Page 12 of Spring Forward
She thought about that a moment as they walked along. “I guess I do. Not entirely, but enough for that.”
“Are you still going to try to break them up?”
She shrugged a little. “Your uncle seems like a nice guy.”
“But you’re still not sure?”
She looked exasperated, frustrated. “I am glad he didn’t turn out to be a total jerk, but that doesn’t mean this won’t end badly. I worry about my mom, Derek. She’s been through a lot. I just don’t want to see her hurt. Not again.”
Derek put his arm around her waist and pulled her up next to him. She laid her head on his shoulder—exactly what he hoped she’d do.
“Did I ever tell you how great it is that you love your mom so much?” That probably sounded stupid to her, or cheesy. Still, he was glad he said it. He hadn’t always been good about telling her how he felt. Maybe that was partly why she’d left.
“She called me a ‘helicopter mom’ yesterday.” Though Maddi laughed, he could hear that the comment had hurt. “I don’t mean to hover over her, I just... Her life has fallen apart so many times. I want to save her from that. I don’t want to see her hurt again.”
“I know. I think she’s knows too.” He twisted his neck enough to kiss the top of her head. “But it has to be hard as a mom to need your daughter to come save you from your mistakes.”
Maddi put her arm around him as well. Definitely promising. “It’s not her fault. It’s how things work for us.”
For us?“Men abandoning her throughout the Western U.S.? Breaking her heart? That’s ‘how things work’ for the both of you?”
“My dad walked out when I was a kid. No man has stuck around us since then.”
He stopped in his tracks.No man? Us?“I didn’t abandon you. I didn’t walk out on you, not once.”
She looked up at him. He didn’t see a denial in her eyes. He also didn’t see a defense of him. “Well, no, but—” She bit off whatever she was going to say.
“Butwhat?” He pulled away, looking at her closely. She couldn’t accuse him of walking out on her. She was the one who had walked out onhim, without any explanation, without any warning. “I stayed by you. I never even thought of leaving.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, gaze turned away. It was the same posture he’d seen that day by her car. How had this happened again so quickly?
“I didn’t leave,” he said again. “Youdid.”
“Before you could leave me,” she tossed back. “I left first. I had to.”
Before I could leave?What made her think he ever would? “I didn’t say I was leaving.”
“You didn’t have to. It’s what everyone does. Everyone. And I wasn’t going to let that happen, not with you, not when it would have—” She turned away, walking back in the direction they’d come.
He followed after her. “Would have what? Not when it would havewhat?”
She didn’t answer. If anything, she walked faster.
“Talk to me, Maddi.”
“I don’t want to.” She kept going, not looking at him, not slowing. “I can’t talk about this, not now.”
“Then when? You’re leaving in two days. I know what that means—that I won’t hear from you for months. And when you do come back, I’ll only see you by accident.”
He took hold of her arm to stop her from running off. He turned her around.
“You left with no explanation. You never told me why. I have wondered for two years what went wrong.” He kept his hands on her upper arms and looked her in the eye. He couldn’t help the tense and unhappy tone. That moment from two years earlier was coming back hard and fast. “Don’t you think I deserve an explanation? After everything we were to each other, I think I at least should have been told why.”
“Because I had to.” The words snapped out of her. “Things were getting too serious. I didn’t want— I didn’t want it. I didn’t wantthis.”
“What this? Me?”
She didn’t deny it.
