Page 33 of Awakening the Sheriff

“Is that what Byron told you?”

Mandy nodded, a flicker of sympathy in her eyes. “Yes, he did. My guess is he figures that if he shows you how much he hates this town, we’ll all move back to Atlanta.”

My heart clenched at the thought of my son feeling unhappy and trapped. But I couldn’t shake the suspicion there was more to it than Mandy was letting on.

“Did he tell you he wants to move back to Atlanta?” I tried to read her expression.

Mandy hesitated for a moment, then nodded again. “Yes, he did. And I can understand why. I want to move back too, you know.”

The air seemed to grow colder as her words hung heavily between us. Her revelation blindsided me. Where had this come from? She’d never mentioned this, and I’d had no idea she felt that way. And it stung that Byron had confided in her instead of me. I’d tried so hard to get him to talk, and he never responded, but he was sharing his heart with her? It shouldn’t hurt so much. Mandy was his mom, and I wanted my boys to have a close relationship with her, but my heart ached.

“Since when? Since when do you want to move back?”

“Since…well, since we moved here.” Mandy looked away, studying her nails, which were, as always, well-manicured and painted in a discreet light pink. “I never wanted to leave Atlanta. I only went along with it to please you.”

I breathed out slowly, processing this new information. “Okay,” I said, my voice thick with emotion. “I didn’t realize you felt that way.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t. It’s not like I made a secret out of it when we discussed moving here.”

What?My head was hurting from having to absorb one shocking revelation after the other. I took another deep breath. It was time to address the nagging suspicion that had been gnawing at me since Byron had mentioned it. “Is it true that you told the boys moving here was all my idea and you had nothing to do with it?”

She hesitated, still not meeting my eyes. “Well…yes. I only agreed because it was what you wanted, Keaton. I would’ve preferred to stay in Atlanta.”

My heart sank as I stared at her, a mix of fury and disbelief bubbling inside me. “That’s not how it went. We talked it through together, remember? You told me you were on board. Why are you saying something different now?”

“I remember it differently.” Mandy looked up now, crossing her arms over her chest. “I never wanted to leave Atlanta, and I told you that. Why would I want to move across the country when I had everything there? My job, my apartment, lots of friends. I only went along with it for your sake.”

The air thickened with tension, and I could barely breathe. Shock, anger, and sadness churned within me. I’d thought we had a good relationship, even after our divorce. But now it seemed she had been playing tricks on me all this time, turning against me when I wasn’t around, badmouthing me to our sons.

“Are you serious? You’re rewriting history. We made this decision together for the kids.”

“No, we didn’t. You came up with this idea, totally overreacting to that incident with Byron.”

“That incident? Jeepers, Mandy, he wasdrunk, hanging out with kids who got arrested, maybe even doing drugs. That’s not an incident. That’s a serious problem.”

“Semantics. My point is that instead of talking about it with him and discussing this as a family, you decided we needed to move across the country. And I went along with it because it would make you happy. All I’ve ever wanted was to make you happy and do what’s best for our boys. But you’re so selfish, always thinking only of what you want. You might love living in a small town, but the kids don’t.”

Her accusation cut through me like a knife, the sting sharp in my chest. I clenched my hands into fists as I tried to hold back the hurt threatening to spill over. “Selfish?” I repeated in a shaking voice. “I thought we were doing what was best for all of us. If you felt so strongly about staying in Atlanta, why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because I didn’t want to fight with you. I know how much you loved the idea of moving here. I didn’t want to take that away from you.”

Was I going crazy? She was saying all these things, and none of them felt true, yet she’d uttered them with such confidence that I was questioning myself. Had I been so wrong? Was Mandy right that I’d been blinded by my convictions that this would be the right move for our family without consulting her or the kids? Sure, Byron had been dead set against it, but Milton had been neutral, even enthusiastic at times. Or had I been fooling myself about that as well?

I had to face the reality that my decision—what I thought had beenourdecision—had not been the right one for my family. That it had been born in selfishness, not in love for my family. And that hurt more than anything else. Had I been chasing the wrong thing? Had I tricked myself into thinking that somehow moving to Forestville would solve all my problems? If that was true, then all this was on me. Byron’s deep unhappiness and his acting out were on me.

“We’ll have to continue this conversation another time.” I barely managed to hold it together. “I want to start driving.”

“I’ll go get the boys.”

As she walked out of the kitchen, I took a few deep breaths, determined to put on a brave face for my boys. I couldn’t let them see how much their mother’s words had affected me.

“Hey, Dad.” Milton gave me a quick hug. How I wanted to hold on to him, press him against me, and tell him I would fix whatever I had broken.

“Hey, buddy. Happy to see you. Did you have a good weekend?”

“Yes. We went to the trampoline park yesterday, which was fun, and then we went to the mall.” He held out his hand. “Mom bought me a new watch.”

Of course she had. “Oh, wow. That’s pretty cool.”

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