Page 118 of The One I Love
“Mom, the first thing out of your mouth when I told you I was pregnant was asking if Paul was going to be around and the second was insisting that we needed to get married.”
“Well, I wanted to make sure you were going to be taken care of. You know how hard I?—”
“I know, Mom. You had it rough because Dad left. And I know you had my best interests at heart. But sometimes marriage isn’t the answer. Sometimes it is. But I wanted to be the one to decide that this time. Not you. Not Barb. Not Shane.Me.I wanted to make sure me getting married was my decision, no one else’s.”
My breathing is heavy. I didn’t realize how much I needed to get that off my chest. That there is almost seventeen years’ worth of emotional buildup released into the atmosphere.
And it feels damn good to be free of that.
“Amelia…I…” I sit back down as she fights back tears. “I’m sorry. I never knew. I just…I just wanted you to be happy. To have it better. I always thought I was helping.”
“I know you did, Mom. I know your heart was in the right place. But, how about for now, when it comes to my love life, just let me live it.”
She nods. “I’ll try.”
“We’ll try.”
I turn to Barb, who reaches for my mom’s hand and mine. We all grab onto each other, making a circle I can feel the love pouring through.
“Thank you both,” I say. “And I promise, no more secrets.”
“And we promise to not meddle.”
“Too much,” Barb qualifies.
“Until there are more grandbabies.”
“Yes, once there are grandbabies, all bets are off.Amelia, are you off birth control? You know, with your age, maybe you and Shane?—”
“Stop!” I yell. “You guys couldn’t even gotwo minutes. And did you forget Shane and I are fighting?”
“Oh, well, that’s easy enough.” Barb goes for her phone again.
“Barb! Stop!”
“Sorry,” she says. “Old habits die hard.”
I shake my head. “How about this? Breakfast on me. Then we can also tell Mona the news together so that way she doesn’t get anything misunderstood.”
“Sounds good.”
“Do the kids want to come?” Mom asks as we grab our stuff and head toward my front door.
“Luke’s at work,” I say before yelling up the stairs. “Mariah! We’re going to Mona’s!”
Usually saying the wordMona’sis enough to get Mariah running down the stairs. But she doesn’t. In fact, I don’t hear anything coming from her room.
“Weird,” I say, getting out my phone to send a text. “Where is she?”
Just as I’m about to hit send, Mariah comes busting through the door so fast she nearly slams it into Barb. “Hey, Mom.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Sure. Everything’s fine.”
“Why are you out of breath? Where were you?”
Mariah doesn’t answer me and instead turns toward Mom. “Hi, Grandma! Hi, Barb! Where you guys going?”
