Page 45 of Come Home to Me

I look away.

“The thing is, when you have children, your life stops belonging to you. It belongs to them from that point forward and there’s beauty in that, there really is. But your dad didn’t want you to lose that—” Mom holds out her hands as if she’s cupping something precious “—that special thing he always saw in you.”

“Why didn’t he say that?”

“He tried. You didn’t hear. Teenaged you was…”

“Difficult,” I finish for her.

Mom shakes her head. “Determined. Strong. Eager to earn her spot in the world. You were too busy proving that to hear anything he was saying.”

And so…

…still…

…after all these years, the fault lies with me.

My mother sighs. “And honestly, he was too busy being stubborn to make you hear him. He wasn’t listening and I know I wasn’t listening either, but I’m listening now.”

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