Page 114 of He's The Reason Why

“Sounds lovely.” Her smile deepened. “I can’t even count the number of times people fall in love while working on a project. It makes perfect sense that you fell for her. She seems absolutely delightful.”

“Yeah, well, these kinds of relationships never work out long-term. Look at me and Rachel. Or you and Dad. It’s the worst place to start up something.”

“There’s no perfect place or time, son,” she said in her patented don’t-be-silly tone. “Love hits when it wants, where it wants.”

“Come on, Mom. I can’t cast her now, it’d be like asking her to be my leading lady and my girlfriend at the same time, and if it doesn’t work out…” He paced to the other side of the room, spun around, and paced back. “It’s not how I want to do things. I’m not that guy. This is my first time as a director, and the tabloids will go nuts if I’m sleeping with one of my actors.”

His mother snorted. “You can’t buy that kind of publicity. If the tabloids said the famous Blake Ryan was sleeping withthePiper Bellamy people would line up for days to see this movie.”

“I just don’t want to screw things up. I don’t want to be Dad.” There it was, the heart of his problem. He’d never had to face this before because he’d never felt like this before. “I don’t want to pressure her into something that she regrets. I don’t want us both to figure out a few years later that we hate each other.”

“I don’t hate your father.” Her voice was like the crack of a whip. It stopped him in his tracks. “I never did. I might havebeen mad for a while, but we both knew it wasn’t going to work long-term, for either of us. Our careers were on different paths. Neither of us was ever home. It wasn’t fair to you, or to us, and we both knew it. He had the courage to make the first move, that’s all. If he hadn’t, I would have.”

It wasn’t the way he remembered it. He remembered nights spent watching his mother cry, and days watching his father romp with glee from stage to stage, ecstatic to have a new woman by his side.

“You seemed so miserable after he left.”

“Oh, I was.” Mom blew out a breath. “I had two projects back-to-back that ate my lunch, and a young child who needed me. I wanted to be there for you come hell or high water and makingthatwork was stressful. Kind of like what you’re feeling now, I would imagine, minus the child. I assume.”

He snorted and nodded. “No kids yet. Stop asking.”

“A mother can dream.” She sighed like a cartoon character.

“You let the tabloids paint you as the jilted woman for decades.”

“Who cares? I knew the truth. So did you. That’s all that mattered. Sweetheart, sit down before you wear a hole in the carpet.”

He flopped down onto the nearest chair and rubbed his face with both hands. The divorce had seemed so big at the time. He hadn’t understood all of the undercurrents. He’d just known Mom was upset, and Dad was happy, and they weren’t a family anymore.

And he’d known, deep down in the dark places of his heart, that it was all Dad’s fault.

Except Mom had just told him it wasn’t.

Mom picked up her glass of wine and held it between both hands. “Your father and I loved each other. We were like twotrains on the same track, racing toward each other full speed ahead. The collision was…well, it took my breath away. His too, I think.”

It didn’t sound all that different from how he felt. He wanted Piper with him so much right now, he couldn’t think of anything else.

“We had a whirlwind courtship. We made a baby.” Mom smiled fondly at him. “And we had years of heady indulgence that still makes me dizzy when I think about it. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

He processed that for a minute while Mom sipped her wine and smiled at something he couldn’t see. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Sweetheart…” Her voice was gentle. “It caused you so much pain every time I talked about your dad that I just stopped bringing it up. I thought maybe when you were older…” She sighed. “It was a mistake. It’s left you with the impression that those movies you’ve starred in are what life is actually supposed to be. It’s not. Life is chaos. If you’re lucky, it never ever goes in a straight line.”

He looked at the tree. The glittering white lights winked at him as if to say told ya so. “I hated him for what he did to you.”

“I know. You always were my knight in shining armor. My protector. But know this…no matter how bad it might have seemed, I wouldn’t trade the time I had with Eddie for the world. He gave me you, and more creative material than any one woman could use in a lifetime.”

She opened her laptop and frowned at it.

Maybe he was confusing personal with professional. Maybe he was making things harder than they had to be.

Or maybe he was looking for an excuse to see her again, even if it was only on video. “You’re saying I should ask Piper if she’ll play the lead.”

“Yes.” Mom leaned closer to the screen.

“She’s thinking of going back with her sisters on tour. She probably wouldn’t have time. It could be messy.”

“You’ll never know unless you ask.” She typed something. “Embrace the mess, kiddo. That’s where the good stuff is.”

---