Page 134 of Chasing After You
“I wouldn’t want to be a mermaid without you,” I say, splashing her.
“C’est bon de te voir sourire.”52
“I’ve been smiling.”
Her smile is sad.“Non tu ne faisais pas.”53
I look back out at the horizon, noting the seagulls crying out as they soar. “Henry asked me to take him back.”
I’ve told her everything except for the conversation that took place before I asked Henry to leave that day. Honestly, I haven’t said much of anything since the photos and that recording were released.
“And you said no,” Mom infers, my silence only confirming it. “I know you’re like your dad in most ways, but you’re more like me than you know. The first time Dad proposed to me, I didn’t have an answer for him, and he left me.”
I startle, nearly falling off my board in the process. “What do you mean he left you?”
“I mean, he left. He disappeared for a week, and I waited for him to come home. Bash . . . he didn’t want to talk to me, so he told me to go, and I did. I went to Africa for six months, and his football career took off. He met another woman, fell in love with her, and then Mimi died. She told me to tell him I still loved him, and it was at her funeral I learned they were engaged.”
“Dad was engaged to someone else?” I can’t believe I’ve never heard any of this.
“Yeah, he was. I regretted not saying yes, every single day for almost four years,” Mom confirms, and I blink, staring at her.Oh my god, this is what Chris was talking about in New York.
“I thought you have been together since college?”
She chuckles, shaking her head. “That’s when we originally fell in love, but our story is a bit more complicated than that. To put it frankly, your sperm donor is a fucking idiot sometimes.”
“Gross, don’t call Dad that.” I wrinkle my nose in disgust, but my curiosity is dying to know the truth. “So what happened?”
Mom smiles, wistfully staring at the horizon. “It’s a long story.”
“I seriously have nothing but time, Mom.”
She wasn’t lying, it is a long story. Parts of it make me laugh, whereas other parts cause my jaw to literally drop in shock, and I shed more than a few tears as Mom explains just how much more there is to their story than I ever thought possible.
“I can’t believe you never said anything . . . that’s just . . . wow.”
“It all turned out the way it was meant to, but it took us a lot of heartbreak to get here, so your father and I decided we would tell you all if there were ever a reason to. Maybe we’re wrong for that, but this felt like a pretty good reason so you know it’s okay to not have everything figured out instantly.”
“But if I wait too long to figure it out, then I risk losing him forever. I don’t want Henry to be an almost in my life,” I say, understanding what Mom’s getting at.
“You’re my daughter, and I love you no matter what. Please don’t forget who you’re named after,” she says, reaching across the space between us to squeeze my hand, tears shining in her eyes.
“I haven’t.”
“I wish you could have met Mimi. She always seemed to know the right thing to say,” Mom says, and I smile at her.
“You do a pretty good job, Mom.”
~
Bailey is sitting on his phone while Hunter’s eyes are glued to the television along with our parents, watching Duke compete in the College Football Championship game. I’m reading my book, but I keep looking over at my parents sitting together on the couch. Dad has his arm wrapped around Mom’s shoulders, and normally I’d think it’s embarrassing, but now I don’t feel anything but happy for them. I never in a million years would have guessed that Dad was engaged to someone else. It’s just so weird to think of him with someone other than Mom.
There’s a fresh bouquet of flowers that was waiting for Mom when we came in from surfing. Dad’s drilled it into us our entire lives that flowers are special and shouldn’t be used only as an apology. Flowers are meant for the most ordinary of days and for doing small things for the person you care about to make them happy.
My name coming through the speakers draws my attention to the television.
“—andal with Mirabelle Walker. It seems to have made him more popular with the ladies, if you can believe it. I’ve even heard rumors Calvin Klein has reached out to him about a sponsorship. I’m fairly certain the kids are calling that big dick energy,” one of the male sports announcers says to the circle of others sitting around the table.
All of the men laugh as the one woman at the table looks disgusted.
