Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 100202 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 501(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100202 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 501(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
This wasn’t my dream anymore. Eighteen-year-old Callie would have relished every second of this, but I wasn’t that girl anymore.
“Let’s go home.” Sutton got off the stool and tugged her Team Summit T-shirt down. It was too big for her, but she loved it.
“It’s not that simple,” I said quietly.
“Why?” Her face scrunched. “Because you got so mad at Weston that we couldn’t live with him anymore?”
My mouth dropped open. “That…happened before we moved here. He had already left, remember?”
“Because you got in a fight.” She folded her arms across her chest.
“Because adults have issues that kids don’t need to worry about.”
“It was because of me, wasn’t it?” The worry in her eyes killed me.
“No. Never. Weston adores you. You know that.” I laced my fingers together, gripping them tight.
“That’s not what I mean. You fought because I got hurt! Because I picked the harder line and crashed.” She shook her head. “It wasn’t his fault, Mom. He wanted me to take the other one. It’s my fault!”
“Sutton,” I whispered, standing, wishing I could pull her into my arms and hug her, but that wasn’t what she wanted, what she needed, right now. She needed to yell, to scream, to let it out.
“Can we go home if I promise not to compete anymore?” Her lower lip trembled.
I hit my knees in front of her. “It’s not that. You aren’t the reason. Sometimes things just don’t work out between people because they’re too different, or because they want different things.”
“Like you didn’t want to enter the picture contest.”
“That’s true.” Just because I wasn’t about to unload heavy adult emotions on my eleven-year-old didn’t mean I was going to lie to her either. “I didn’t want to enter. And sometimes when someone makes a choice for you, it can be the wrong one.” I arched a brow at her.
“Don’t blame him for it!” She shook her head, panic pressing her mouth tight.
“This isn’t something you have to worry about, sugar.”
“You can’t blame Weston when I’m the one who wanted you to enter!”
“Is that why you signed the waiver?” I asked quietly, keeping my voice as calm as possible so this didn’t escalate. “Did Weston ask for your help?” The thought had been in my head since yesterday, spreading like poison.
Her arms fell to her sides.
“Sutton, it’s okay. Just tell me the truth. I’ve already seen the waiver. I know you signed it. You’re good, kiddo, but you’re not that good.”
“It was me,” she whispered. “I signed it, and I was going to upload it, but Weston caught me.”
I blinked. “What?”
“I told him that if he didn’t do it, I would.” Her gaze hit the floor. “I said that if you were his mom, he’d want everyone to know you were special too.”
“Oh God.” I covered my mouth with my hand. The way Weston loved his mom…that must have sliced him to the quick. “Tell me you’re kidding. Tell me you didn’t really say that.”
“I did.” She nodded, her lower lip trembling. “And I told him that I knew I was the reason you didn’t try to do this years ago. And I didn’t want to be the reason you lost your dream again.”
She’d hit him with a one-two punch, nailing both his trigger points. Damn it. Poor Weston.
And Sutton… I’d worked so hard to make sure she never felt like she was anything but the biggest blessing in my life, yet here we were. My stomach turned to lead. “Sutton, listen to me. You have never been the reason for anything bad in my life. You’re the best part of it.”
She took two deep breaths and looked me in the eyes. “He didn’t tell you it was me?”
“No,” I whispered, shaking my head. “But you wouldn’t have been able to do it. You didn’t have a picture of me to submit with the application.”
She cocked her eyebrow. “I was just going to scan your pass and then crop it. I’m not five, Mom.” Her lips pressed in a thin line and her shoulders dipped. “So, can we go home?”
I reached forward and brushed the back of my hand across her cheek. “You need to know that not everything with Weston was about you falling, or the contest. None of this is your fault, Sutton. None of it.” How was I supposed to teach her not to accept less than she deserved if I stayed with a man I loved, who would never love me back?
But how could I keep her here when we were obviously both miserable?
There was a knock at the door. It was probably time to start tearing down our equipment to prepare for tomorrow’s move.
“Some of it is,” she muttered.
“None of this is on you. Adults make the decisions, not the kids.” I stood, struggling to get my thoughts into coherent order as I headed for the front door. Weston hadn’t told me that he’d caught Sutton with the application. He hadn’t told me she was going to upload it if he didn’t.