Chapter 35
Alvina does not speak to me for two weeks.
I try not to keep track. I really do try. Somehow my brain counts the time anyway, because she’s my mother, and brains are hardwired to notice things like mothers.
Despite Dom’s persistent questions, Daryl won’t give too many details about the relationship he had with Alvina, or why they broke up. I do have some suspicions, one of which Daryl confirms when he invites Dom and I over to his house for dinner at the beginning of November.
“I did wonder if there was something going on between you,” he admits, looking back and forth between us.
We’re gathered around the dining room table, and I’m doing my best not to let my eyes wander to the living room, where a spying Dominic and I once saw Daryl and Alvina kissing.
“After the potluck dinner,” Daryl goes on. “And then—at the wedding reception.”
“Well,” Dom says, glancing over at me. He startles when he sees me shoving my face full of food—shepherd’s pie, which Daryl made after asking Dominic what I like to eat.
But then Dom shakes his head and smiles. “You were right. There was definitely something going on.”
Daryl’s answering nod is slow, his expression thoughtful once more; it’s how he looks at us a lot, I’m noticing, and I get the impression that he has a good head on his shoulders.
Although I’m not convinced, based on what he says next.
“Believe it or not, Reese, your mother is quite the woman.”
“She’s…something,” I manage around a mouth full of food, and Daryl’s lips quirk in a way that reminds me of Dom.
“She is.” It could not be plainer that he understands all the things I’m not saying, but when he goes on, his voice is gentle.
“She’s singular in many ways—most of them that you probably don’t see.
” Then he sighs and shakes his head. “But she’s not in a place where she can have a relationship, I don’t think. ”
I swallow, take a drink of water, and then look at Dom. “Actually…” I begin. I lift my brows in silent question when Dominic’s eyes meet mine—Can I tell him?—and he shrugs—Go ahead.
So I nod and confess the truth. “You’re right—about Alvina, I mean. But Dom and I had also been…uh”—I shoot another look at Dom—“keeping an eye on the two of you.”
Daryl’s brows jump, and he sets his spoon down on his plate with a little clink. “How so?”
I kick Dom under the table. “Fall on the grenade,” I say.
“You’re the one who brought it up,” he replies. “Why should I?”
“Because we should tell him,” I say. “He should know, shouldn’t he? And he can’t get mad at you forever. But I’m just the girlfriend—”
“Kids,” Daryl cuts in, his brows still lifted, his expression expectant.
Dominic shoots me one last look and then sighs. “We were trying to break you up,” he says to his dad. No frills, no beating around the bush. “Not very successfully, but we did try.”
“We put bleach in your shampoo,” I say, my cheeks heating.
With a succinct nod, Dom continues, “And we were the ones blasting music up at the Ridge.”
A ruddy flush of color rises in Daryl’s neck—so that’s where Dom gets it!—but he arches his brow and looks sternly back and forth between us. “Anything else?” he says.
He is not impressed.
“Just some general spying and sneaking,” I mutter, because I need to own my part. I avoid Daryl’s eye and sink down in my chair a little. “I’m…sorry.”
When Dom doesn’t say anything, I nudge him.
“I’m not sorry,” he tells me before looking at Daryl. “I know that makes me sound like a jerk. But you two were not good together. You would’ve been very unhappy.”
“And…?” Daryl says.
“And I wasn’t going to sit back and become Reese’s brother,” he says, rolling his eyes. “Yeah. That was obviously my main problem.”
It’s nice to hear, even if I already knew how he felt. “Don’t sass your father,” I say as my lips twitch into a smile. “Show the man some respect.”
“Yes. Show me some respect,” Daryl echoes, but I could swear he’s smiling, too.
I don’t know if he and Dom have talked further about what happened in college. I sort of hope they haven’t, and that they won’t—because it’s the past now, and neither of us will make those mistakes again. Either way, Daryl doesn’t bring it up for the rest of the evening, and I’m grateful.
Discussing the past with my family, on the other hand, goes a bit differently than I know it would with Dom’s.
When Nathan learns what Dominic and I were doing to break our parents up—and when he learns what happened between us years ago—he laughs and laughs and laughs.
“It isn’t funny!” I tell him when I reach the part about Dominic changing my grade.
Dom winces and nods. “It was very un-funny, actually.”
It’s the day after dinner at Daryl’s, and we’re sitting in Nathan’s living room—Alvina blessedly absent, off who knows where doing who knows what—with Nate seated in the rocking chair while Dom and I are squashed together on the couch.
“I know,” Nate says, waving his hand. “I know it wasn’t funny then.
But you have to admit…now it’s a little funny.
Wrong,” he adds sternly, “but…funny in retrospect.” He pauses, his expression falling.
“Or maybe I’m just looking for things to laugh about.
October was quite the month for Autumn Ridge. ”
He’s not wrong. October was crazy. The pumpkin patch is officially closed for the year, too, and I’m left figuring out what to do next with my life. I was planning on moving back to Burlington, but I have no real reason to.
“No more word from Serena?” I say to Nathan, who shakes his head.
“Nope.” He doesn’t actually sound too heartbroken that his long-distance girlfriend called things off between them, shortly after he last visited her. “A bit of a relief, to be honest.”
I snuggle closer to Dominic, who wraps his arm around my shoulders.
“Long-distance relationships are probably a lot of work,” he says to Nate as his thumb traces vague circles over my upper arm.
Nathan nods. Then he gestures at the two of us. “What are you guys going to do?”
It’s a good question.
“Not sure yet,” I say. “Figure it out as we go, I guess.” I pause and then go on, “I’d like to go back to school at some point—” But I break off as the front door lurches open, and in steps Alvina.
She looks weary but elegant as always, not a hair out of place.
“Oh,” she says when she looks up. Her eyes dart around in faint surprise, her lips pursing when her gaze finds me and Dom. “I didn’t realize we had guests.”
“Reese is not a guest,” Nathan says. “She’s family.”
Alvina sniffs but doesn’t say anything, her head held high as she steps out of her heels. She moves silently through the living room toward the stairs, stopping only when she passes me on the couch.
Her expression is haughty when she speaks, but her eyes are unsure. “I would appreciate a list of foods you do and do not like, at your earliest convenience,” she says. Her bony hands fidget and wring as she adds, “In pen, please. I don’t like pencil smudges.”
Oh, Alvina, I think sadly, but I nod. “Fine. I’ll make you a list.”
But I don’t know when, if ever, I’ll eat with her again. I truly have no idea.
Nathan is right—I should probably go to therapy. Daryl works in a doctor’s office; I’ll ask him if he has any recommendations. And in the meantime, I’ll stay sane in all the ways I know how.
“It’s supposed to be a clear night,” Dom says once we’ve left. His arm is still around me, draped lazily over my shoulder, as he looks up at the blue sky. “Want to check out the stars later?”
I nod eagerly, threading my fingers through his. The bed of his Ford is perfect for lounging and stargazing—and stealing kisses. “Where?” I say.
He tuts at my question. “You have to ask?”
“The Ridge?”
“Of course.”
Our feet crunch over brown leaves as we head back to the car, and although it’s getting chillier each day, our steps are slow and ambling. “I’ll buy a pumpkin roll to take along if you bring an extra blanket,” I say, shivering slightly.
“Done,” he says. “We leave at ten.” We reach the car, and he lets go of me to open the passenger door.
I give him a quick kiss before sliding in. “It’s a date.”