The Forever Girl (Wildstone, #6)(87)

And just like that, her feet stopped working. Just stopped, as if she’d stepped into a vat of cement. It’d sucked her in, drying around her, making movement impossible. In contrast, her heart pounded in her ears and she couldn’t get enough air.

Nodding her understanding of the situation, Shelly took the last few steps for her, closing the distance between them. “Maze.” Her voice was the same as it’d been all those years ago: soft, warm, genuine. “I’m so happy to see you. I was worried you wouldn’t come because of me.”

Maze’s stomach twisted, and all she could do was hope she wouldn’t be sick until after. She figured she’d smile, bear the hugs, look Shelly and Jim in the eyes and give a genuine apology for basically pretending they didn’t exist, then move off. Instead, her eyes filled, and she heard herself whisper, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry—”

“No, darling, no.” Shaking her head, her eyes shiny, Shelly said, “No apologies necessary.” She smiled through unshed tears and cupped Maze’s face. “I’ve missed you so much.”

Maze nodded, because words were beyond her now, and she hoped Shelly knew she meant she’d missed her too.

Caitlin had come close, and she snorted at Maze not repeating the words, but she didn’t interfere. Which meant that Maze stood there feeling like an idiot. A frozen-in-anxiety idiot. Looking into Shelly’s damp eyes made it impossible to pretend everything was fine. Everything was not fine, and she was tired of the pretense. “Please let me say I’m sorry,” she managed.

“Honey, we’re the ones who are sorry. There were things we could have handled better. When we lost Michael, we were so devastated that we were barely hanging on by a thread. We weren’t thinking clearly. But the truth was, between losing him and the house, it wasn’t just that we couldn’t have taken on the extra responsibility; they actually wouldn’t allow it. And by the time we were ready, you’d already been settled with another family.”

Shelly was by now somehow holding both of Maze’s hands, which Maze felt really bad about because her hands were sweaty. And shaking. She could also feel the weight of Caitlin’s gaze, along with Heather’s and Walker’s, who’d made their way over and stood close to her, at her back, aligned with her. She took a deep breath. “I understand. No, wait.” She grimaced because she needed to tell the truth, needed to get it all out once and for all. “It took me a while to really understand, to get that it wasn’t about you not wanting to fight for me but that your hands were tied. I was terrible to you both, and I’m . . .” She had to swallow hard, but she still felt like she was choking on unshed tears. “I’m so sorry for that.”

Shelly lost the battle with her own tears as well. “Oh, honey, we did fight for you. But by the time we jumped through all the system’s hoops and got the paperwork handled, a year had gone by and you were already settled in a new school. We didn’t want to uproot you again. I couldn’t do that to you after all you’d been through.”

“You . . . fought for me?”

“So hard.” She squeezed Maze’s hands. “That’s what family does, they fight for each other.”

“But I didn’t even come into your lives until I was a teenager.”

Shelly hugged her tight. “You don’t need to be in the beginning of a child’s story to change the ending.”

Maze felt Walker’s hand on her shoulder, could feel Caitlin and Heather by her side. Her heart swelled until it felt too big for her chest. Pulling back, she searched her pockets for a tissue, which was ridiculous because she never kept tissues on her. Heather came up with a few spare napkins from her bag.

“It’s a mommy thing,” Heather said. “I also have crayons and crackers if you need.”

They all laughed and cried and hugged again.

Maze swiped at her tears and suddenly her senses kicked in again. She became aware of the fact that they stood in the middle of the wedding rehearsal and that there were others around, a lot of others. “I’m sorry.” She squeezed Caitlin’s hand. “I’m so sorry. Tonight’s supposed to be about you.”

“It is about me,” Caitlin said, wiping her own tears away and hugging Maze hard. “You’re my family. And this is all I’ve wanted—everything out in the open so we can move on.”

“We’re doing just that,” Maze assured her. “Now let’s shift this over to you and Dillon. Please.”

“Yes,” Shelly said, giving her daughter a sweet, soggy smile. “Let’s move on to getting you married.”

“Right,” Caitlin said with a nod. “Sure. Yep.” She suddenly looked a little . . . green?

Maze squeezed her hand. “Hey, you okay?”

“Of course.” Caitlin waved her concern off. “Just a little headache. I’ve had it for weeks, but I’m fine. Totally fine. Like completely, totally, one hundred percent fine.”

“One more ‘fine’ and we just might believe you,” Walker said dryly.

Caitlin tossed up her hands. “Look, I’m just tired, okay? I mean, what else could it be?”

“The roses?” Walker asked.

Maze looked around and caught sight of Dillon’s mom placing a vase of roses at her table.