Page 83 of Return to Me Always

And still she waited, the tension stretching out between us. I pulled on a loose thread in the sheet. She started to gnaw at her nails again, the sound driving me insane.

Ugh, I wanted to talk. I could feel the words almost spill out, but I bit my tongue. Literally.

Chewing, chewing, chewing.

I bolted up. "Welp. I'm gonna head to the bathroom then."

She stopped biting her nails suddenly. "Oh, hon, I don't want to upset you, especially not right now after everything you've been through."

Sighing, I plopped back down on the bed. I guess I could wait a little bit longer for that shower I was dying for.

"Mom, I'm fine. Really. And now that this is over, I just want to take a little time to really explore London and then continue on. I'll be totally fine. I'll text you every day and every night. I mean, really, what are the odds that I'll get into a mess like this again? You know?"

Her face relaxed into a reluctant smile. "I don't know. What are the odds that this would have all happened in the first place?"

I rolled my eyes. "True."

"You know what would really make me feel better about you staying?"

"What?" I asked, willing to do anything—anything—to stay.

"If you weren't alone. If you had someone with you while you're traveling."

I looked down and stared at the comforter, not sure what to say. The truth was itwouldbe nice to have someone with me, but I could also do it on my own. "You know I'm capable of doing it alone, though."

"I know. I know I raised a strong girl who's grown into a smart, capable young lady who knows how to kick a guy where it counts."

That felt good to hear. I probablywouldhave figured it all out by myself—even without Tyler's help. But it had been incredible to work together, and we hadbothsaved the day in our own way several times.

"But in case of an emergency, like you just had," she continued, "it'd be nice to have someone along for backup, you know?"

I nodded. "I get it."

Her voice quiet, she asked, "Any chance Tyler might go with you?"

The biggest sigh in the world escaped my lungs. "I don't know." Of course, that would be amazing. Beyond amazing. But besides being unsure about his feelings for me, he was still in college. "I can't ask him that. I can't ask him to leave school for me."

She tilted her head at me again. "But I thought he was already done with school."

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"Well, he told me he'd graduated already and was just taking a few classes. Haven't you two discussed all that?"

I didn't have the heart to tell her that was just the tip of the iceberg. "No, we haven't. There's a lot we need to talk about."

Her eyebrows shot up almost to her hairline. "Really?"

"Yeah, a lot," I repeated, rubbing my temples, a bit of a headache coming on.

"Look, why don't you get in the shower, and we'll talk about this later. Okay?"

Was that a yes or a no? I couldn't tell. But I could definitely sense she was softening and somewhat open to me staying, especially if Tyler was involved, which was kind of weird actually.

In the end, though, it wasn't actually her choice, was it? I had financed this whole trip myself. Not her. The only thing she could threaten was to not pay for college next year. But I had a partial scholarship, and besides, I didn't really think she'd do that anyway. That was pretty harsh, and we were much closer than that.

Stretching out my sore muscles, I stood back up and headed for the most glorious shower I would ever take in my life.

Chapter Twenty-Six

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