Chapter 17 #3
She didn’t ask about her father. She’d seen him upon arrival, wandering the yard and looking at the shrubbery.
He’d always been a nature lover, so instead of getting caught up in his thoughts on the summer bloom on the sweet pepperbush outside, she’d given him a quick kiss and headed inside to find her mom.
“She’s picking up Tess and Callie after their soccer game to bring them to hang out for the afternoon.” Tess and Callie were Nancy’s grandchildren, the daughters of Sydney’s cousin, Steve, who was about seven years older than her.
“That’ll be nice, spending time with your grandkids once removed.”
“Is that what we’re calling them?” her mom asked. She put down her newspaper and picked up a bundle of something that had been seated on the chair next to her, out of view. A crochet hook and yarn. Guess she’d been serious about the baby blankets.
“Mom,” Sydney groaned. “I thought we’d left things in a really good place in Florida. Why were you so”—she scrunched up her nose reflexively—“hostile at the inn yesterday?”
She’d thought about bringing it up multiple times yesterday, when they’d been trekking across the greater Stoneport area to visit all of her aunts, but there had never been a good time.
Now, she was determined to get to the bottom of things. Especially after what had happened between her and Reese last night.
Fingers that had already dexterously started working across the blanket, looping stitches, stilled. Her mom peered up at her, brows drawn together. “I didn’t realize that I was hostile.”
“I’d already told you that I was dating Reese. You said you were happy for me. What changed?” Sydney pushed.
Looking at Reese and seeing anything other than an amazing woman was something Sydney couldn’t understand. But this was her mother, and she wanted to make sense of her reaction.
“In my defense, Cade told Beth who told me that your cousin saw you at the Devereux house for a wedding-related party. For Grant. And I was happy that you seemed so happy. But then you left, and I kept thinking about it.”
Sydney scooted her chair a little closer. “And what did you start thinking? ”
“That I was concerned. You’re my daughter, Sydney,” her mom said, “and I know that you’re an adult. I support you making your own decisions.”
“But you can see how it doesn’t feel that way when you treat the people I’ve made decisions about the way you did? That dig about Grant coming to dinner, too? Come on, Mom. Really?”
She saw a hint of embarrassment flash through her mom’s eyes. “It wasn’t my best moment, I’ll give you that. We arrived at the inn, and I asked Hallie if you were around when I couldn’t get ahold of you. I’d assumed you were sleeping given how late you’d gotten back.”
Sydney could already see how it played out. Hallie had never been good at lying to her mom. Neither of them were. “And Hallie folded like a piece of paper?”
Her mom smiled ruefully. “Something like that.”
“So I was out with Reese. That shouldn’t be surprising to you?” Sydney was still trying to pick at the fraying edges of her mom’s story, trying to understand where her true issue was stemming from.
“After you’d sat at the airport for about eight hours in the hopes of making it back here, only for me to find out that it was so you could go to another event at the Devereux house. For something related to Grant’s wedding, I assume?” her mom asked, though it was clear she already knew the answer.
“I like her. Her . And while it’s not the most amazing thing that she’s the sister of my ex-boyfriend, it’s not going to stop me. And honestly…” She took a quick, steadying breath. “This summer has really helped me make peace with the Grant situation.”
“Is this some kind of exposure therapy?” her mom asked, half joking but with an underlying tone of seriousness.
Sydney considered the question. “Sort of? I mean, I caught him, and I walked out of our apartment. I stopped answering his calls. I sent him any of his stuff back in the mail. I still don’t think he deserved a conversation after what he’d done, but I was left with all of these questions .
I didn’t have answers, and I didn’t have anywhere to put all my frustration. ”
Sydney stretched out her arms, thinking about how it had been too many days since she’d held a tennis racket in her hands. “And for a while, it was fine. I had tennis to throw myself into. As many hours and workouts and matches as I could handle. But then I got injured…”
Her mom’s hand encircled her own, and she felt like a child again, wanting so desperately to have her mom’s comfort. Something she’d pushed away for the last year for fear that she’d crumble.
“I couldn’t make it work anymore, but still, I kept trying. Working. Training. But it didn’t matter,” Sydney lamented. “And then my career just petered out. It was like I’d been running and running and running, only now, there was nowhere for me to go.”
“You never told me any of this.” Even though her mom had been there in the aftermath, Sydney hadn’t wanted to talk about it. All she’d managed, all she’d had to say at the time, was that Grant had cheated and things were over.
Her mom had wanted her to talk about it at first. Had tried all the different tactics, actually.
Giving Sydney space. Asking her very pointed questions.
Encouraging her to speak to a professional, if she wasn’t going to confide in her own mother.
But Sydney had wanted to keep moving forward, to throw herself into tennis and forget what had happened.
