Page 89 of Chasing Forever
“And if I don’t?”
She turns around at the door and gives me a soft smile. Her nose crinkles. “I’m not really asking.”
Didn’t think so.
With a sigh, I toss off the covers and grab some shorts and a T-shirt, pulling my hair into a messy bun.
My mom is already in the UTV when I step onto the porch, blinking into the sun as if it’s too bright for the darkness inside of me. I’m happy Scarlett’s at work, and Romy and Poppy are still sleeping. I really don’t want to see anyone else right now.
My mom pats the passenger seat.
“Why are we doing this?” I whine, but she presses on the gas without answering me.
Totally her.
We drive around our side of the ranch. Past the boys’ house, past my parents’ house and The Getaway Lodge. We pass the chicken farm and the horse stables until she stops at the base of Daisy Hill.
“Mom,” I say, my voice flat.
Daisy Hill is where all of our ancestors—including my cousins’ mom—are buried. It’s a huge hill planted with daisies, surrounded by a white fence, with a path winding up to the top that we usually take on horseback.
“Come on.” She nudges me and turns off the UTV, pocketing the keys and ruining my escape plan.
I reluctantly follow her, and she holds the gate open for me when we reach the top of the hill. It’s clear someone’s been here recently since Aunt Daisy’s grave is littered with fresh flowers.
My mom sits on one of the benches near my grandparents’ graves and eyes the empty spot next to her. “Want to talk about it?”
I plop down beside her, and she pats my leg.
“Ever feel like you’re just losing it?”
She laughs. “Wait until you go through menopause. It gives a whole new meaning to the words losing it.”
“What do you already know?” My voice is barely a whisper.
“Only that one of my daughters went off with some country singer and didn’t get dropped off until six this morning. My niece broke her ankle, and my other daughter was crying in the hospital and all the way home.”
I bite my lip. “Who told you?”
“I don’t give away my sources. Why were you crying in the hospital when you weren’t the one who broke her ankle?”
“I basically ended it with Brooks.”
Her head rocks back, and she rises from the bench before crouching at her parents’ graves, picking around the stones.
“You know, I used to hate the weeds that come in and crowd out the good stuff.” She pulls one and tosses it aside. “Did you know daisies are weeds?”
“Why are we talking about weeds?”
“Humor me,” she says, searching through the grass for more. “People don’t realize that the definition of a weed is just a wild plant that’s not wanted in the area. Someone might look at this hill of daisies and only see something undesirable. Others see beauty. It really is just in the eye of the beholder.”
“We don’t have a future. There’s too much that’s happened.”
“Let’s push all the stuff with Holden away. It’s been so long, and no one in this town looks at you the way you think they do. Tell me what’s really worrying you.”
I slide off the bench and join her in the grass. “I thought I was doing well, pushing forward, but then Mrs. Watson came into the store and… well…”
“You’d think a woman with problems in her own home wouldn’t go causing them in someone else’s.” Her voice sharpens. “That’s the problem. In my eyes, she’s undesirable. Just an unwanted weed.”
