Page 91 of The Grump I Loathe
“She’s with the housekeeper,” I said.
“I’m so glad. She’ll love Italy. It’s so wonderful that you two are here.”
“Mom,” I said, massaging the space between my eyes. “I just flew twelve hours to get here because I thought youneededme. And you’re sitting here like…nothing happened?”
Mom tilted her head, humming in agreement. “And this was exactly whyIdidn’t tell you. I knew you’d have this kind of reaction. X is sweet for worrying over me, and I’m not surprised he called you for advice,” she said. “But you both worry about me too much.”
I was less than thrilled to hear the comparison. X had no idea what it was to support Mom through all of her issues. I’d been here since the beginning. He couldn’t just show up and try to take over.
“I didn’t think X had time to worry about anything outside his little director world.”
“Hey,” Mom said, shutting that down with a hard look. “X cares about me very much. Why do you think he called you despite my insistence that I was fine? He wanted me to have the best help available, and he wanted to keep you in the loop, to build a bridge that you’ve been fighting so hard against. I’ll talk to him about worrying you like that when there’s no need, but you should also know I don’t need you to drop everything and come running for me anymore.”
“I didn’t drop everything?—”
Mom tilted her head, giving me a look from beneath her sun hat. “You’re the one who has repeatedly stood up for me when it comes to your brothers, telling them that I’ve gotten my life together—that they don’t have to tiptoe around me anymore, just waiting for me to fall apart. So when areyougoing to start believing that of me?”
It wasn’t that I didn’t believe it. It was that I was always there anyway. Just in case. “You’re saying you don’t need me?” Bitterness crept into my voice. “You’re fine figuring it all out with X?”
“Of course I need you, Connor. X hasn’t come into my life to kick you out of it. I just need you differently than I did before. Just like Grace will need you differently as she gets older. Right now, most of all, I need you to be my son. Not my caretaker.”
I grumbled.
“I’m serious. It’s time for you to start living your life for you and not for everyone else.” Mom gave me a smug little smile. “Your new lady friend probably would prefer that.”
“H—” I stumbled over my words. “How do you know about that?”
“Oh, honey, I’m your mother.” She reached out and squeezed my forearm. “I noticed your behavior change, so the next time I was with Grace, I dropped in some casual questions about whether any nice lady friends had been around lately. She mentioned someone by the name of Eddie. Apparently, you were all making pancakes and Eddie isverycool.”
“Well,” I said, choking out the word. “No one needs to be gossiping aboutthatanymore. It’s over.” I was getting better at ignoring the hurt that sentence caused. It’s not like it was love, anyway. There was no need to get bent out of shape about it. The relationship was done. And we’d both moved on. Right?
Mom frowned at my admission. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”
Not really.
But I couldn’t stop thinking about Eddie’s face when I’d reminded her there was no us anymore. I sighed heavily. “Do you want the long version or the short version?”
Mom reclined in her seat with her espresso. “I have no plans today.”
I started at the beginning, with that damn hot sauce incident, which made Mom laugh, and ended with the wedding. She winced as I finished explaining the whole cocktail pyramid debacle and the fight Eddie and I had in the aftermath.
“That was not your best moment,” she said.
I opened my mouth. Closed it. I thought I’d done the best I could in the moment with Grace crying and Ali storming off and the guests descending on Eddie like a pack of wolves. I hadn’t realized she’d been injured, but from the sounds of it, her friends had taken care of that, so what was the problem?
“Eddie was right, you know,” Mom said.
I snapped my head up. “What?”
“She clearly cares about youandabout Grace. You should have thanked her for standing up for your daughter, not scolded her for not doing it exactly the way you would have preferred. It’s not her fault Sawyer chose to be an ass and make threats. She was trying to do right by you, and all you were doing was pushing her away.”
“I was taking care of the things that were my responsibility,” I insisted. “Grace and the company. That’s what matters to me, and what could be more important?”
“Being happy?” Mom said. “Connor, you put up with a difficult relationship for years, at the expense of yourself, just to make sure that Grace and the company would thrive. Now’s the time for you to enjoy something good in your life.Someone.”
I shook my head. I couldn’t take that chance. I couldn’t shift my priorities because I felt like being selfish. I couldn’t be irresponsible. I was the one everyone counted on—I couldn’t let them down.
Mom’s lips pulled into a tight line as she sighed. “You obviously needa break, sweetheart. The countryside is beautiful. Why don’t you and Grace stay for a few days instead of rushing home?”
