Page 34 of A Chance Love

Her heart pounded in her chest. Would she lie to her mother, too? She might not have a choice. “I’m at the house in Sandcrest with Georgia.”

“With Georgia?”

Immediately, April regretted her words. She shouldn’t have told her mother anything about Georgia. It was too soon for her to start nagging about college. “Yes, she’s here with me.”

April had learned long ago that when it came to her mother, the less details the better. Even when she asked questions, April would give her the least amount of information that would get her to stop asking.

“Why isn’t she in school? There’s no break right now, is there? Who takes breaks only a few weeks in?”

She swallowed hard, trying to think of an answer that wouldn’t upset her mother. “Well-”

“And where is Carl?”

She released a breath she was holding at the fortunate change of subject. “Carl is out of town on business. Everything is fine, Mom. We’re all okay. There’s nothing to worry about. What are you doing at the house?”

“I was coming to visit you. I wanted to see you guys. But obviously I can’t do that anymore without a reservation.”

April rolled her eyes. Always with the guilt trips and exaggerations. She wondered if Caroline would ever refer to anything as just the way it was, instead of ten times bigger. “We’re working on some stuff down here. We won’t be back at the house for a while.”

“What is going on with you guys? Your family is all over the place. I have so many questions. No one tells me anything anymore.”

It was still hard for her to tell her mother the harsh truth. She wanted to say,‘stay out of my business and stop coming to my house uninvited.’But she knew if she said that, all hell would break loose. And the bad side of her mother would crawl out, wreaking havoc on everyone else’s lives around her.

It took another deep breath and a hard bite on her lip before April was able to say, “Mom, we are fine. You don’t have to worry about us, okay? We’re finishing some things up and I’ll explain everything.”

“When will that be?” Her voice was nasal, a sign of her rising level of irritation.

April turned to look at Georgia who was serving their dinner. Then she looked over the house with one room almost complete and several others started. Still, this house was going to take them much longer than she originally expected. Everything was taking longer, from painting to contractors to finding furniture.

Considering she came to the island on a whim, everything was taking longer than she expected. At every turn there was something new to make things more difficult for her, adding to the time it would take before she even thought about leaving this place.

“I’m not sure yet. But I’m going to call you soon and we’ll talk about everything. I’ll explain, I promise.” The reassurance wasn’t going to do anything for her mother. “We’ll talk soon, okay? Alright, love you, bye.”

She heard her mother begin to talk, but had already committed to hanging up. She’d face the repercussions of that later. Hopefully, the news of her daughter dropping out and her divorce would overshadow the fact that she just hung up on her mother.

Turning her phone off, ignoring the several notifications of emails and voicemails from Maxwell, she stuffed it into her back pocket. A plate was waiting for her at the dining room table with Georgia already eating her own portion.

“How was Grandma?”

April raised her brows and shrugged. “I don’t even know. She was at the house in New York apparently. She was upset that no one was home.”

“Oh, I didn’t think about that. She was probably asking a million questions. Does she know about school?”

April sat and started scooping the delicious stir fry into her mouth, trying to make herself feel better about the day. It worked as she filled her belly with the warm sustenance. “She doesn’t know that you’ve dropped out, but she knows that you’re not there. I accidentally told her you were with me here.”

“So she knows I’m not in school? Was she upset?”

She wished that her daughter wasn’t worried about what her mother thought about the situation. April had been trying so hard to be supportive and yet, Georgia was still worried about how her decision looked to everyone else. What would she do if her mother pressured Georgia into going back to school?

It was against everything April had been working towards. There was no way she could let her mother ruin all this progress. Georgia had finally begun to believe that she wasn’t trying to control her decision. Which was the truth. But if Caroline came in and stomped around, they would all need to confront it head on.

At the very least, April knew that her mother wouldn’t let this go. She would continue to ask questions. And she had better have those answers the next time she called. Caroline would absolutely call again. Again and again until she was satisfied.

“She was upset, but that’s okay. We’ll get through this. You focus on you right now. Let me worry about Grandma.”

They ate their dinner in peace. April wondered how long this peace would last. The picture perfect vacation they’d envisioned was slowly cracking at the seams.

She knew she didn’t have long before it would burst open.

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