Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Crushed, Gabriella watched Clay walk away, his steps so fast and purposeful no one dared try to talk to him as he ducked under an archway of yellow and purple balloons.
Her chest ached to think that was all he had to offer her—his love with strings attached.
Love that would abandon her at the first sign of trouble.
A love she couldn’t trust.
Even so, she loved him enough that she wanted to run to him and try to squeeze more emotions out of him. To squeeze those three little words he’d given her—far more than any other man had ever given her—and make their love into something that would fulfill them both.
But he hadn’t wanted to discuss alternative visions of the future. He’d frozen up and walked away. Leaving her alone.
The wailing country music tune amplified throughout the park reminded her of all the hurt that came from one-sided relationships.
She couldn’t in good conscience tell the members of her support group to hold out for real love—to know their own worth—while she accepted less than that for herself.
Still, the hurt in her heart felt like a million glass shards.
All the cheery balloons and bubbles blowing on the breeze didn’t take that hurt away.
“Gabby? Are you okay?” Mia’s voice pulled her attention back to the here and now.
The reunion breakfast. Mia’s hurt that was as big as her own. Gabriella’s gaze came into focus again, in time to see Clay’s foster mother speaking animatedly to him beside his motorcycle.
Lorelei Hasting’s dark curls moved in a halo around her head as she used her hands to make a point while Clay stared into the distance, his black helmet under one arm. But Gabriella couldn’t concern herself with whatever conversation they were having. Mia needed her.
“I am not okay at this moment in time.” She answered Mia’s question honestly. She wasn’t going to hide the hard truths of the world from the teen ever again. “But I will recover.” She opened her arms to the teen sitting beside her. Mia looked as lost as she felt. “We both will.”
The girl rested her head on Gabriella’s shoulder, accepting the hug and reminding Gabriella that her time in Heartache had made an impact on Mia’s life in a good way.
This trip had been about more than putting the past to rest for Gabby.
She’d met one of the people in her support group—someone who’d been at a real crossroads in her life and needed a friend.
Thinking about that eased some of the pain in her chest a little. For the moment, anyhow. Clayton had been wrong about Heartache being full of bad memories. There were some beautiful ones here.
“He can’t make me leave, can he?” Mia lifted her dark head.
“I just made friends. And Davis is the only boy who has ever cared about me. We haven’t even kissed since that awful first time in his truck and—” She dragged her sleeve over her cheeks to dry them.
“I know that shouldn’t matter and I should just be grateful to have someone who wants me. But I thought Clay was my friend.”
Gabriella listened while, on the far side of the park, she watched Lorelei kiss Clayton’s cheek. Watched Clayton roar away on the bike, spitting up a few bits of gravel on the way.
He was really leaving.
“Clay is your friend.” Gabriella knew that much.
Clayton would do whatever he could to take care of his sister.
Something had changed inside him since being in Heartache.
He’d let go of that fierce insistence that a foster home was best for Mia.
“But he’s going to be your legal guardian, too, and that comes with a lot of responsibility. ”
She tried to see this day through his eyes.
To feel the way he might feel right now.
But for the life of her, she couldn’t understand why he would think it was a good idea to walk away when she didn’t immediately jump to agree to his plan for the future.
Maybe she should have handled it differently.
Pleaded her side then and there. But she’d been surprised and then overwhelmed by a whole host of emotions.
Before she could think through the best response, he was gone.
Didn’t Clayton, of all people, understand how that would rock her?
She’d only just come to terms with how deeply her mother’s abandonment had affected her.
She’d even shared that with him. Her chest burned with the ache of losing him so fast. Without a chance to fight for a different future together.
“Can’t you talk to him?” Mia pleaded, taking her hand and squeezing it.
Gabriella studied her chipped nail polish from the Salon Night the week before. It wasn’t nearly as damaged as the rest of her.
“I don’t know if I’ll have a chance.” She had to be forthright. “He could be packing up his things and leaving for Memphis right now. But if not, if I see him before he leaves, I’ll tell him how important it is for you to be here.”
