Page 36 of Can't Help Falling in Love
As she walked her mom to her room, Gwen stopped, gave her a hug. “I’m glad you’re seeing someone. You deserve to be happy, honey.”
Lexi’s eyes burned with tears. She hated that. Blinking rapidly, she hugged her back, whispered, “So do you. Maisie says she’s commissioning you for a cake topper.”
“Yes. She described the couple’s relationship to me, showed me a picture. I think I can do it.” Even half awake, excitement laced her tone.
“I know you can. It’s a great project for you, and you’ll make money doing something you love. Mom, Maisie told me about the therapist. You could probably consult with her on Zoom. I’m asking you to try. Maisie thinks she’d be a good fit for you.”
Gwen pulled back her covers, crawled in, saying nothing.
Lexi leaned on the doorjamb. “I’m going to start running again. I didn’t realize but I haven’t done it since Dad died.”
Gwen rested against the headboard. “That can’t be true.”
“It is.”
“But you love running.”
Lexi nodded. “We’re stuck, Mom. I hate how you’re feeling but I can’t fix it and you can’t fix it so we need to learn how to move forward. Not just exist.”
Her mother tilted her head, staring at her, and for a flash it felt like the old Gwen looking at her, assessing her. In high school, she’d never gotten away with a thing. Her mother had never been harsh but she’dbeen honest and perceptive and told Lexi the truth even when she didn’t want to hear it. It was her turn to give that back to her mom.
She continued. “You need help. You’re young and beautiful and I miss him too but he wouldn’t want this for you. This ache you carry around like a lead balloon.”
“When do you see Will again?”
“Never mind Will.”
A small smile lifted Gwen’s lips as she scooted down in the bed. “I’d like to meet him. You’d like me to talk to someone. Seems like a pretty fair trade.”
Lexi’s jaw dropped. “You can’t use your mental health as a bargaining chip in my dating life, Mom.”
Gwen smiled. Honest to God smiled. “Oh, honey. I’m a mom. We can use whatever we have in our bag of tricks.”
Shaking her head, Lexi leaned in, gave her mom a hug. “You’ll meet him this weekend. You’re booking that appointment.”
“Yes,Mom.”
Walking to her own room, she changed for bed. As she crawled between her cold sheets, she realized that today had given her a lot of reasons to smile. Maybe things were finally starting to look up.
Maybe there was life after high school and heartbreak.
Seattle Times
ENTERTAINMENT
• Nolan Banner, son of Home Needs CEO, and former actress arrested over the weekend
• UW offers lineup of student-directed short films
• Theatre Under the Stars back for another fall season
Fourteen
Just because they’d been texting each day, several times a day, for several days in a row, didn’t mean she was becoming reliant on him. She liked texting him. So what? She liked texting Maisie. Hell, shelovedher best friend and that didn’t scare her at all. There was nothing wrong with being attracted to someone and wanting to see them again. That didn’t equate to anI’d die without youtype of passion. Even if she couldn’t think of Will and the wordpassionwithout coming up with some pretty detailed scenarios. She burrowed into her pillow, awkwardly yanking on her own hair. Repositioning herself, she smiled at her phone screen. She could hear Gwen puttering in the room next to her but told herself that if working on those miniature scenes calmed her mom, then where was the harm?
Lexi
You should go to sleep. Don’t you have math meetings early?
