Page 93 of Meant to Be

“The issue was simply—”

I shook my head and cut Berry off. “Thereisno issue. Remember?”

Berry sighed and said, “Yes. And we are doing our best to apologize. We aretrulysorry.”

I took a swig of bourbon, swallowed, then finally let them off the hook. “Okay,” I said with a curt nod. “Apology accepted.”

My mother gave me a close-lipped smile, but she looked like she might cry. It crossed my mind that she was probably upset about the high-school diploma thing, not the way she’d made Cate feel. But it was a start.

“Okay,” I said, draining my whiskey. “I better get going.”

“Already?” My mother’s face fell. “You just got here!”

“I’m sorry,” I said, steeling myself for any guilt trips. “But I have dinner plans with Cate.” I put my glass on the coffee table rather than taking it to the sink the way I usually would.

“Oh,” my mother said, looking a little wistful. “Well, have fun.”

“Yes,” Berry echoed. “Have fun. Please tell her we said hello.”

“Will do,” I said with a brisk nod. Then I stood and saw myself to the door.

—

I may havegone a little overboard with my messaging, but the mission was accomplished. In the next few days, Berry called and invited Cate to lunch, and my mother sent her a note, apologizing for the way things had turned out in the Hamptons and saying that she hoped we would return soon. I happened to be at Cate’s place when she received it—so we read it together.

“Oh, my. What did you say to her?” Cate asked me. She looked concerned, but also touched.

“I told her how it’s going to be. Both her and Berry.”

I waited for her to ask more questions, but she just slid the note back into the envelope and put it down on her kitchen table.

“You know what this means, right?” I finally said.

“What?” she asked.

I pulled her into my arms and whispered in her ear, “It means…that it’s your turn.”

“My turn for what?” she said with a shiver.

“Your turn to make nice,” I said, then kissed her forehead. “With your mother.”

She made a noncommittal sound, so I put my hand under her chin and made her look me in the eye.

“C’mon, Cate,” I said, my voice as stern as I could make it. “We had a deal. You promised.”

“I know. I’m working on it.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means. I’m trying to set something up….”

“Have you called your mother?”

“Yes.”

“And?”

“She invited us to dinner.”

---