Page 79 of Trick or Truce

Grant’s shoulders droop as he lifts his watery eyes to mine.

I want to console him. I want to hold him and tell him that we’ll get through this together. But I can’t do that. Between the shock and the broken heart I’m still mending, and the crying girl upstairs…

Right now, I have to focus on Noah.

Instead, I offer him this. “I can’t say whether I would’ve done anything differently had I been in your shoes. We do what we think is right to protect the ones we love.”

He nods and then shuffles toward the door, wordless and lifeless.

And I let him walk back to his house.

Alone.

19

Grant

My front door opens,and Romeo and I both spring from the couch. “Noah?”

My mother’s somber face comes into view. “I’m sorry, honey. It’s just me.”

“What are you doing here?”

She shrugs off her coat as she walks into the living room and lays it over the arm of the couch. “I got a phone call from my granddaughter this morning.”

“What did she say?”

“She called to ask if I knew the truth about her mother, and I told her I did.”

My mother is the only other person who knows the truth about Tara.

I slump back onto the couch and dig the heels of my hands into my tired eyes. “I fucked up.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“She hates me now.”

“No, she doesn’t.”

“I’ve never seen her like this before. Whenever she gets mad at me, she stomps away and locks herself in her room. But she won’t even come home.”

“She just needs some time. This is bigger than a tiff about her curfew.”

I let out a humorless laugh. “All this time I’ve been trying to keep her from feeling pain, and I’m the one who hurt her the most.”

My mother lowers herself onto the cushion beside me, and Romeo sets his head in her lap. “I know you’re feeling guilty about lying to Noah, and I know she’s angry with you. But that doesn’t mean what you did was wrong.”

“What?”

“Being a parent means making tough decisions. Children won’t always like the choices their parents make. Hell, they rarely ever like them. But we make these decisions in spite of what they want because it’s our job to keep them healthy, happy, and safe. And your decision to keep her away from Tara is what has given her this beautiful life.”

I shake my head. “Noah doesn’t see it that way.”

“And she won’t until she’s older.” She clasps my hand. “But sweetheart, Noah isn’t truly angry with you. She’s angry at Tara, and she’s going to lash out at the only person she knows she can lash out at.”

“No, Mom. She’s mad at me. Trust me. She made that very clear.”

A slight smile curves her lips. “Do you remember when your father and I went on a cruise when you were little? I think you were five or six years old.”

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