Page 91 of How to Prevent a Fumble

I can’t help but smirk a little. “Briar Crosby? Needing responsibility?”

She shoots me a look and I shut up as our food comes out. The waiter places our plates in front of us and leaves quietly, but we don’t touch them. “Not long after we got married he showed his true colors, and it wasn’t long before I was somehow pregnant despite being on birth control. I had my suspicions, and Zara offered to bring me to a clinic. He wanted me stuck with him, and she didn’t want me in that situation anymore.

“But I’m nothing if not stubborn and decided to stay. To have her. I’m glad I did, but sometimes I think about what I’ve put her through since. She was too young to remember the nights of me sleeping on the couch, crying, wishing I was anywhere but there, but she does remember the moving around. The not having a constant home. Having ramen every night because I can’t afford food and Tony had me fired again.”

I curl my fists, just about ready to punch a hole through a wall.

“I just think that I tried so hard to be a better mother than I had, that I ended up being worse.” She sits back, flicking hair that fell into her eyes behind her. I sit in silence for a moment, realizing that now is a moment I really need to learn to measure my words.

She sits comfortably in the silence, almost like a weight isoff her shoulders as her fingers tap the cold glass of her drink before she picks it up and downs it in the matter of seconds.

“I think that makes you an even better mom,” I tell her finally, unsure if I’m saying the right words.

She could walk out right now. I could piss her off. She could look at me with disgust. I could never recover from this.

This is one thing I don’t want to mess up.

“I think that you put everything you could into raising her, and you’ve done brilliantly. Do you know how smart that kid is?” I shake my head. “Elara is one of the funniest, most intelligent kids I’ve ever met. And one of the sassiest, but that’s a good thing.”

Briar looks down, a small smile playing on her lips.

“Despite everything you’ve been through, and everything you continue to go through, you’ve raised one of the kindest, wittiest kids alive, Briar. She keeps me on my toes, that’s for sure. That’s something to be proud of.”

Her beautiful brown eyes meet mine, her eyes welling with tears, and for the first time in so, so long, I feel like I finally did the right thing.

“Motherhood is one of the greatest things I’ve ever experienced, but it’s also been one of the hardest, most taxing things. I just want to raise a good human,” she says simply.

“I think some people expect to be perfect, and to get everything right the first time. And the second time. And the third,” I pause. “But you’re doing what you can. You’re learning as you go, and that’s important too.”

Biting her pillowy lip, she nods. “Okay, I need us to change the subject,” she says quickly, grabbing her fork and digging into her dinner.

“You know we’re going to have to kiss at some point here soon, right?” I ask her, blurting out the first thing that came to mind.

She chuckles, flush creeping up her cheeks. “It’s really great that I’ve perfected the stage kiss then.”

I shake my head. “I don’t know if that’s going to fly for the press, Sunny.”

She shrugs, choosing to ignore me.

27

BRIAR

“Three weeks from now, we have an event at the library,” Leo tells me as we get home. “I’ve already talked to my sister, who invited her friends, so I already got you a ticket for Zara. You’re all going shopping this weekend.”

“This Saturday?”

He gives me a look as he strips off his suit jacket, as if it’s the dumbest question ever. “What other day would you do it?”

“Sunday?”

“We’re playing at home on Sunday.”

I shrug. “Could still go shopping, Leo. Maybe the stores will be less crowded.”

He shakes his head, crossing his arms over his chest. I immediately have flashbacks to what he said at dinner. How he held firm in his belief that I’m a good mom, even going so far as to make me believe it for a moment. The way his biceps stretch the fabric within an inch of its life…

Snap out of it, Briar.

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