Now, she was starting to see it a little better from her mom’s perspective. Sydney had pushed things down. Bottled them up. Done everything to avoid the reality of her situation.
She could now see, with startling clarity, how that must have looked from the outside.
All so that a year later, when she popped up with Reese Devereux as her girlfriend, inserting herself into Grant’s life, she looked… “I’m not crazy, I promise. I didn’t know that Grant was going to be around so much when I came back into town.”
“Reese didn’t tell you her brother was getting married? ”
“Ehh…” Sydney felt the heat flame her cheeks, caught in her mother’s curious stare. “Our relationship is a little newer than we’d let people believe. We connected when I came back this summer, given that she was at the inn so much.”
“Got it,” her mom said, absorbing the information with a neutral look.
“I promise you, it doesn’t change how I feel about her.
I’ve felt more like myself this past month than I have in years.
I understand now that I shut you out and that this all seems like it’s out of left field, but I think you’d really like her.
She’s smart and driven and incredibly sweet to me.
I’d like to think that she’s exactly the type of person that you’d want your daughter to end up with. ”
And even if that was a loaded statement that exploded in Sydney’s brain and made her feel a little lightheaded, she tamped down the idea.
Whether this was going somewhere long-term, Reese was good for her right now, and she wanted to see where things would go.
That was what she was focusing on. Not her overzealous desire to always have a multistep plan that stretched years into the future.
She’d much rather take a chance on happiness than settle, like she’d done before, on something she’d thought was a sure thing.
“You do really seem happy, Sydney. I was just trying to reconcile the situation, when confronted with Reese, as I tried to fill in the gaps from the last year. I wish I’d handled it differently.”
Sydney smiled, warmth threading through her veins. “I really am happy. And I’d love for you to get to know Reese. I think you’ll see where some of my happiness is coming from.”
“I’d like that,” her mom said, leaning forward and giving her a kiss on the forehead.
Shifting her focus, Sydney removed her hand and leaned back in her chair, her arm draped across the table. “Now what about you? What’s going on with Florida?”
“What do you?— ”
“Mom, I was honest with you. I’d like the same thing in return.”
Her mom gave her a surmising stare before something settled across her face. “Wow, your time in Stoneport really has done wonders.”
“As I told you,” Sydney said with a decisive nod, coupled with a smile. “Now, what’s going on?”
“I don’t think I’m a Florida person,” her mom admitted. “It made sense when you were there.”
“But I’m not right now.”
“But you’re not,” her mom agreed, “and I think after two years, I’d feel more settled.”
“You haven’t gotten invested in the local flora of Florida?” Sydney joked.
That earned a smile from her mom. “This last year, with you so withdrawn…”
Guilt prickled across Sydney’s skin, itchy and uncomfortable.
Her mom shook her head when she saw the anguish on Sydney’s face.
“I don’t say that to make you feel badly.
All I mean is that, with you so focused on tennis this last year and less willing to be open with me, I really did try to create a network.
To integrate into the neighborhood and make it feel more like a home for myself. ”
“I’m sorry, Mom. I couldn’t see that you were struggling through my own pain.” Sydney had been single-minded since she’d broken up with Grant. On moving forward. On pushing past. On not letting Grant take one more thing from her.
And what had it gotten her? A whole lot of relationships she was just now beginning to mend, including the one with herself.
“It’s okay, baby. And if we’re being honest, I wanted to come to Stoneport to check on you, but I also wanted to be here. With my sisters. My family. This is my home, and it always will be, no matter where I live.”
“I understand that feeling completely,” Sydney said. As she bit back the emotion in her voice, tears started to pool behind her eyes.
Her mom wiped at her own eyes. “Well, I really didn’t expect us to be having this conversation, but I’m really glad that we are.”
“Me too, Mom. And if you and Dad want to move back to Stoneport, I want that for you. Truly.”
“You bought that beautiful house because we loved it. You took so much thought and care to make sure that we felt at home there,” her mom argued.
“It’s a house. We’ll sell it, and you can buy one here. I want you to be surrounded by the people that make you happy.”
“Well, first and foremost, that’s you.”
Sydney had been thinking about it a lot, though she was trying not to rush into any decisions. Her parents in Stoneport was just another check in a column that was quickly overflowing with positives.
“And I’ll be around, I promise.” She gave her mom a slightly self-satisfied smile. “And regardless of where I live, if I’m dating Reese, I’ll be around a lot.”
“So you’re saying I should be nicer to your girlfriend, then?”
Her grin spread wider across her face. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“Well then,” her mom said, matching Sydney’s smile, “I guess we should get that dinner scheduled soon. Is humble pie on the menu?”
Sydney stood up and walked around to the back of her mom’s chair before wrapping her long arms around her in a hug. “No promises, but I’ll at least make sure they have crow.”