Page 109 of The Secret
“I know.” But I hadn’t thought he’d agree. “I haven’t wanted to…” Okay, I couldn’t finish that statement without telling the biggest lie of my entire life. “I haven’t known what the hell to say.” I shrugged. “You want the truth? I fell for him. But…” I shook my head. “We are very different people.”
She laughed. “So?”
“Sooooo… We’re incompatible. Obviously. We have very different ways of solving problems. Or not solving them.”
“Right, likeyougive him an ultimatum not to call you, and when he honors it, you get upset. That’sdifferent.”
I raised one eyebrow. “Mama, for a second there, we had a beautiful truce going. A real moment of mother-son bonding happening.”
“But that’s not the kind of family you want, Constantine. You wanthonesty,” she reminded me blithely. “So let me tell you flat out: you need to give him a second chance.”
I sighed. “Since when are you on Micah Bloom’s side? A week ago, you were ready to hit him with your car and make it look like an accident. What gives?”
“Last week, I took all the facts and assembled them wrong. I thought he was trying to manipulate you. Instead, he was trying toloveyou. Just in a really stupid way.” She grinned and pushed back a lock of her dark hair. “Look, for a long time I thought you were happy, kiddo. Content. It wasn’t until last summer, when I saw how…” she widened her eyes, “fired up you got, that I realized something inside you had been dimmed for a long time. And it scared me. That’s honest, too. But life is about risk. It’s about change. And there is such a thing as too much safety.” She leaned toward me. “You can’t protect yourself from everything.”
“I’m aware of that. This has nothing to do with risk and change, Mama.” I rolled my eyes.
“Dummy. Of course it does.”
My jaw dropped open. “Did you just call me—”
“Honesty,” she sang.
“Ugh.Is it too late to walk back the honesty thing?”
“Yep. Just like it’s too late to un-fall for Micah.” She wiggled her eyebrows.
“Wow. See, you’re totally not getting the point here.”
“Hehurtyou.”
“Yes! He really did.”
“He lied to you.”
There was a lump in my throat that made it hard to swallow. “He did.”
“He stepped back his business for you. He committed to lending you thousands andthousandsof dollars. He punched a potential client in the face and dealt with the fallout without telling you. And he did it all in the stupidest way possible and managed to do the tango all over your manly pride in the process.”
“Mymanly pride?”
She shrugged. “Your father was the same way. With the pride, I mean. Not the stomping.Thatwas generally my job.”
I pushed to my feet and shut my laptop. “Okay. Well, this has been really interesting. I should go do a thing—”
“Your father wasn’t perfect, Constantine. Just like I’m sure as heck not perfect. Just likeyouare not perfect. Just likeMicahisn’t perfect. He messed up.”
I sighed and pushed a hand through my hair.
“You know the secret to marriage, baby?”
I shook my head.
“It’s giving the person you love the benefit of the doubt.”
The benefit of the doubt. Like Micah had given me.
“Who saidlove?” I protested.
