A Mother's Homecoming(32)
“Happy to help.” He paced the grass along the edge of the porch, the ground cool and damp against his bare feet. “You said ‘first of all.’ Was there more than one reason you were planning to call me?” Was it possible his mother’s insane suspicions weren’t so insane—could Pam have missed him? After all, they were both back in Mimosa, where certain nostalgic tendencies might take effect.
But Pam sounded far from wistfully reminiscent when she said, “It’s about Faith.”
His body tensed. “What about her?”
“I realize this is none of my business …” Utterly bizarre words for a girl’s mother to be speaking, but given the circumstances, accurate. “She seems like a good kid.”
“The best.”
“So you might want to consider, um, easing up on her. A bit.” Her discomfort seeped through the phone lines. Doling out unsolicited advice did not come as easily to her as it did to Gwendolyn and Leigh.
“Easing up? Did she paint me as some sort of überstrict parent?” The little con artist. It galled him to think that after he’d faced down Pam, not to mention his mother, to get Faith today’s opportunity, she’d used it to bitch about him.
“Actually, she seemed to adore you. She said she was even cool most of the time with not having a mom because she had you. I got the impression it had more to do with Gwendolyn.”
Ah. That he could believe.
“And that she just wants you to trust her, to give her the space to prove she’ll make smart decisions.”
He snorted. “And did this upstanding citizen mention to you that she’s currently grounded for cutting class?”
“She what?”
It was gratifying to hear his own parental outrage echoed. “Oh, so she left out that part when she was describing life under my tyrannical thumb.”
Pam sighed. “Damn it—darn it, I knew I should have stayed out of it. I’ve just … I was in California for a while and ran into lots of people making bad decisions. Some of them started as good kids with promising futures, but they rebelled too far against the restrictive ways they were being raised. Parents who probably thought they were keeping their children from harm inadvertently pushed them into it. I’m sure the last thing you want is for Faith to end up, well, like I did.”
The idea of his daughter as a pregnant teenager was enough to wake him in the middle of the night drenched in a cold sweat. He pushed it aside and focused on Pam instead. “Are you saying that’s what I was to you, teenage rebellion? A method for getting back at your mom?”
“No!” She quickly shot down his idle theory. “Are you kidding? We were together for years, Nick. I’ve had one-night stands, mistakes that made me ashamed to look at myself in the mirror the next day. That’s not what … I loved you.”
His jaw clenched. How dare she say that to him, this woman who’d whispered words of love to him for years, then disappeared? He’d seen her once, on television, and had been incensed that she’d simply built a new life without a backward glance at him and Faith. Why hadn’t it been that easy for him, to forget the woman who’d betrayed him? Instead, Pam had waltzed through his mind so many times she’d worn her own groove.
Not that he planned to share that with her. “I shouldn’t have called.”
“Why did you?” Now the wariness he’d anticipated had crept into her tone.
“Who the hell knows?” He leaned back, taking in the inky black night. The way he was feeling, there should have been a full moon. “I get antsy sometimes, on edge, and I thought you might feel that way on late Saturday nights, too. I heard your aunt and uncle were out of town, and you met Faith today …”
“So you were calling to check on me?” She sounded bemused. “To make sure I wasn’t raiding the liquor cabinet? Not that Aunt Julia has one.”
“Something like that. I didn’t really analyze it, just dialed.” How many times would he have called her over the years if he’d had a number? “Don’t worry, it won’t happen again.”
THE STRESS HEADACHE behind Pam’s left eye throbbed in time to the bass-heavy pop song playing through the salon’s speakers. On Sundays, the place was only open for a few hours in the afternoon. It was due to close in about fifteen minutes. Given the day Pam was having so far, she’d debated telling Dawn she was unfit company and canceling. But at the last minute, Pam had reconsidered. Visiting her old friend gave her a much-needed excuse to head into town. Because if she’d stayed at the house any longer, she couldn’t be held responsible for her actions.