Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 55550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 278(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 278(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
“Hey, Wade,” Emma says when she brings a cup over to me. “Black?”
“Yes, ma’am. Thank you.”
My mom leans forward and whispers. “So, why are we meeting?”
“I had a run in with Lemon this morning.”
Her eyes widen and I shake my head. “Not like that.” If Lemon and I had the kind of run in I wanted, I don’t know if I’d be telling my mom about it. I’d probably find the tallest cliff and scream it at the top of my lungs or call my best friend Jed. As is, the conversation we had left a lot to be desired and I’m not sure how to proceed. In all the years, I haven’t been able to shut off or change my feelings about her, and even now I’m wondering if she meant what she said.
“Anyway, this is going to sound odd, but I think she’s jealous of Goldie.”
“What?” Mom’s face scrunches. “That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Right, but she said something this morning and now I can’t get it out of my mind.”
“Let’s start at the beginning, Wade. First of all, talking to Lemon is a good thing. When was the last time you spoke to her?”
I adjust my hat and sigh. “The day I went and told her about Ana being pregnant. She slammed her door in my face after telling me she never ever wanted to speak to me again.”
“So, did you do all the talking then?”
I shake my head. “Nope, she started in on me at five-thirty this morning. Yammering about how it’s too early to work and how she was going to call Declan.”
“Did she?”
“Nope.” I take a drink of my coffee. “Kept talking though, which I liked because that’s huge progress.”
“And you’re still alive,” Mom says.
“There’s that.” I laugh and take another drink. “But the talking turns to arguing, which doesn’t surprise me because we haven’t resolved any of those feelings from years ago. When I brought up the shit that happened at school, Lemon said something that struck me as odd.”
“That she’s madly in love with you?”
A smirk plays on my lips. I’d be over the moon happy if she’d said that. “No, she brought up me cheating on her—”
“You were on a break!” Mom whisper yells and throws her hands up. “I swear that child . . .”
“You know this and so do I. She doesn’t believe we were. Anyway, she said something that gave me pause.” I wait for my mom to interrupt me, but she doesn’t. She raises her eyebrow as if I’m stalling. I clear my throat. “She asked if I cared how it made her feel to see Goldie every day.”
“What?”
“Odd?”
“Very.”
I nod. “Yeah, so I started thinking. Do you think Lemon’s jealous of Goldie?”
Mom sits back in her chair and fiddles with her mug while contemplating. Her face scrunches in concentration and then softens. “I could see her being jealous of Ana, but Goldie? Marigold is an innocent child in all of this.”
“I know, but I can’t help but think it’s what Lemon’s feeling. I don’t know. I think back to Meet Your Teacher Night and she was cold. I expect her to treat me like that, but not Goldie. Not one of her students.”
“Lemon was hurt by . . .” She motions toward me and the empty space next to me. “But it’s been years, Wade. Surely, she’s over it.”
I finish my coffee just in time for Emma to come over with a fresh cup. I thank her and take a sip, not caring if it’s scalding. I need the burn to keep me focused.
“Hear me out,” I say. “I move back as soon as I graduate, but she doesn’t. She stays in North Carolina and gets her masters, which was never the plan. Plans change, I get it. But when she does come back, she does everything she can to avoid me. Lemon never goes down to River’s Edge, you never see her in here. I don’t deal with her when it comes to the landscaping needs at the elementary school. She isn’t here during the summer when Goldie is. But now . . .” I pause and shake my head. “Now she has to see me because of Goldie. She can’t avoid me, and she can’t avoid Goldie, no matter how hard she tries.”
“Sweetie, this doesn’t equate jealousy.”
“No, but if Goldie looked like me and not Ana, I don’t think we’d be sitting here having this conversation. Goldie is a spitting image of Ana except she has my hair color. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to deduce my daughter looks like her mother if you’ve just met her.”
“True.” Mom takes a drink of her coffee. “But jealousy?”
“Lemon and I had plans, Mom. Buy a house, get married, and have kids. Then things happened. Not in that order and not with her. If Ana hadn’t gotten pregnant, I firmly believe Lemon and I would be married by now, raising our own family.”