Twenty-Two

TWENTY-TWO

Everett

" Y ou know, I don't think you needed to cancel the wedding so abruptly." Leo walked onto my balcony and handed me a coffee. "You could've given it a few more weeks to breathe."

"So, people are talking?"

" Everyone is talking." He stepped closer. "I don't think Carmen will ever be able to show her face in this town again."

"Good." I shrugged. "It's not like she was serious about being a homesteader anyway."

"You don't know that," he said. "The last time I talked to her, she was talking about all types of farm stuff."

"Like what, Leo?"

"Don't quote me, but I know she mentioned that she was going to have an exterminator come out every day to make sure she never saw a bug anywhere."

"Exactly." I sipped my coffee. "Good riddance."

"When are you heading back to New York?"

"I'm not sure," I said. "Don't forget to cancel whatever plans you made for my bachelor party."

"Oh, right." He pulled out his phone. "Carmen actually helped me make those. Want to know where she was having us go?"

"Not really."

"Cool." He set an envelope on my desk. The seal bore Dahlia's handwriting, so I put it where I'd placed the three others she'd sent me this week.

I was still processing everything she'd told me, trying to convince myself she was wrong. That I would've stayed and not regretted a thing, but all I could remember was all the baby talk between our mothers. How she must've felt hearing how excited everyone was about "a day that had a five percent chance of coming…"

"If you haven't canceled the Ibiza honeymoon," Leo cleared his throat, interrupting my thoughts, "can I push up the date and take my girlfriend instead?"

"That's the real reason you came here to see me, isn't it?"

"What?" He scoffed. "Not at all, man. I can't believe you think I'm that selfish."

I crossed my arms.

"I came here to make sure your heart is okay after you lost out on a cheating woman who I never liked from day one."

I rolled my eyes. "You can take the honeymoon trip, Leo."

"Thanks!" He disappeared.

Moments later, the sound of footsteps hitting the stone made me turn around.

"Mom?" I smiled at her as she pulled me into a hug.

"How are you doing?" she asked.

"The same as I was when we spoke earlier this morning."

"So, constipated and grumpy?"

"Funny." I smiled and offered her my seat, but she refused. Instead, she moved to the railing and looked out at the garden.

"I miss Mrs. Foster so much," she said. "When you and Dahlia went across town to college, we became the best of friends."

"I know."

"She loved you like you were her own son."

"I know that, too…"

"We never did understand why Dahlia broke up with you out of nowhere, though," she said. "I never bought what you told me about the cheating. That wasn't in her nature at all."

I said nothing.

"Her mother assumed she was just going through an emotional crisis, but she assumed it would be temporary."

"Shouldn't you be talking to me about Carmen instead of Dahlia right now?"

" Anyway —" She waved away my suggestion. "I hope you'll figure that out and see if things with her are salvageable. You've been promising me a grandbaby forever, and time is ticking."

"It hasn't been forever, Mom."

"Ha!" She snorted. "Okay, since you were like nine."

"You're exaggerating."

"You don't remember your father ghosting you on Career Day in the sixth grade?" She looked into my eyes. "You told me right then and there that you would have a kid someday and you'd never do that to him. Or her."

I remembered that vividly, but I didn't mention it.

"I'm not saying you have to pop out a baby just for me, of course, but fatherhood has been something you've wanted for as long as I can remember, so I just?—"

"Hold that thought, Mom," I interrupted her. "I need to go handle something."

"Now?"

"Yeah." I headed to the door. "Before it's too late."