Page 125 of The Invitation
We round the corner, and I spot my mom standing at the windows overlooking the valley. Her arms are pulled over her stomach, and when she turns to me, I see the sadness painted on her face. It kills me.
But I have to stay strong.
“Do you want me to stay here or go into the other room?” Ripley whispers in my ear.
I grab his hand and hold it, signaling for him to stay. He doesn’t move a muscle.
“Hi, sweetheart,” Mom says, her tone uneven.
“Hi, Mom.”
She drops her arms and sighs. “I hope you’re not upset that I’m here. I’m second-guessing everything now and I don’t know if it’s right to be here or not.”
“It’s fine. But why are you here?”
She glances over my shoulder to Ripley, as if she gets strength from him, too.
“Georgia … I’m sorry,” she says simply. “I’d like to list all the things I’m sorry for, but I’m pretty sure I’d wear out my welcome before I got through them all.”
“Probably,” Ripley mutters just loud enough for me to hear.
“Honey, I’m going to start seeing a therapist next week,” she says.
My eyes widen.
“There are a lot of things I need to unpack, as they call it.” She grips the chair in front of her. “And I need to do it before it ruins a lot of lives.”
“I think that’s smart,” I say carefully.
“You deserve better from me,” she says. “And, truth be told, I’m not sure if I even realize all the ways that I’ve probably failed you. I’m sort of numb right now.”
I snuggle Waffles, feeling his little breaths against my neck. “What changed? I want to believe you, Mom, but this is quite the one-eighty.”
She’s never been this self-aware, which is painful.
She holds her hands out to the side to emphasize her point. “I have nothing. Just like you said. I don’t have a man in my life. I have no friends. No real job. No future. And I’m on the verge of not having my daughter, either.” She frowns. “When you didn’t call like you always do, it gave me some time to think about the things you said. It hurt to hear that, but I needed to.”
“I’m sorry for hurting you. I want to say it wasn’t my intent, but that might be a lie.”
“I understand. If I had a good man like you do and someone tried to chase him off, I’d probably be a little mean, too.” She winks. “You can be a little mean anyway. But you learned that from me.”
My lips twitch, almost forming a smile.
“I’d hung up the phone to the therapist’s office when Ripley knocked on my door,” she says, looking at him. “I understand why you love him. He’s really hard not to like.”
He squeezes my hip softly, as if he’s uncomfortable with the fuss about him.
“Yeah, he’s hard not to like,” I say, tilting my head back and smiling at him. “He’s really hard not to love.”
He places a sweet kiss on my lips.
“I don’t want to keep you two,” she says. “I know you have a lot to talk about, too. But I hope you’ll accept my apology, Georgia.” Her voice cracks. “I love you, sweetheart.”
I set Waffles on the floor, much to his chagrin, then I embrace my mother.
Her body shakes as she cries. This is a woman who feels the depths of losing everyone she loves. My heart hurts for her. She might have caused all of the things that have happened to her lately, but everyone deserves a second chance.
God knows I’ve been given enough of them.
