Page 45 of A Place for Daydreams

Finally, she felt so overwhelmed she knew she was beginning to look as concerned as she felt. She didn’t want to ruin everyone else’s happy time together, and she decided to make an excuse so that she could slip away to have a moment to herself.

“I’m going to see if they have any cute shoes here,” she said. “We’ll need some good, comfortable shoes to go with the dress.”

It was a flimsy excuse, since an antique store was not a good place to find shoes unless one was looking for some kind of novelty high heel, but she slipped quickly away before anyone could question her statement.

She turned a corner, looking for the shoes display she’d seen earlier. She took a deep breath, hoping her nerves would steady themselves. She felt jittery and almost close to tears. She loved seeing Samantha grow up, but it was also difficult for her because it made her think of all the different ways her daughter might get hurt.

She faced the charming rack of antique shoes, looking at it without really noticing what was in front of her. Her mind was spinning and she didn’t know what to tell herself. She knew that pain was a natural part of life and that she couldn’tprotect Samantha from everything, but she still felt as though she wanted to make sure that nothing bad ever happened to her daughter.

“These are cute.”

Hazel almost jumped as she realized that Julia had stepped up beside her. She turned to her sister with surprise, and saw that Julia was smiling at her sympathetically.

“Everything all right?” Julia asked gently. “You seem a little upset.”

“I—I’m okay.”

Julia shook her head. “Come on, Hazel, you can tell me. You were frowning back there whenever Samantha was in the changing room, and you looked like your smiles were kind of forced whenever she came out. And now you’re off by yourself. Is something bothering you?”

Hazel sighed, grateful that her sister was so insightful. “You’re right. Something is bothering me. I keep telling myself to let it go and just not think about it, but it seems I’m not really capable of doing that.”

“What is it?” Julia asked gently, placing a sympathetic hand on Hazel’s arm.

“It’s this dance, I guess.” Hazel took a deep breath and let out a long exhale. “She said that she’s hoping—well, she wants this boy to go with her. And as far as I know, he hasn’t asked her yet, and I’m worried she’s going to get her hopes up and get hurt. Or what if he does ask her to the dance, but then he does something that hurts her later? I guess—it’s just hard for me to see her growing up like this. I didn’t realize we’d reached this stage yet, you know? The liking boys stage. I thought I had a little while longer before I would have to guide her through this.”

Julia nodded. “But you’re going to be so great at guiding her through this, I know you are.”

Hazel found herself tearing up a little when she heard her sister’s confident words. “Thank you for saying that. I know I’m going to do my best, but there are so many things to think about—I guess it all kind of came crashing down on me at once. I think I’ve been avoiding thinking about it. I’ve been wanting her to stay my little girl forever.”

“Oh, I think she’ll always be your little girl.” Julia smiled as she wrapped an arm around Hazel. “I think we’re all still Mom’s little girls, and we will be no matter how old we get. But I know what you mean.”

Hazel nodded, feeling comforted by Julia’s encouragement. “Thank you.” She laughed breathlessly. “How did you get to be so wise?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say I’m wise.” Julia shook her head. “I’ve just been thinking about parenting a lot lately.”

“Yeah? How come?”

“Well, I’ve been wanting to take more care of Macey—you know, take care of her on my own sometimes or do things like make her special snacks. Cooper is always grateful when I offer, but he’s been having a hard time letting go of how he’s always raised Macey and accepting my help. We finally had a good conversation about it, and I think he’s reached a place where he’s going to trust me more.”

“That’s great.” Hazel smiled at her sister, glad she was sharing her heart with her. It made her feel less alone in her parenting struggles. “I’m sure he’s going to continue to trust you more and more. You’re a responsible, caring person, and I know you really love Macey. And I know that he really knows it too.”

“Thank you.” Julia gave her sister a hug. “But I guess my point is that even though I don’t have a child of my own, that experience gave me insight into all of the hard things that parents have to do. I know how carefully Cooper takes care of Macey, and I know it’s because he loves her so much. But atsome point, he’s got to learn to trust, you know? Trust me, and trust that everything will be okay if things start to be different. When Macey starts getting older, that’s going to become even more true as she starts to want to make her own decisions. And I think the same applies here. You just need to trust. You raised Samantha to be a responsible, confident young woman and all you can do now is trust that she’s learned her lessons well. You know?”

Hazel nodded, feeling a surge of relief. “You’re right.” She heaved a sigh. “It isn’t fair to not trust my daughter. It’s not like I’m the only one who can protect her, she can also protect herself. At least to an extent.”

“That’s the spirit.” Julia nodded. “And you can always talk with her about these things before she has to face them, you know? Remind her that she needs to be careful with her heart.”

“Good point.” Hazel smiled, feeling better already.

“Besides,” Julia added with a smirk, “you still have a few more years of having Samantha almost totally under your care. And then she gets to get her driver’s license in three years. Won’t that be fun?”

Hazel groaned at the thought, which made both sisters erupt into laughter.

“It’ll be fine,” Julia assured her, chuckling. “Again, she’s a smart young woman. She can handle herself. And that’s one of the most important parts of growing up—learning that we can make good decisions. But you’ve got to let her make those decisions in order for her to learn that, you know? Remember how Mom and Dad let us do things? They gave us good advice and they raised us well, but then they gave us a reasonable amount of freedom. That made us all grow up into the truly remarkable adults that we are.”

She waved a hand to gesture between the two of them, and Hazel laughed.

“You’re right. Thank you, Julia. Thanks for the advice, and also for noticing that I was worried and coming to find me. I appreciate you.”

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