Page 51 of Replay

“Was that a possibility?”

After kissing him tonight? More of a possibility than I realized. “I don’t know. I was pissed and heartbroken when he broke up with me, but I really loved him. Still, breaking up by text was pretty bad.”

“By text? He sent you a text? I hope you hunted him down and shoved his text up his ass.”

“Not exactly.”

“What did you do?”

I fell back in the chair. “Nothing.”

“You didn’t ask him why?”

“No,” I said, voice quiet.

“Why didn’t you? If you loved him that much.”

I let out a long breath, releasing something I hadn’t admitted before. “Because I thought I knew why.”

“You did?”

“He was this big hockey prospect, and I was just the math nerd.”

“Aww, sis. Insecurities, right?”

“Yeah. Why would he want to be with me?”

Nora huffed. “I do get that Mom and Dad were freaking out about me back then, but still…they shouldn’t have interfered. And if you’ve thought you just weren’t enough for him all these years, well, that would have an effect on you. Have you talked to them about it?”

“Not yet. I’ve been trying to figure out how upset I am, and how angry it’s okay for me to feel.”

“Katie, I love you, but you need to speak up. When you were in high school, that was difficult to do, but you’re an adult now. You have to stand up for yourself. In your relationships, in your work—everything.”

That reminded me too much of my wishy-washy behavior with my advisor, and I steered the conversation elsewhere. “I did tell Josh off. But with Mom and Dad, it’s hard. They only do what they think is right for us.”

Nora let out a long breath. “I hear you. They love us and support us and want us to reach our goals, but that does come with some heavy expectations.”

So heavy. “I don’t want to disappoint them.”

“Like I did, you mean?”

My mouth dropped open. “That… I mean…”

“You can say it, you know. Mom and Dad did.”

That shocked me. “What?”

“They even offered to raise the baby so I could stay in school.”

Something else I hadn’t known. “You didn’t want that?”

A long pause. “Honestly, no. Getting pregnant threw me for a loop. It upset all my plans and freaked me out. But it also forced me to think. I’d been busy and focused on med school, becoming a doctor. Total tunnel vision. Honestly, I was lucky Arlo was willing to put up with my schedule and priorities. And then, when I saw those lines on the pregnancy test, he was a rock.”

Nora’s partner was great.

“But having to make those decisions forced me to look at what I wanted. Really wanted. Getting away from the hamster wheel for a few days while I worked things out made me realize I didn’t want to do med school and residency and put life on hold for years. I had a great partner, we were expecting a baby and…that was good.”

I swallowed. Back then, after the breakup with Josh, I’d been focused on my own misery. I’d stayed with Grandma and been removed from what was going on with my sister. I’d missed what she’d gone through. “I never knew all that. So, you’re not upset that your plans changed? You’re happy?”

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