Page 52 of Just For Her

That name caught Tove so off guard that she dropped her arms to her sides and turned her whole body toward Glenn. “That’s my mother.”

Until that moment, Kayla had never heard the name of Tove’s mother.What a pretty name!Why hadn’t Kayla figured this out until now?

“Forgive me,” Glenn said with a rub to the top of his hood. “I used to know her when she came through Portland. Nice lady. Please, give her my regards.”

“I will.”

Glenn was soon absorbed in conversations with the other students’ parents. Kayla wanted to ask what that had been about, but there was no decent opportunity. Tove wanted to leave, so Kayla followed, leaving her ski rentals back at the shop and the boots with an employee who wished her a nice evening.

It wasn’t until they were in Tove’s car out in the parking lot that she remembered what she wanted to ask.

“How did that guy know your mom?”

Tove buckled her seatbelt and adjusted her mirrors. “That’s not the question you should ask me.”

“It isn’t?”

“No. You should ask why he specifically knew my mother by the name Fredriksson, but no one else in my family.”

Kayla didn’t know what that had to do with anything. As far as she was concerned, Lianne Fredriksson was as notable as anyone else in the clan.

Chapter 15

AnyworriesthatKaylahad that Tove was still angry at her were dissolved after they returned to the vacation home. For dinner, they had dined at a riverfront restaurant that boasted “the best wine this side of Mt. Hood,” and Tove was embarrassed to admit that, yes, the “random” photograph of a young family on the wall was Nils and June with their kids. Kayla had to squint to recognize a ten-year-old Thomas.No wonder it looked so ‘90s…

The more Kayla learned about her girlfriend’s family, the more she saw the Fredrikssons in the least likely places. When a quote wasn’t written on a grocery store wall, there was a painting, a statue, or a display of handmade jewelry that came from the hands of a woman with the last name Fredriksson. Historical buildings often boasted that they were founded by Gustav or his son. When Kayla asked if Gustav lived long enough for Tove to meet him, she only shook her head.

Once they were back in the house, where they had all the rooms to themselves, Kayla forgot everything but her one goal.

Marry this woman.

She knew she was close to cinching Tove’s heart. Every day they spent together was another opportunity for the older woman to open up more of herself to the idea of “happily ever after.” And Kayla never let a chance to get to know Tove go wasted. Maybe it wasn’t pure love, but there was a genuine curiosity about her life and what had led her to go back to her family twenty years ago.

“You know how it is.” Tove traced the outline of a small cardboard sign atop their dinner table. Quiet conversations sprouted up around them, but the restaurant was so dimly lit that Kayla only saw the face before hers. “You have this passionate romance with a woman you’re not compatible with. You try to force it for the sake of saying,‘Look, I’m doing okay. I can make my own life decisions. I’m thirty. Leave me alone.’Instead, you get someone who is completely unstable on the best day and a cheating asshole on the worst.”

“She cheated on you?”

“She wasn’t the first. About half of my relationships in my twenties ended because she cheated on me. Not my best memories.”

“I’m really sorry…”

Tove shrugged. “It doesn’t bother me much to think about anymore. It’s been so long.”

“It caused problems for your family though?”

“Oh, yeah. Aunt Kiersten already hated them all, but my relationships usually ended on their own before she felt the need to intervene. At the time, my mother also wasn’t quite yet sick, so my aunt backed off more often. It was ‘Lianne’s problem,’ as my aunt liked to put it.”

Kayla nodded over her food.

“I think that’s why I hung on to that last relationship too long. I didn’t want to let go. I knew my mother wasn’t going to be around to help me navigate the world much longer. So, I stayed with someone I shouldn’t have. She was never abusive – not like that, you know – but things were always volatile. We fought a lot. I thought the fact we still made love sometimes made up for it because I was desperate to feel something. Except for one day, I couldn’t take it anymore. We fought so epically that our screaming and yelling got the cops called on us. I was living in Salem at the time. It’s a more conservative town than Portland. You can figure out what happened.”

“I’m guessing that your aunt somehow got involved.”

“Big time. I was such an embarrassment that I was almost cut off from the family right there. Plus, my mom wasn’t doing too hot. I had to come home to take care of her, and we needed help from the family on the financial front. So I agreed to break it off with my girlfriend for good, quit my job in Salem, and move back to Bend to watch over my mom and become the family’s accountant.”

“Do you regret it?”

Tove had to think about it for a second. “I don’t believe so. At the time, I had many resentments, but over the years I’ve become someone much more than I used to be. My only lament is that I had little chance for a personal life while living alone under my family’s thumb. You know that you’re my first real girlfriend since the last one that brought me back to Bend. Maybe that’s an insurmountable number of years for you, but to me, it’s been a blink of an eye. I’ve simultaneously grown into a better person while all of that feels like yesterday.”

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