Don't Let Go(86)

I grinned through my tears. “Point taken. Can we talk about your love life now?”
“Leaving,” he said, backing up.
I chuckled. “What I thought.”
He stepped forward again quickly with a glance toward Becca, leaning over in my ear. “She didn’t do the deed, by the way. Listen to her. Let her talk.”
I widened my eyes as he backed up, smiled, said another good-bye to Becca and headed for the kitchen to see Linny and Johnny Mack. Watching him walk away pulled at my insides, tearing at me as if he were an infant all over again. I clamped a hand over my mouth to hold it in, and then I felt an arm through mine. Turning, I met Becca’s eyes, full of tears too. I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her like there was no tomorrow.



Chapter 22

After texting Hayden that Becca was back safe and sound, and asking-slash-begging him not to come confront her just yet, she and I went back to the bookstore. Ruthie made hot chocolate—the real kind, not powder from a packet—and left us alone in a far corner couch.
She was softer, I noticed. More introspective. Seth was good for her.
“So is this store going to me one day?” Becca asked after a long moment when neither of us knew where to begin.
She’d never asked me that before, and honestly it had never crossed my mind. Odd, that.
“Do you want it to?” I asked. Becca looked at me uncomfortably and shrugged. “No, seriously,” I said. “Be honest with me.”
She took another sip and licked her lips. “Not really,” she said. “I’m sorry, it just isn’t something I can ever see myself doing. Sitting in a bookstore reading? Yes. Running one?” She shook her head.
Boy, I knew that feeling, and it gave me the willies all the way to my toes.
“Okay,” I said simply.
“You’re not upset?” she said.
Not about that. “Not at all,” I said. “You should do what you want. I wasn’t given that choice.” Echoes, echoes, déjà vu.
She gave me a long look. “I don’t want to be a teacher, either, Mom.”
I took a slow swallow from my mug. “I kind of picked that up. So what do you want to be?”
“I don’t know for sure,” she said, looking down into her cup.
I let some moments pass. “Tell me about today.”
Becca grimaced. “Can we just pretend I went shopping or something?” she asked.
I raised an eyebrow. “Sure. How was the shopping on Cayman Boulevard?”
She chuckled and looked away, probably surprised that I played. I was surprised that I played. Not my normal way. Maybe Seth was good for me, too.
“Not good,” she said. “I didn’t buy anything.”
Goose bumps. I looked at her. “Why not?”
She shrugged. “Wasn’t ready to, I guess. Decided to save my money for—something worth spending it on. Maybe wait for something I can’t live without,” she added softly.
I had no words to describe how that floored me. All I could do was stare at her in awe. She’d made her own choice. Made her own rule for herself. Her own rule.
Granted, she’d skipped school and snuck off to do it, but I had to recognize the hugeness of what she had done.
“I think that was a brilliant decision,” I said when I found my tongue.
Becca met my gaze. “And if I’d went the other way?”
I cleared my throat. “Well, I guess I wouldn’t be able to say much, would I?”
Memory clouded her expression. “I shouldn’t have said that about Seth—about you—I’m sorry.”
I touched her hair. “It’s okay, babe. There was truth in it. It’s a hard truth for a parent to justify, is all.” She nodded and ran a finger around the rim of her half-empty mug. “I’m very proud of you, Bec,” I said, feeling the burn behind my eyes. I swear I was going to dehydrate. “That was a very grown-up decision you made.”
She looked up and misted over as she smiled. “Grown-up enough to not get punished?”
“Oh, no.”
She laughed. “Yeah, it was worth a shot.”
“It was, but the playing hooky part of your day takes the grown-up part down.”
“I know.” She covered her face. “God, what does Dad know?”
“Enough,” I said. “You need to talk to him like this. He deserves it.”
“That’s what Seth said.”
I turned sideways to face her. “How did all this go down with Seth?”
Becca swept her hair back and it fell in its little choppy layers.
“He was sitting on the hood of his truck all badass right outside the door of the—” She stopped and gave me a sideways glance. “The mall.”
It was all I could do not to spit hot chocolate. “Of course.”
“Mark about pissed himself,” she said. “Then Seth told him he could leave, that he’d take me home.”
“And you just said, Okay, see ya, Mark?” I asked, incredulous.
If Hayden or I would have done that, there would have been sounds only dogs could hear. Seth was right.
She held up a hand. “I don’t know, I guess I was so embarrassed that he was sitting there waiting on me, it didn’t even cross my mind to argue.”
“Wow.”
She rubbed at her face. “Then he brought me to St. Vernon’s.”
I blinked. “What?”
She looked at me questioningly. “It’s a place for teenage mothers that have nowhere to go.”
“I—I know,” I said, my voice cracking. “I’ve been there.”