Chapter 6
Chapter Six
MELLIE
We exit The Reading Nook and Mom loops her arm through mine.
“So?” She steers us toward a bench on the sidewalk facing town square. “You two discuss anything important?”
“Mom. Nora told me you know, so you don’t need to fish.” I roll my eyes, but I’m smiling. “You can just ask me.”
“Well? What do you think of her offer?” Mom pulls up short at the bench and takes a seat, pulling me down next to her.
“I mean… I’m still processing, I think?”
“I understand that, honey.” Mom pats my arm before pulling back and settling into the bench. “What is it that’s holding you back, do you think?”
More like who.
Something on my face makes me think my mother can read my thoughts, because she asks, “Ronin? Still, all these years later?”
“Well, yeah? I don’t know.” I shrug. “I’ve been home for like, two seconds.
We haven’t exactly had a chance to catch up.
” I turn to glare at her. “Although, I should be mad at you. Why didn’t anyone think to mention he works at Double Shot now?
I walked right into that one last night completely blind. ”
Mom chuckles, and moves to dodge when I swat at her.
“Hey! I’m not getting into the middle of all that.
You two are acting like silly teenagers, Amelia.
Been there and done that with the pair of you already, you know.
” She sighs. “Whatever ridiculous fight happened was years ago. I say it’s time to move on. ”
“It wasn’t ridiculous,” I grumble. “People grow apart. It’s completely normal and very common.”
“So you’re saying nothing is going on between you two? You just grew apart? That’s why my only daughter picked up her life with no notice and moved a thousand miles away from me?” Mom gives me one of her looks that tells me she knows I’m full of shit. “What a relief, then.”
It’s my turn to sigh. “I don’t like talking about it.
Ronin… He wanted things from me that I couldn’t give him.
He wanted more, and I wasn’t ready for more, I didn’t want more.
And when I left…well, he didn’t like that very much.
” I meet Mom’s gleaming eyes. “And it’s not like I can blame him. Not anymore. It’s my fault.”
Mom rubs my arm in comfort as I gaze out across the lawn.
The space around a towering Christmas tree full of ornaments and tinsel is beginning to crowd with families as someone in a Santa suit sets up a photo booth.
Two people dressed up like elves scurry around to help organize the children that are already lining up.
“I was upset with him too, at first,” I say, continuing my stream of thoughts.
“It felt like he didn’t get his way so he just completely cut me out of his life.
” I focus on my feet, scuffing a sneaker on the sidewalk.
“I was mad for a long time. It wasn’t until recently that I accepted my own part in it.
How much I hurt him. How immature I was to just run away when things got hard.
” I laugh bitterly. “And to think, I thought I was protecting his feelings. I left without even saying goodbye.” Shame floods my body and I swallow hard at the lump in my throat.
“Oh, Amelia,” my mom sighs, rubbing circles on my arm.
“You and Ronin have always had something special. I could see it from the very first day we met him. You kids were inseparable, sure, but it was more than that. It’s like you were two halves of a whole, even back then.
And it only grew more obvious as you got older. ”
As her gaze settles on the kids playing as they wait their turn for Santa, a musing smile lifts on her mouth.
“You know, there was a point in time where Georgia and I thought you two might get together, and we were over the moon about it. We thought you were perfect for one another. But then you had that falling out when Ronin started college, and it was obvious that wasn’t going to happen.
I can’t help but feel a tad sad that it didn’t work out that way.
” Mom eyes me as she says that last bit.
“But at least that falling out was only a few months, not years.”
My pulse stutters as I remember those awkward months my mother is referring to.
It was obvious to everyone around us that something had happened, but Bree was the only person I had confided in.
The only person I’d told about the night that Ronin and I had let the wall of friendship fall and slept together.
We were two awkward eighteen-year-olds who didn’t know what we were doing but hoping that it wasn’t going to fuck over years of friendship.
That maybe it was the start of something new, something different between us, when all it wound up being was a colossal mistake.
Thank God Mom seems to realize I do not feel like visiting that particular memory lane right now, and she moves on with, “Well, whatever is going on between you and Ronin now, I know you two will fix this. Just give it a little more time. It’s bound to take more than one meeting to reconcile things after so long apart.
” She smiles knowingly. “But nothing like the holidays to bring people back together, right?”
I roll my eyes before leaning in for a hug.
“And who knows,” she adds, pulling away to peer into my face with a mischievous smile, her blue irises bright. “Georgia and I could still get those gorgeous grandkids we always wanted from you two—”
She’s cut off as I playfully smack her arms away. “Mother!”
Her laughter warms me up inside, washing away the uncertainty of where Ronin and I stand. She always knows what to say to make me feel better, even if some are things I may not be ready to hear.
Mom stands and holds out a gloved hand to pull me up. “Come on. Let’s go get some coffee and get this shopping out of the way.” She steers us in the direction of Double Shot.
“Wait. I can’t go in there!” I shoot her a pained expression. “What if Ronin’s working? I’m not ready to see him again.”
“Don’t worry, hun. He only works nights. You’re fine for now.”
I breathe a sigh of relief, and follow her to the diner.
We enter Double Shot, and the familiar chime of the bell rings out. My feet stumble over the threshold of the door when I catch sight of Ronin behind the coffee side of the bar, watching my mom and I approach with a small smile on his face. I squeeze Mom’s arm.
Not getting into the middle of it, my ass.
“You’re a dirty liar, Mother.”