Page 17 of Wedding Season
They didn’t land with the pain that the young woman obviously expected.
Mariella was long past believing she mattered, so the daughter she’d hurt by trying to do the right thing didn’t need to remind her.
“Then what are you doing here?”
Heather started to lift her hand to her mouth once again then crossed her arms over her chest instead. “It’s a public beach. I’m allowed to be here.”
“In Magnolia,” Mariella clarified, although she had trouble believing the girl didn’t understand what she meant by the question.
Heather glanced away for a brief moment before shifting her glare back to Mariella. “Also a free country. I can live wherever I want.”
“What about school? Shouldn’t you still be in high school with graduation around the corner?”
The girl snorted. “Like you care. I graduated early and I was taking concurrent college classes. I’m really smart, you know. Like I test off the charts and whatever.”
The information floored Mariella. “That’s amazing. You truly must take after your adoptive parents.”
“Definitely not you.” Heather wrinkled her nose. “I would never be so stupid as to wreck my life the way you did.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“Maybe I take after my biological father?”
Did Mariella sense a modicum of vulnerability in the girl’s question?
Suddenly she felt like she was in the dark ocean once again. As many times as she wondered what happened to the baby she gave up, she’d purposely hollowed from her mind thoughts of the boy she’d been with for her first time.
The memories came rushing back in a tumultuous mix of pain and regret. His whispered words. The cheap beer he’d plied her with all night. The cigarette smell on his breath and the way his hands felt clammy against her skin. The way he wasn’t gentle with her, not because he was cruel or violent but because he was a kid, too. Neither of them had known better.
“You do not,” she said with complete certainty. “I don’t know what you want me to tell you, Heather. If you want to yell at me or scream, go right ahead. But I did you a favor by giving you up. I gave you a better life than you ever could have had with me. I gave you a future, and I won’t apologize for that.”
Across the board, Mariella wasn’t great at apologies. Alex Ralsten was the perfect example of that.
“I don’t want anything from you,” the girl said. She sounded like she meant the words, but Mariella knew they couldn’t be true. Why else would she be here?
“Is it money? I don’t have as much as I once did, but if you need financial help—”
“I don’t want anything,” Heather repeated. When her voice broke on the last word, she turned and ran down the beach, leaving Mariella standing alone, the way it always had been.
ALEXSATINSunnyside Bakery staring at the perfect glazed donut in front of him. He loved donuts, and Mary Ellen made the best he’d ever tasted, but he couldn’t force himself to take a bite, not with his mind spinning in a million different directions.
Heather Garrison had called in sick yesterday, and he sent up a silent prayer that she’d show up at the office this morning. He worried he’d been too forceful with the young woman after the confrontation with Mariella.
Heather hadn’t wanted anyone at the company to know about their connection, and while he respected that—or at least wanted to respect her right to decide—he wasn’t sure what to do with her obvious upset over this situation.
“You can stare at it all you want, but that pastry isn’t going to reveal the secrets of life.”
He forced a smile as he glanced up into Mary Ellen’s jovial face.
“I could use some insight, even if it comes from a donut.”
“Typically,” she said, patting him on the shoulder, “the sugar rush helps with any problem.”
He nodded. “And it’s a more appropriate coping mechanism than getting drunk enough to forget the real world at seven in the morning.”
“You don’t seem like the type to drown your sorrows in alcohol.”
“Sometimes I wish I were,” he admitted.
