mentioned wanting to go to the Savannah College of Art and Design,” Bethany said, her eyes still on the newspaper clipping. “I had just received mail meant for alumni, along with a magazine that included photographs of the various artwork and architecture alumni had made over the years. Gosh, I felt so ashamed looking at that magazine. I remembered having a unique talent and realized I’d wasted it.
“I meant to recycle the magazine. But somehow, you got a hold of it. I caught you flipping through it in the living room, trying to talk to Natalie about your opinions on architecture. Obviously, you didn’t know very much back then, but you sounded like you had good instincts. It took everything within me not to correct you or try to have a conversation about it.”
Aria stuttered. “Why didn’t you? I would have loved that.”
“You wouldn’t have,” Bethany corrected. “You were nineteen, and you thought I was a representation of all things stupid and evil. Besides, I suppose you don’t remember, but I told you that there were other architecture schools—better ones, which made you dig your heels in more. You wouldn’t consider applying anywhere else but Savannah.” Bethany laughed softly and wiped a tear from your cheek. “And then, I got really excited, you know? Because I felt like you could redo my life for me. That you could go back and undo all of my mistakes.”
Aria gaped at her mother, stirring with confusion. Bethany Baldwin thought she’d made mistakes?
“But then came the kicker. You told your father and I that you didn’t want help moving to Savannah, that you wanted to do a lot of it on your own. Your father was pretty proud of that, but it broke my heart. I’d begun to dream of returning to that campus, of reliving my past. But before I could find a way to explain my background in architecture, you were already on your way there. And before I knew it, you were thriving.”
Aria pressed her lips together, genuinely at a loss. Her confusion only mounted when Bethany began to sob.
“Mom!” Aria hurried to the bed and sat next to her mother, whom she’d hardly hugged in years. The distance between their souls seemed almost insurmountable. Yet here she sat in Aria’s small apartment.
