Page 162 of Before We're More Than Friends
I was at home.
Stepping into the shelter made me realize how much I’d missed it. Sure, it’d only been a day, but I’d gotten used to coming here six days a week. My anxious mind needed to be in this environment again.
Before starting my tasks, I stopped by Mom’s office to seehow she was doing. It was something I used to do all the time in Dallas, but for some reason, I hadn’t considered doing it here.
I opened the door to her office. “Hey, Mom?—”
Mom, who’d been bent over her desk with her head in her hands, looked up at me and gasped. “Oh, Dallas.” She wiped off her smudged makeup. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t expect?—”
“I should’ve knocked,” I said, my chest tightening. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m just . . . struggling.” She drew in a breath as she studied the room. “I’m supposed to be happy here. But our problems at home keep bleeding into everything. I can’t be happy when my family isn’t.”
“I’m sorry.” I sat across from her. “Are you and Dad still fighting?”
She nodded, dabbing her eyes with her tissue. “Even when we’re not fighting, the tension never goes away.”
“I don’t want you to keep fighting.” I rubbed her hand. “And I don’t want you and Dad to separate because of the move. Or at all.”
“Oh, Dallas.” Mom squeezed my hand. “We’re not separating. I still love him as much as I did during our wedding.” She looked up at her wedding picture with Dad, one of the few remaining pictures of him up. My stomach dipped as I realized she’d taken most of them down. “Couples go through rough patches. This one is just hitting me harder than the others.”
Someone knocked on the door, and Mom put her glasses back on and straightened herself in the seat.
Mrs. Landers opened the door. “Hey, Leanne. I want you to check on Moonlight and Sunshine later. They just came back in.”
“Okay,” Mom said, sounding like she hadn’t just been crying her eyes out.
“Wait, the same Moonlight and Sunshine from February?” I asked, my pulse spiking. “What are they doing back here?”
“Their owners found a new apartment, but the complex doesn’t allow pets,” Mrs. Landers said. They decided to bring the cats back early before they got too attached.”
My heart crumbled for the sweet cats. They had finally been put in a loving home and had to get taken out of it. “That’s devastating. I hope they’ll find a new home soon.”
“Me too,” Mom said. “I’ll check up on them when they’re ready.”
“Thank you.” Mrs. Landers nodded. “Are you feeling better?”
“A little bit.”
I frowned. Even Mrs. Landers knew what was going on?
Mrs. Landers sighed. “Families, huh?” The look in her golden-brown eyes said more than words ever could. I thought about what Hayden had said about Oliver’s parents on Monday.
“Yeah,” Mom said flatly.
Yeah, just pretend I’m not in here.
Mrs. Landers nodded again and closed the door.
“Anyway,” Mom told me, “I need to get back to work. Thanks for checking on me, Dallas.”
“I love you, Mom.” I got up and kissed her on the cheek.
“I love you, too.” She kissed my cheek back. “I just don’t want you worrying about me too much, okay? There’s already enough worry going around from how much I stress about you and Kami.”
“I think we’re all bundles of worry.” I let out an awkward laugh. “But I just want you to be okay.”
“I will be soon,” she promised, giving me a genuine smile that melted some of my worries. “It’ll just take some growth.”
