But she hadn’t wanted anyone else to know. Not until she’d figured out what to do next.

Oh, Ashley.

She was in even bigger trouble than she’d thought.

4

Melanie

Melanie Miller bit into a slice of toast to stop herself engaging with her daughter. There was a time when she might have let her temper fly, but that was before she’d had her own child and learned to hold it back. But she didn’t pretend it was easy. It didn’t help that she wasn’t a morning person. If Greg hadn’t pulled the covers off her that morning, she would have stayed asleep.

“You never listen to me!” Eden stood, arms folded, a defiant look on her pretty face. “I’m not going to college. Ever. What’s the point?”

Do not answer that.

Mel took another bite of toast. This encounter was going to cost her an extra run on the beach to burn off the calories, but better that than an emotional collision with Eden that might take days to mend.

“Mom! Why aren’t you saying anything? I’m tired of studying. It’s a waste of a life. And what does college give you, anyway, except massive debt? I don’t want a ‘career.’ I want to do something with art or photography. Something creative that’s fun and leaves me with loads of time to surf. And maybe I won’t earn masses of money, but I want more from life than a paycheck. I want to stay true to my authentic self. I want to follow my dreams. I don’t want to settle, like you did.”

Mel choked on her toast. Right now her authentic self wanted to give her daughter a piece of her mind.

She reminded herself that the world looked different when you were a teenager. You saw possibility, untainted by reality. A road with no obstacles. Choices that were simple.

I don’t want to settle, like you did.