Page 80 of A Dream for Daphne

He snorted. “Nope, you’re not.”

“Hey,” his mother said, swatting his arm. “Not nice.”

“The truth always isn’t,” he said, putting his chin in the air, then turning to grin at her.

“You’re avoiding. Talk about Ella.”

“Fine,” he said. His mother saw right through that like she always did. “I ran into her and her new guy a few months ago. She looked happy. She was smiling and laughing, holding his arm and almost hugging him.”

Leaning into the dude like she was flirting and playing. Like she did when the two of them dated early on too.

That new relationship where you couldn’t get enough of each other.

The honeymoon phase. Who the hell didn’t love that?!

It wasn’t nearly as strong as what he had with Daphne.

That first night with Daphne, he couldn’t get her out of his mind.

He didn’t obsess about Ella like he did with Daphne in the beginning.

His mother was right. He needed to put his ex from his mind.

But failing was hard to do and that was how he felt with Ella.

That he failed her. He failed at a relationship.

He just failed as a man because no man wanted to feel as if they didn’t or couldn’t measure up.

“So,” his mother said. “People put on a show in public. I can’t tell you the number of times I thought Ella forced herself to laugh and smile around me.”

“What?” he asked. “Why do you say that?”

“Because a woman knows when another doesn’t want to be somewhere.”

“You’ve never said that before,” he said. “Ella never said she didn’t like you.”

His mother let out a forced laugh. “I didn’t say she didn’t like me, just that she didn’t always like to come around the house. Maybe she worried I knew more about your relationship than she was comfortable with. You guys were on and off a few times.”

“I didn’t tell you everything,” he said. “She’d ask and I’d say I kept it to myself.”

“But she didn’t believe it. Ella could never make up her mind. She was the one that always was breaking things off or saying she needed space and then you’d be the idiot to go back. Don’t be that idiot anymore.”

“Never,” he said. “I gave her one too many chances. I finally walked away from her a few weeks ago.”

“What happened then?” his mother asked.

“I was getting a part for the lawn mower. She was there buying plants and then smiling and telling me she had to put all the knowledge she learned from me to good use.”

His mother’s face was priceless as it wrinkled when she shrank back as if he’d just flattened a skunk in the road.

“That’s funny when she always wanted you to do that work at her place.”

“I know,” he said. “And when she brought that up the first thing that came into my head was that I should teach Daphne how to plant. Or give her a book on it. She’s trying to find a hobby because she’s not used to having time on her hands.”

“See,” his mother said. “There is your answer right there. You see your ex and all it does is bring up your current girlfriend.”

“Yeah,” he said. “All the things I want or need in my life are with Daphne.”

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