Page 83 of Holiday Unscripted
“What?” I ask, shocked. “Who is we?”
“Well, I can tell you who didn’t, your father and Joshua. I’m pretty sure Jack saw it.” She smiles. “You’ve been in love with him since you were a teenager.”
“I have not,” I shriek. “This just happened.”
“No.” She shakes her head. “This didn’t just happen, maybe you just got your head out of your ass, but it didn’t just happen.”
“We hated each other,” I remind her. “He was involved with someone else,” I point out and she rolls her eyes.
“You hated each other because you moved away, and he didn’t tell you not to go.” My mouth hangs open. “But that’s the past, you both had to do what you needed to do in order to be here right now.”
“Mom.” I stop when the girl comes to deliver our coffee. I wait for her to walk away before I look back at her.
“Elizabeth,” she says my name, looking down at her coffee cup. “Seven years ago you hightailed it out of town and went halfway around the world most likely to get away from him.”
“I didn’t just do it because of him. It was a great opportunity.”
“Agreed.” She nods her head. “You needed to do what you needed to do and so did he. Now you both ended up here.”
“Yeah and now I don’t live here,” I remind her and she rolls her eyes. “Mom, I can’t just get up and move.”
“Why not?” she scoffs at me. “You did once before, I’m pretty sure you can do it again.”
“I have a life,” I counter, and the minute I say the words, the only thing flashing through my mind is Nate. It’s not just Nate, it’s also Whiskey, Bean, and Baby Cat. The five of us settled on the couch watching a show, even though it’s not a memory I should have.
“What life?” she asks me. “You go to work, you come home. It’s wash, rinse, repeat,” she snaps at me. “You what, have two friends and barely go out.”
“Wow.”
“Don’t you wow me, young lady.” She points her finger at me. “Do you know how hard it is for me to see you not living a full life?”
“Um.”
“Um, nothing,” she retorts. “How did this happen?”
“How did what happen?” I ask not sure of her questions.
“How did you come to all of a sudden realize you are in love with Nate?” she asks me softly.
“Well, it’s technically all your fault,” I say with a smile, but the tears form at the bottom of my eyes. “You threw me at him and I was staying in his house.” She rolls her eyes. “And then one thing led to another, and we did grown-up things.” I put a hand to my mouth to stop myself from bursting out laughing.
“How much do you love him?” she questions, and I tilt my head to the side. “Do you love him so much that you are going to be okay stepping foot on that plane and leaving him, going back home to live without any regret.” She smiles and I see her own tears in her eyes. “Or do you love him so much that just the thought alone makes your heart ache? The thought of him being with someone else and creating a family with her makes you violently ill?”
“It makes me violently ill,” I admit in a whisper. “Just the thought of stepping on that plane makes me feel this immense pain in my chest that it’s hard to breathe.” I wipe the tear off of my cheek.
“Well,” she declares, picking up her cup of coffee, “it looks like you have a decision to make.”
CHAPTER 33
Nate
THE TROUBLE WITH LOVE IS
I look out the window at the trees in the distance. Sitting back in my chair with my feet on my desk, I rock back and forth. I don’t even know how. The knock at the door makes me look away from the window I’ve been staring out of for the last hour. “Nate.”
“Hey.” I lean back and look at Chloe, who comes in with Whiskey behind her. “I’m about to head out, so I thought I would make sure that Mr. Whiskey was with you.”
“Thank you,” I say as Whiskey walks over to his bed in the corner and plops down on it.
