Page 109 of The Write Stuff

“Oh, I was owed that meltdown. My husband had just left me for my best friend.”

“After you cheated on him.”

She frowned. “I guess he really did tell you everything.” Frustrated, she got to her feet. She didn’t take off, and I was grateful for it. She paced instead. “My problem is that I’ve always wanted to be loved. It’s never enough, though. Nobody ever loves me the way I want to be loved.”

“Have you considered that’s because you don’t love yourself?”

“No. I happen to think I’m the best person in the world.” She said it in such a way that I could do nothing but grin. “I get it, though,” she added after a beat. “I’m the problem here. The reason I keep getting married and divorced — and married and divorced and married and divorced — is because I’m not happy with myself.”

“They have therapy for things like that,” I offered. “Mom went to therapy after the thing in Austin. She said it really helped.”

“Your mother went to therapy?” She looked appalled. “Are you kidding me? She told you that?”

“She told me if I was ever feeling unhappy with myself to go to therapy. She’s a big proponent of it.”

“Wow,” was all she said.

“Yeah.” I nodded.

“I guess she’s done some growing. Which means that I’m the only one who hasn’t done any growing.” She looked disturbed at the realization. “You and Huxley have grown enough to get past all your issues and fall in love.”

“I didn’t realize we were in love,” I admitted. “I mean, I knew I was in love with him. I figured it was too soon to say it, though, and I didn’t want to scare him off.”

That made her smile. “You and Huxley were tailor-made for each other.” She sat on the bench again, and it was as if all the fight had gone out of her. “You two balance each other really well. One of my greatest regrets was that I ripped you two away from one another when you were just getting to an age when you might have figured out that you were gone for each other.”

“I always knew I was gone for him,” I admitted. “I just never thought it was possible he would ever be gone for me.”

She waved her hand as if I was spouting nonsense. “You always had poor self-esteem. You couldn’t see your own worth. Your mother was worried about you when you were a teenager.” She gave me an appraising look. “Apparently, all of that worrying was for nothing.”

“I don’t know about that.” I barked out a hollow laugh. “It took me a long time to figure myself out.”

“No, you always knew who you were, Wylie. What took you a long time to figure out was that what other people thought about you didn’t matter.”

She was right, of course. That had been my biggest problem. “Huxley likes that I’m a geek now. He bought me a Star Trek shirt for our first date. He even wore one too.”

“Really?” She leaned back and studied me with the trained eye of a mother who adores her son, even if she’s really and truly mad at him. “I guess he has come around.”

“He’s a great man.”

“I know.”

“He’s a great man partly because of you.”

“He was always going to be a great man. I don’t deserve any of the credit.”

“Of course you do. You’re his mom.”

“Yes, well … I’m still mad at him. He should have told me that he was back in touch with Aggie and Mick.”

“It just happened yesterday.”

“He still should have told me. I should have been here for his conversation with Mick.”

“I’m pretty sure he didn’t want to have that conversation with Mick. He was sort of forced into it.”

“That sounds like Mick.” Eleanor scowled. “I hate that he did the one thing I couldn’t and told Huxley the truth. I wanted to do that. I just … didn’t know how.”

“Well, it’s done now.” I said it in a chipper voice and earned a glare from Eleanor. “You have to get over it,” I added in a lower voice. “If you don’t, then Huxley will always feel guilt when we’re together, and that’s not what I want for him. I don’t think it’s what you want for him either.”