“I can’t ask for more than that.” Mia thanked her and retrieved a crumpled tissue from her purse to clean up some of the smeared eyeliner on her cheek.
Gabriella wondered who would intercede with Clay on her behalf? Whatever his foster mother had said to him hadn’t made a dent, judging by how fast he’d left the party.
But she couldn’t think about that right now or she would fall apart, and she had to be strong for Mia.
“Mia?” She hoped it was a good time to raise another issue with the teen. “I’m going to speak to Clay for you. But I need you to talk to the sheriff for me. Tell him everything you know about Connor.”
She hadn’t asked the girl to make a statement last night—of course—while she’d been frightened for her father’s life.
But whatever secrets she had in her past about the boy, they needed to come out now.
Gabriella understood too well how hanging on to the past only made the nightmares grow larger than life.
Mia put down the tissue and the compact mirror she’d found in her bag. “I will. I promise.”
“I’ll go with you if you want. And Clay needs to be there as your guardian since you’re underage.” She refrained from asking what had happened between them, thinking Mia would share it if—when—she felt comfortable enough.
“I kept a record of his phone calls and when we changed my cell number.” Mia’s forethought to keep that kind of file caught Gabriella by surprise.
But then it wasn’t the first time she’d seen the double image of the scared girl and the strong woman she would one day become—the woman she was already becoming.
“I’m glad you thought to do that.” Gabriella felt a swell of pleasure and pride.
“You know where I got the idea?” A hint of a smile transformed her face in spite of her red-rimmed eyes. “From your cyber bullying website. It’s one of the tips for making sure a stalker pays for his crime.”
A new tune floated on the breeze—a happier steel guitar to replace the lonesome fiddle of a few moments ago. Gabriella latched on to the lighter moment with both hands. Strange how even happiness could hurt a little without Clay to share it.
“You did the right thing.”
Mia looked thoughtful for a minute. “I hope so. I mean—I know keeping the record was good. But I threatened him with a knife more than once before I picked a fight with a perfectly nice girl to get kicked out of that house. Connor never followed through on his threats, but I knew if I stayed any longer, he would.”
Her happy moment faded as the revelation rocked her. Mia had never revealed
dark things had gotten in that first foster home.
She’d made vague references to being bullied in school because of her breasts.
Her body had been the focal point of cruel comments for years, and Gabriella had tried to help her with that.
But the girl needed more counseling than what she’d gotten over the years.
“Did your social worker know about that?” Gabby pressed, doing the math to figure out how far in the past that incident would have been. Almost three years.
No wonder Mia had kneed poor Davis when he kissed her.
“Yes. But when she investigated, another kid lied for him. So when she didn’t move me out of the house, I picked the fight with the girl, and then my foster mom kicked me out.
The next home was good, and then Pete got me out of the system anyway.
” Mia reached for Gabby’s arm and squeezed it, as if to reassure her.
“And now Connor is going to jail anyhow. It all turned out okay.”
Although she was far from reassured, Gabriella was glad to finally know the truth.
“Thank you for trusting me with all that’s happened to you,” she said, wrapping the girl in a hug again.
There was going to be more smeared eyeliner on both their faces, that much was certain. But it felt like a step in a positive direction.
“I’m so close to having my life be normal,” Mia whispered in her ear while they squeezed each other.
“So close. I just want to be here for my dad and to work at the store with Erin, and have friends and a boy who likes the real me.” She paused a minute in her list of wishes.
“That’s too much to ask for, isn’t it? I can’t have that many good things, and you and Clay, too. ”
Gabriella had learned a long time ago not to make promises she couldn’t keep. It was an important rule in talking to callers who needed help on the hotline, and yet she had a different relationship with Mia. She could promise some things.
“Mia, you deserve all that and more because you are a sweet, good person.” She squeezed her once more before she let her go. “We’ll have to wait and see. Just remember that even if things don’t work out just like you want them to, sometimes they work out for the best anyway.”
Down on the lawn near the coffee tent, Sam was lifting a glass of champagne to toast his parents. The music ended while people from all over the park crowded closer.