Page 19 of Below the Far Horizon
Grace found herself trying hard not to laugh, although Don sounded completely serious. If this was the kind of guilt trip that Trevor had to deal with growing up, it was a wonder he spent any time at all with his dad. Although, there wasn’t anything his dad said that wasn’t true.
“You’re right, Dad. I owe you. I’ll happily chaperone, although obviously I can’t speak for Grace.”
“I’ll happily chaperone too, as long as there’s no naked pictures. That is a definite no go for me.”
“There will be no naked pictures. He was just telling you that there weren’t going to be any naked pictures. Weren’t you, darling?” her mom said, looking over and simpering at Don again.
The simpering was going to take Grace a really long time to get used to.
“That’s right, Gita Baby.”
Grace looked down at her plate and her uneaten sandwich and the cauliflower that smelled amazing. She hadn’t really thought that lunch would take her mind off her own problems, but it definitely had. Suddenly, having a husband who cheated, divorce papers that were just recently signed, and looking at her life with no job, no money, bills that were months behind, and the fact that she was back living with her mother didn’t seem nearly so bad as the idea of having to police her mother’s and her mother’s boyfriend’s phones for naked pictures.
She had thought she had sunk low, but she hadn’t realized how low she could go.
Nine
“This is really cute, and it’s trending,” Grace said as she pointed to an adorable candleholder she found on TakTik, the popular video app that sold a little bit of everything.
“Oh my goodness, that’s really cute. And it doesn’t look like it would be hard to make at all,” her mother said, taking Grace’s phone from her and watching the video.
“No. I think we can easily make some modifications to it so our flowers would be slightly fuller and the holder would be more sturdy.”
“That would be good. There is a dearth of flowers. And this wouldn’t be too expensive to ship either. I do try to take that into consideration, so I’m not ending up charging an exorbitant amount to ship my things.”
“All right. I’ll try to keep that in mind.” Those were the kinds of things that Grace didn’t really know about, since she hadn’t been helping for a while, but that her mother really had a handle on.
Not only was her mother very positive and always trying to do the right thing, but she was a great businesswoman as well.
“It seems you and Don really seem like you like each other,” Grace said, trying to sound casual as her mom handed the phone back. Grace made sure to save that video to her favorites.
She got her notes out and wrote down candleholder under her list of possibilities.
“We just really hit it off. I know that you don’t seem to approve, but?—”
“It’s not that I don’t approve. It’s just weird. And not in a bad way, just in a way that I need to get used to.”
“Weird isn’t a good word,” her mom said, looking out over her reading glasses at Grace, the way she always had when Grace was little and in big trouble.
“By weird I mean that I’m not used to my mom having a boyfriend. That in itself is a weird sentence to say, and then to see the googly eyes and the secret smiles and the nicknames and…”
Her mom looked concerned and maybe a little hurt.
Grace blew out a breath. “Mom, I am so happy for you, I am over-the-moon ecstatic. I’ve wanted you to find someone who deserves you and who you deserve, for years, a decade even. But I guess… I guess I never thought about how that would make me feel. Or how that would look, or how I would have to just get used to things, you know?”
“Your life has changed so much. I can understand how this would be a really hard change to accept.”
Was that really the problem? Had she just had too many changes in her life in too short of a time?
“I guess maybe you’re right in a way. I came back here because it’s a safe place to land, and all of a sudden, it’s not what I thought it was anymore.”
“No, and that’s probably my fault. I suppose that Donnie and I could have waited a little longer before we sprung it on you, but… I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. I am really happy for you.”
“Donnie said Trevor was having the same problem. I actually volunteered you to go talk to him, because I thought you were handling it really well. Maybe I should call him and tell him that you can’t do it after all.”
She reached for her phone, but Grace stopped her. Was Trevor really having issues? That made her want to help him any way she could. He was such a great guy.
