Page 64 of Sunny Skies Ahead
Imogen
This was my worst nightmare come to life.
Kevin snapped at our mother, immediately jumping to my defense, but Carmen held up a hand with a firm shake of her hand.
“And you are?” she sneered at Kameron. My chest caved in even further.
“I’m Kameron. Imogen and I work together at Winding Road.”
Carmen’s eyes darkened, and I wanted to shake Kameron for revealing that piece of information that my mother would almost certainly latch onto. This was what she did; she twisted people’s words and extrapolated them into something they weren’t. She would weave all manner of stories in her head about Kameron and I. I desperately cycled through scenarios in my mind, trying to find one solution where I could pull Kameron to the side and tell him to keep his damn mouth shut.
There was no winning an argument with my mother. Based on the hatred simmering in her eyes as she looked at me, I knew it wouldn’t matter what I said or did tonight. She’d already made up her mind.
“I seem to recall an earlier conversation with Kevin this summer. You wouldn’t be Kameron Miller, the executive director of the Winding Road nonprofit? Surely someone in a management position such as yourself wouldn’t willingly enter into a relationship with someone who reports to you.”
Kameron stiffened by my side, and that was the moment I knew our perfect bubble we’d been gliding in the last few weeks was well and truly popped.
“It’s a bit more complicated than that, ma’am.”
“It always is.”
There was no mistaking my mother’s distaste, and I had never wanted to escape a situation more in my life. I dared a glance at Kevin, who was looking at his shoes, shaking his head, as if trying to comprehend the gravity of this situation.
My mother had barely addressed me during the entire conversation, and yet she still made me feel like I was the smallest person alive.
“We were just about to have dinner,” Kameron said, giving my mom a polite smile. “You could join us?”
Oh, hell no.
“Actually,” Kevin stepped in, finally finding his courage, “I know it’s terribly rude to ask you to adjust your plans, but we were hoping to have dinner as a family.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Mom, I’m sorry, but we already have plans. You should have called. I would have beenmore than happy to make time for us to do the whole happy family thing.”
I was wrong to make a sarcastic remark based on the way my mother scoffed.
“You can see this man anytime you very well please, given the fact that you work together.” She pressed her lips together in a thin line. “I’m only here for a few days. I would hope you’d prioritize family time over your current fling. What with everything that happened the last time you isolated yourself from your family and focused solely on your partner.”
Kameron’s body stilled completely, and red clouded my vision.
It had been well over a year since I’d had to see my mother in person. One blissful year of being able to ignore her texts and calls, all of the attempts she made to get me to see her side or believe that she truly was just looking out for me. A year of crying to my therapist and trying to forget about the way she cast me aside when she learned of my return to Watford and subsequent divorce. My mother was not a religious woman. She didn’t shame me because she thought some religious text somewhere frowned upon divorce. It was more cut and dry than that.
She looked down on me because she’d always wanted to wield her power over me. I was the outcast middle child, always caught in the tension. Cassie was the perfect oldest daughter, always overachieving at everything she did, and Kevin was their only boy, so he was instantly viewed as the golden child and didn’t have to lift somuch as a finger.
“I can’t do this,” I muttered. I could feel my brain shutting down the longer Carmen stared at me. I turned to Kameron as tears welled in my eyes. “Can I walk you out?”
Kameron didn’t need to see this. I didn’t want him to see this part of my life. My mother being in town had the potential to ruin everything. This thing with Kameron was new and delicate, and I didn’t want my mother’s darkness anywhere near it. She had a way of poisoning beautiful things; especially things that outshined her.
Kameron, thankfully, didn’t push me on this. He put his hand in the small of my back, and I wanted to cry. How like Kameron to want to comfort me when it was my fault that our evening was ruined.
I opened the front door and stepped out onto the porch, eager for Kameron to get in his truck and leave.
“Im, talk to me. I’m here for you,” Kameron said when we paused at his truck.
“Please go,” I said, my eyes welling with tears, unable to meet his gaze.
“No,” Kameron said, shaking his head. He opened the door and threw his laptop bag into his passenger seat. He reached for my hands, giving me a reassuring squeeze. “There’s no way in hell I’m leaving you here with her, not after everything she said.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell him that my mother’s display in the kitchen barely scratched the surface of what she was capable of.
