Page 74 of Pucker Up
I made the lips are sealed with a zipper motion. If there was one silver lining to Ace hating my guts, it was that I wouldn’t have to keep this secret from him. Would he be happy about the trade? Sadness swept through my body because I knew the answer. Ace hated being on the ice with his brother, and he hated being around him. Secretly, I think he hoped that one day Gideon would believe his side of the story, and being in his day-to-day life might make it happen faster. Ace would be torn about the trade. He’d be happy that the animosity would be gone from his life. But if Gideon hadn’t come around while they were playing together, he never would. This trade would be the nail in the coffin of the Bailey brothers’ relationship.
“Does anyone want dessert?” Dad held up a box of ice cream sandwiches, one of my favorite treats.
I shook my head. “I’m beat. I’m going to go to bed.”
Dad shook the box at my mom. “Fern?”
She crossed her index fingers. “Dairy, Scott Swanson? Are you serious?”
Laughing, Dad shrugged and took one out for himself. “Suit yourselves. You’re missing out.”
My heart felt like it had been ripped in two, but that night, sitting in the kitchen with my divorced parents, it felt like one was being repaired; a little baby stitch was starting to put the two pieces back together. The three of us cleaned up the dishes and then Dad hugged us both before we left. “Fern, I have a spare room. You don’t have to sleep on Goldie’s back breaker of a couch.”
Mom squeezed out the dish rag and hung it over the faucet. “Scott, I love you, and I will share a dinner table with you, but I will never sleep under the same roof as you again.”
It was a little harsh, but that was my mom.
Back at the carriage house,I curled up on the sofa and turned on the TV while mom puttered around in the bathroom. When she emerged in a cloud of patchouli oil, she picked up my feet and sat underneath them, pulling the blanket over both of us. She took the remote from my hand and turned off the TV.
“What are you doing? I was watching that.”
“Goldie, I know you’re going through a lot right now. You’re going to need a few days to grieve, to hurt, to process your emotions. I’ll allow you to do that. Lie here and cry for a few days, but then get up, take a shower, and get on with your life.”
“You’ll allow me to do that?” I raised my eyebrows. If I wanted to rot on my couch until September, I was going to do it.
She rubbed my legs. “You know what I mean. Tonight at dinner, I felt two sorrows in you. The loss of your relationship, but there was something else.” She snapped her fingers a couple of times. “Something about siblings, brothers…” Her voice trailed off.
I sighed. The last thing I wanted to talk about was Ace, but I knew my mom would pester me until I did, so I told her the whole story. It was midnight by the time I was done. “So the reason those two boys are in this pickle is because of a twit of a girl named Hailey?”
“Essentially.” I yawned and stretched my hands above my head. “Mom, I need some sleep.”
She extracted herself from beneath my legs and kissed me on the forehead. “You need it more than me; take the bed. I’ll sleep out here.”
I shook my head. “I’m too tired to move. You take the bedroom.”
“Marigold Swanson, don’t think you’re too old for your mom to carry you to bed.” She rubbed her hands together, and I knew she was capable of tossing me over her shoulder. Years of surfing had carved my mom’s arms into pipes of steel.
“Fine,” I grumbled and padded to the bedroom. “Night, Mom.”
“Good night, Marigold.”
I shut the door and flopped onto the bed. The blackout curtains were pulled tightly shut and when I woke up, I wasn’t sure if I’d slept for a minute, eight hours, or eight days. All I knew was that it wasn’t long enough. My heart hurt even more when I woke up. It was going to take a lot more than a day or two to get over Ace Bailey.
“Mom?” I rubbed my eyes. The blanket was folded on the couch. Fern’s patchwork duffel bags were nowhere to be seen. I pulled back the curtains to look at the driveway. Fern’s car wasn’t there. As quickly as she’d appeared in my life, she was gone again.
I picked up the blanket and patchouli wafted through the air. Electricity tingled my hands and I closed my eyes. Fern was at aborder crossing. “I guess she’s gone,” I said to Morton, but then remembered he had stayed at Dad’s place last night.
A sense of calmness came over me. I didn’t feel sad that she’d left. Our relationship was stronger than ever, and I knew that anywhere she went in the world I would be with her and she would be with me.
“Bye, Mom,” I whispered.
Then I fell back into bed. I was completely and utterly alone.
TWENTY-EIGHT
ACE
The weatherin Toronto had turned downright nasty. I could deal with the snow, but for the past couple of days, the city had been coated in rain and ice. I did everything I could to get my mind off Goldie. The runs were slippery, and I risked falling and hurting myself because I needed to get outside and pound out the frustration in my body on the pavement.
