Chapter 41
Chapter Forty-One
The next morning, Brodie was late coming over.
Maeve called him but it went straight to voicemail. Zoey sat eating Cheerios, checking her watch saying, “He’ll be here in a minute.”
Maeve stood for a moment in the hallway, phone clutched to her chest, remembering his awkwardness the evening before, knowing this was it. Knowing he wasn’t coming.
“Where do you think he is?” Zoey asked, getting up to go look out the window to see if there was any sign of his car.
Maeve couldn’t bear it. He’d proved her right. But she didn’t feel victorious, she felt awful. “He’s probably just got held up.”
Online, there was a photo of Maeve covering her face with her hand as she walked to her car in the hospital parking lot.
And one of Brodie with Zoey in the diner, Brodie was grinning and waving welcomingly at the camera, it was just the back of Zoey’s head.
There were a few more details in the follow-up article, but nothing shocking.
Brodie’s broad smile seemed to undercut the whole story, made it so that having a daughter was no big deal.
It made Maeve wish she’d stood up straight and let the camera have her whole face.
She called Carole to come over and look after Zoey.
Throughout the day, Maeve kept checking her phone at work but there was nothing from Brodie. The messages she sent him remained unread. The sick feeling that he wasn’t coming back remained in her belly.
She took Zoey to the diner when she got home, as a treat, because she knew she was disappointed about Brodie.
Ren was serving. “Hey, guys, what can I get you?”
Maeve pointed to Zoey and said, “One Cookies and Cream Dream and—” She thought for a minute about getting a milkshake just for the fun of it, but then said, “A coffee.”
Zoey said, “Try a Mudslide, Mom, Brodie has it.”
The mention of Brodie having milkshakes made her remember the conversation where he asked her favorite flavor and how she’d wondered if he’d secretly been guessing. She thought about him telling her to lighten up. “Okay, a Mudslide, it is.”
“Great choice,” Ren said, ruffling Zoey’s hair fondly before heading back to the counter.
Bella came in then to get two coffees to take away. She caught sight of them after she’d ordered and came over to their booth. “Hey, Maeve. Hey, Zoey. How are you? Brodie here?”
“We don’t know where he is,” Zoey said matter-of-factly.
Bella’s forehead creased. “Oh. Really?” She threw a covert glance Maeve’s way.
Zoey nodded.
“I think he had to go away for a couple of days,” Maeve replied vaguely.
“You’re making that up,” Zoey said back. “I can tell.”
“I’m not making it up,” Maeve lied.
Zoey narrowed her eyes. Then she turned to Bella and said, “I think it’s because we made Slime and it went everywhere and ruined the table.”
“What? I don’t believe that!” Bella shook her head. “There’s no way Brodie would go away because of Slime. I would think Slime was right up his alley. Nah. He’s always got to go to different places, don’t worry about it.”
Maeve looked at her daughter and said seriously, “Zoey, it’s definitely not because of the Slime.”
Suddenly Martha was there carrying bags of groceries. She came over, placing the bags on one of the tables next to them and said, “You okay, Zoey?” She laughed when she saw her. “You look very annoyed about something.”
“Brodie’s gone away.”
“Oh.”
Martha glanced from Zoey to Maeve to Bella and raised her brows. Maeve winced, knowing Zoey would read the subtext behind the expression.
Emmett came in then, looking around for Martha. All Maeve needed now was Logan and Noah and the whole Carter contingent would know Brodie had disappeared.
The bell over the door rang and Maeve looked up. There was Logan. He sauntered over in his grass-stained polo kit. “I was driving past, saw you through the window,” he said to Bella. “Came in to say hi!”
Bella rolled her eyes. “I’ll be home in an hour!”
“I know.” He grinned and slid his arm around her to kiss her on the cheek.
Emmett, who had no truck for public displays of affection, looked at Martha and said, “Did you order?”
“Not yet, I saw Maeve and she said that Brodie—” Martha stopped herself, realizing too late who she was talking to.
“Brodie what?” Emmett frowned.
“He’s gone away,” Zoey filled him in.
“Cookies and Cream Dream and a Mudslide!” Ren came back carrying huge milkshakes that Maeve suddenly didn’t have the stomach for.
Logan narrowed his eyes in confusion. “Where’s Brodie gone? We’re meant to be playing golf tomorrow.”
Zoey shrugged, sipping her Cookies and Cream Dream through the curly straw.
Emmett had to sit down.
Ren said, “You all right, Emmett?”
He took his hat off and blew out a long breath. “I’m fine,” he muttered. Then shaking his head, added tight-lipped, “That darn boy!”
To which Maeve said sharply, “Emmett!” and made big warning eyes in Zoey’s direction.
That made Emmett pause, and for a moment, Maeve understood Brodie’s fear of the man. But then, as if realizing his actions, Emmett sat up straighter and said vaguely, “I’m sure he’ll—”
Logan cut in. “He’ll be back soon. I’ll give him a call.”
Zoey was overly focused on her milkshake.
Martha made apologetic eyes at Maeve and then said, “I’ll go order at the counter.” She tapped Emmett on the shoulder as she went and he heaved himself out of the chair, picking up the grocery bags as he followed her.
Logan seemed to be assessing the situation, watching his dad walk away.
Bella hovered. “Do you need any help or anything, Maeve? I’m off tomorrow, if Zoey wants to come and hang out with me and the horses?”
“Oh, yeah!” Zoey perked up.
Maeve smiled. “That would be awesome. Thanks, Bella.”
Logan turned back to the table. “So you’re coming to us tomorrow, Zoey?”
Zoey nodded, eyes smiling.
“We’ll have to think of some pretty special things to do, won’t we?” Logan said to Bella.
“Absolutely,” Bella agreed. “We’ll have a great day. But for now we’ll leave you to your milkshakes.”
Logan gazed at the Mudslide longingly and said, “I might have to get one of my own!”
When they were alone again, Zoey said, “Mom, is Brodie gonna come back?”
Maeve had taken a sugary sip of her triple-chocolate milkshake. She wiped her mouth and said, “He’ll be back.”
“Do you promise?”
Maeve looked across at her daughter who was staring at her, big brown eyes unblinking.
She saw Brodie so clearly in Zoey’s face.
In the trusting, openness of her expression, in the hint of the dimples when she was being serious that made her look like she was still trying not to laugh, in the way she tilted her head to one side with a question and her messy brown hair fell forward over her eye.
Maeve thought of being ashamed of the picture of the three of them, of her parents seeing it.
Of what they would think. Of what people would think.
Seeing it had taken her back to believing that her night with Brodie was a mistake, when actually, from that one time she’d let go of control, had come the most wonderful, precious thing in her life.
But she’d been so busy thinking of it as a failure, something to be atoned for, that she couldn’t see that. In the same way, Brodie was so fearful of his own father’s opinion of him, that he failed to see what he had here. All these people—this family—looking out for him.
She knew now that she had become so afraid of stepping out of her comfort zone into the unknown, that she was blinded to all the good things in her life.
Like her grandma said, you gotta to be able admit your mistakes.
Maeve couldn’t control if Brodie was going to stay or leave, but she could be open to the possibility that he might stay.
That if they did ever get together, it might not work, but on the other hand it might.
She had seen enough life and death at work to know that right now was all they could guarantee, and maybe what Brodie needed most of all was someone to believe in him.
Pride and fear had stopped her from giving him a chance.
She owed him a chance.
“I promise, Zoey.”