Chapter 23 #2
“She’s prone to make him fall into a coma for several years. That’s a recipe for one kid and a divorce. Guaranteed she’d steal my recipes and claim them as her own when she brings baked goods to the church.” She made it sound like a cardinal sin.
“Do you not want him dating her?”
“No, I good and well don’t want him dating a recipe stealer.
” She shoved shut a drawer with enough strength to rattle the metal utensils inside.
“I’d appreciate it if you could do all you can to make him see the light and break it off.
That boy needs someone that will get in his face and make him live. ”
My chest flooded with warmth to be pulled into Mrs. Hurst’s inner circle.
I felt pride to be chosen as someone she wanted to help her.
I didn’t want Josh dating Milly either, but my reasons stemmed from something dark and possessive that I didn’t want to examine.
“I’m not going to disagree Milly may be a questionable choice, but the last person Josh would ever listen to is me.
If I say anything he’s more likely to dig in and date her harder. ”
“Of course,” she soothed. “I didn’t mean to impose. Don’t listen to me. I’m just a mom trying to figure out how to save my son from his mistakes.”
I tried to ignore the uneasy feeling in my stomach. “Mistakes? You see Milly as a mistake?”
She turned to the sink, stacking plates with too much care, too much noise.
“After Josh broke it off with you in high school, he was a mess. He let everything else fall apart—baseball, his scholarship… everything. He almost lost his life. Since then, he’s been duct-taping himself together, piece by piece.
And lately…” She swallowed. “Lately I feel him slipping again. The way he did after we lost Brian. The only reason he made it through that was because of you.”
“That’s a bit of a stretch. Josh is strong on his own.”
She leaned forward, planting both palms on the counter as if she needed something solid to hold her up.
“After Brian drowned, Josh was eaten alive by guilt. We watched him die from the inside out.” Her voice thinned, stretched tight over old pain.
“Every day I was terrified that if I didn’t keep him moving—chores, errands, anything to keep his hands busy and his mind occupied—we’d lose him for good. ”
My chest tightened.
“Then you came along.” Her gaze found mine, fierce and grateful all at once.
“You grabbed hold of him and gave him something steady to anchor to. Lordy, that day you took him to urgent care while we were out of town and called us…” She tipped her face toward the ceiling, blinking fast, dabbing at the corner of her eyes.
“When we finally got him home, my Mason cried. My husband does not cry.” She let out a shaky breath.
“He didn’t cry from guilt or from the scare of Josh’s injury.
He cried because when we walked through that door, life was back in our son’s eyes. You put it there.”
Her words wrapped around me, heavy and impossible to shrug off.
She continued, “For six years, Josh poured himself into you. Not in some broken, desperate way. In a living, breathing, all-in kind of way. You reached him when nothing else could. He may never step foot at a festival again—we all understand that—but he came through that grief because he had you. He chose to come back to us for you.”
“Then he gave up on us. Like… poof.” I snapped my fingers.
Her voice softened, but it didn’t lose its strength. “My boy lived and breathed for you. He never told me why he did what he did, and I stopped asking a long time ago. But I know my son. Whatever foolish reason he had for doing something that reckless, it had everything to do with you.”
I swallowed. “He threw away years of friendship and trust in seconds. It took me a long time to learn how to stand without him.”
“Is that why you stayed away?” she asked gently, though her gaze was unflinching. “Because he makes you feel again?”
The question landed where it hurt.
“Erika, the first time I’ve seen Josh truly awake in years—like the spirited boy I remember—was at that funeral reception.”
She wasn’t wrong. Everything I felt for Josh terrified me. Maybe that was the real reason I ran from this town so long ago.
“How did he almost die in college?” I didn’t like this suffocating feeling, like something was compressing my lungs, but the thought of Josh dying wasn’t something I could imagine. I thought it’d been a little fender bender.
“After he lost baseball of his own stupid doing—he’d say it was the arm surgery, but it was his social choices that made the coach cut him.
I phoned down there ready to light his coach up, but he was very reasonable in demonstrating how many times Josh got into trouble at school with the parties.
After he got cut from the team, he tangled with a tree after an hour or so at the bar.
Thank the Lord no one else got hurt. I taught that boy better.
You don’t get in a car drunk. Period. He could’ve called one of a dozen people to pick him up, but no.
He had a death wish. He almost lost his life and seemed to lose his way after that. ”
“I not sure what you’re asking me to do. I’m just trying to figure out how to exist with him in the same workspace. I can’t fix his messed up head or yank him out of depression.”
She reached across the counter and patted my hand. “Just keep doing whatever you’re doing. Make him live again.”
“That’s got to come from him.” I got up and put on my coat.
“Thank you for the pie.” I nudged Vinny awake and herded him toward the door like a drunk toddler.
On my way out, I lowered my voice to Mrs. Hurst. “About Josh. If you’re hinting that he’s still interested in me, I highly doubt it.
We had our chance. It blew up. We can’t go back. ”
She arched a brow. “Then why did you move back?”
Before I could formulate an answer, she shut the door, probably on purpose for dramatic effect.