Chapter 9
Nine
“ T his is really cute, and it’s trending,” Grace said as she pointed to an adorable candleholder she found on TakTik, the popular video app that sold a little bit of everything.
“Oh my goodness, that’s really cute. And it doesn’t look like it would be hard to make at all,” her mother said, taking Grace’s phone from her and watching the video.
“No. I think we can easily make some modifications to it so our flowers would be slightly fuller and the holder would be more sturdy.”
“That would be good. There is a dearth of flowers. And this wouldn’t be too expensive to ship either. I do try to take that into consideration, so I’m not ending up charging an exorbitant amount to ship my things.”
“All right. I’ll try to keep that in mind.” Those were the kinds of things that Grace didn’t really know about, since she hadn’t been helping for a while, but that her mother really had a handle on.
Not only was her mother very positive and always trying to do the right thing, but she was a great businesswoman as well.
“It seems you and Don really seem like you like each other,” Grace said, trying to sound casual as her mom handed the phone back. Grace made sure to save that video to her favorites .
She got her notes out and wrote down candleholder under her list of possibilities.
“We just really hit it off. I know that you don’t seem to approve, but?—”
“It’s not that I don’t approve. It’s just weird. And not in a bad way, just in a way that I need to get used to.”
“Weird isn’t a good word,” her mom said, looking out over her reading glasses at Grace, the way she always had when Grace was little and in big trouble.
“By weird I mean that I’m not used to my mom having a boyfriend. That in itself is a weird sentence to say, and then to see the googly eyes and the secret smiles and the nicknames and…”
Her mom looked concerned and maybe a little hurt.
Grace blew out a breath. “Mom, I am so happy for you, I am over-the-moon ecstatic. I’ve wanted you to find someone who deserves you and who you deserve, for years, a decade even.
But I guess… I guess I never thought about how that would make me feel.
Or how that would look, or how I would have to just get used to things, you know? ”
“Your life has changed so much. I can understand how this would be a really hard change to accept.”
Was that really the problem? Had she just had too many changes in her life in too short of a time?
“I guess maybe you’re right in a way. I came back here because it’s a safe place to land, and all of a sudden, it’s not what I thought it was anymore.”
“No, and that’s probably my fault. I suppose that Donnie and I could have waited a little longer before we sprung it on you, but… I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. I am really happy for you.”
“Donnie said Trevor was having the same problem. I actually volunteered you to go talk to him, because I thought you were handling it really well. Maybe I should call him and tell him that you can’t do it after all.”
She reached for her phone, but Grace stopped her. Was Trevor really having issues? That made her want to help him any way she could. He was such a great guy .
“No. I can talk to him, Mom. If he’s really struggling?”
“That’s what Donnie says. And Donnie is really worried about him. Did you know that Trevor was actually moving back and moving in with his dad?”
“I guess I did, but in the excitement of…other things…I forgot. Did he get divorced?” She didn’t even ask if he had been married.
She just assumed that he had, but… That was kind of arrogant on her part.
After all, the last she heard, he was in love with her and always would be.
That was what he said just before she left.
“No. He never married. He had a good job too. He just didn’t like seeing his dad living by himself as he grew older, so he surprised his dad by quitting his job and saying that he was going to start his woodworking business. You know he was always giving you little gifts that he had made.”
“I remember that. And then I would put some little decoration on them, to make them more cutesy and feminine, and…” Her eyes drifted to the wall, where her mom still had one of those things hanging.
It was a board that he cut a heart into, and she added a bow at the bottom, and a tie at the top, and it just looked rustic and cute and like something that someone online might pay twenty dollars for, and it had cost them nothing, since he had taken the boards from the shed when it was torn down.
“I always thought the two of you made a really good pair. You know how some people just seem to fit together? And complement each other. You aren’t opposites exactly, but you just…fit.”
Maybe that was what was wrong with her mom and Donnie.
She didn’t see how they fit. Or maybe, she was so used to seeing her mom fit with her dad and then used to seeing her mom fit in their family, it was unsettling to see her mom fitting with someone else, being with someone else’s dad and someone else’s family.
Maybe her mom was right. She’d been through a lot of changes, and her mom was just throwing one more at her, which was one too many.
“I really liked him. More than anyone else. And honestly, Lonnie didn’t hold a candle to him, although I pretended for a really long time that he did. ”
“Then why did you leave? I heard he was heartbroken for a long time. I don’t know if he ever did get over it.”
“I don’t know whether he got over it or not, but I do know that Claire always thought I stole him from her. She wouldn’t talk to me until I broke up with him, and then I couldn’t stay. For that, and other reasons.”
Her mom knew about the tragedy that had occurred. She knew how it had shaken all of them and how it made it hard to stay in Raspberry Ridge.
“Sometimes we just have to let the past be in the past. You know?”
Grace wanted to shut that off. After all, her mom hadn’t watched one of her friends die.
To have her be there one second and completely gone the next, but then…
She lost her husband, which had probably been worse.
They’d made a family and a home together, had children and a life, plans and love between them.
Then one day, it was gone. Just like that.