Page 20 of Sometimes You Fall

I laugh. “I’m hardly a baby, Mom.”

Shaking her head, “You’ll always be my baby, Scottie. And I’m proud of you.”

My eyes start to sting. “I still don’t know if I made the right decision,” I whisper, not wanting Chase to overhear.

She strokes my cheek. “All you can do is listen to your gut.”

“I know. And I did.”

“Then everything else will work itself out.”

I stifle a yawn as we break apart. “God, I’m exhausted.”

My mother jingles a set of keys in my face. “Well, let’s show you the house and then you can get some rest. I’m sure the drive took it out of you.”

“You have no idea.”

The four of us cross the lawn of my mom’s house into the yard of the house next door. That’s right. I’m going to be living next door to my mom and grandma. But honestly, I’m really grateful. Having them close makes me feel safer, and not just because I know Gigi sleeps with a rifle next to her bed. For the first time in fifteen years, I’ll have my family close by, help when I need it instead of having to rely solely on myself, and a place that doesn’t have reminders of the life I tried to make work but couldn’t.

Lord knows I couldn’t rely on Andrew for anything anyway.

My mother unlocks the front door and then we all shuffle inside.

“This is perfect,” I say as I take in the space. The living room is to our left, which already has furniture, thank God. The kitchen isstraight ahead with the dining room to the left of that, and the hallway which leads to the bedrooms is to our right. My mom said there are three rooms, which means Chase can pick which one he wants, a detail he was less than enthusiastic about. I’m learning that teenagers are very difficult to impress.

“I told you. Just enough space for the two of you. When Colleen told me she was looking for new tenants, I had to swipe it up for you two.” My mother turns to Chase. “What do you think, Chase?”

He shrugs. “Looks like a house.”

My mother and I share a look, but Gigi speaks first. “Very good, Chase. It is a house. Good to know they’re teaching yousomethingin those good-for-nothing schools.”

“Gigi…” I warn. She flicks my son in the back of the head.

“Hey! What was that for?”

“Don’t disrespect your mother, your grandma, or me.”

Rubbing the spot where she flicked him, he grimaces. “Sorry. It’s just not home.”

“But it will be.” I step up to him. “You’ll see, Chase. Carrington Cove is a great place to live.” I keep telling myself that too, hoping it will click because for the past four weeks, all I’ve felt is nausea about the move. But now that we’re here, I’m excited to show my son that living in a small town has its perks.

I’ve barely been home since leaving for college. Most of the time my mom and Gigi would venture down to Georgia to see Chase and me, partly because I couldn’t get Andrew to stop working long enough to make the trek ourselves.

Well, at least I don’t have to worry about that anymore.

Turning and walking toward the hall, Chase says over his shoulder, “I’m going to check out the rooms.”

The three of us watch him walk away before I turn back to my mom and grandma. “It’s going to get better, right?”

They nod in unison. “It will,” my mother says. “Once he starts school and baseball, he’ll adjust.”

“I hope so.”

“Speaking of school, when do you report?”

“Monday. I gave myself the weekend to get settled in, and then Alaina said she needed me as soon as possible.”

“I knew we’d get her back home somehow,” my mother says to my grandma, bumping shoulders with her.

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