Page 82 of Constantine: Britain's Story: Part 2
Does noon at my house work?
His house?I’ve never been to the Scala family house before. Matthias drove me past it a few times when we were dating the first time, but he never took me there. Him and his brothers shared a house closer to the college, which is where we were most of the time.
Yes, I will see you then.
Wonderful! I can’t wait!
His response makes me laugh a little bit.Constantine is not Matthias, I remind myself.He’s a good man, he treated Georgia with love and respect — at least I thought he did. I hope he did.
“Mom! We’re ready,” Elodie yells up to me. Right, our walk. As I walk down the stairs, I realize I’m nervous. I want so badly for this to all work out.
I find Caroline and Elodie waiting for me in the foyer. Elodie is bounding on her toes, ready to go, but Caroline seems to be carrying herself in a somber manner. Crap. Hopefully we can talk through it. I’m sure she knows what’s coming.
We step out into the afternoon sun and head north, down the main road. I let us fall into an easy gait as I formulate how to approach this all. The girls remain quiet, clearly wanting me to lead this.
“So girls, I, um, really wanted to talk to you about everything that’s been going on lately.” I pause, waiting to see if they have any feedback, but neither of them says a thing.Okay. “I know this has probably been really confusing, and I’m very sorry that you’ve both been caught up in it. I never wanted either of you to have to deal with any of this–”
Caroline cuts me off. “Mom, just out with it, you’re speaking in euphemisms.” She surprises me.
“Oh, okay. Well. I really love Liam, and I want to be with him, and I want to make sure that that is okay with the both of you. And if it makes you uncomfortable at all, just tell me and we’ll move back to the house at Robles.”
“I like staying with Liam at Spearhead,” Elodie says. Well, there’s at least one.
“I mean, aren’t you worried he’s going to hurt you again?” Caroline asks, her tone a bit colder than I anticipated.
“No. I mean, the realist in me knows it’s a possibility, but that could happen with anyone. Liam makes me happy.” I shrug, I don’t want to deep dive on my feelings with the girls because Liam makes me feel a lot more than just happy. He makes me feel everything.
“I know, Mom. Ithasbeen nice to see you smile lately.” When Caroline says this, I think about Georgia, and how foreign it was for me to see her smile. I want the girls seeing me smile all the time.
“I really love being here, but it’s important to me that the both of you can also be happy here. We are a unit, okay? Wealldeserve to be happy, so I’m asking you both: Do you want to stay? And are you okay if I get back together with Liam?”
“Does this mean we’d have to go to school here?” Elodie asks. I laugh lightly.
“No, not at all. I’d still go back to Virginia with you when school starts.”
Elodie nods. “Okay, then yeah, I want to stay. And it’s okay with me if you get back with Liam.”
We both turn to look at Caroline. “I mean, I don’t hate it here…and I know Liam makes you happy…” she trails off in thought. “Iguessit’s okay with me.”
Her tone and her words don’t match. She’s saying yes, but everything else says no. “Caroline, just be honest. I want to know how you really feel.” She doesn’t say anything for several moments, just kicking a pebble down the road every couple of steps.
“I mean, don’t you think he needs to work a little harder to win you back? He, like, really messed up your life, Mom. And I just think it’s too soon. And I don’t like him.”
I know she’s probably right about the first part, but I have to know. “Is there a reason why you don’t like him? Did he do something?”
“I just don’t think he deserves you mom. I don’t like him for you.”
My shoulders droop in disappointment at Caroline’s words. I knew it was probably too good to think both girls would be on board with this.
TWENTY-EIGHT
Britain
“Okay, then,” I let loose a long sigh, “let’s work on packing up when we get back to the house. Your Dad will be here this afternoon and he can drive us down, okay?”
“What, Mom? No! I want to stay!” Elodie exclaims, getting worked up.
“I understand, Elodie, but if I’m not getting back together with Liam, I can’t stay here. It’s too hard and confusing, okay?”
