She reached out and placed a hand on his knee. “It’s also on me for choosing so badly, but it brought you to me so I’ll always be grateful. Even if he’s a complete idiot.”

“Okay,” Andrew agreed, and she wondered if part of his acquiescence was just to shut her up before she lost control and started blubbering all over the place. He shouldn’t be dealing with this sort of stuff at his age, and she thought she’d protected him from it by returning to Magnolia where he was part of the Guilardi family, well-known and well loved in town.

But small towns didn’t let anyone off the hook, a fact she understood better than most.

“Why didn’t you tell the principal or your teacher?” she demanded as Gabe drove forward slowly.

“Dunno,” Andrew muttered, and she saw him gazing out the back window.

Gabe gave her a “duh” side glance, and her heart pinched again. Of course, a boy wouldn’t want to repeat those awful words out loud. Even in the privacy of the truck’s cab, it was as if speaking them made them somehow truer. Real.

She didn’t want any of this to be real. The first Christmas since her father had died, and with everything else on her plate, to add this one more heart-wrenching thing was almost too much. What was her tipping point? Or more accurately, her crumbling point—the moment when she just couldn’t deal with any of it any longer and she gave up? Gave in.

She opened her mouth to give another lecture on how violence wasn’t the answer but snapped it shut just as quickly. She was all out of smart words of advice.

They stopped next to her car and she turned to Gabe first. “Thank you for the ride,” she said. “We’ll talk about your fighting lessons another time.”

“Self-defense,” he clarified.

She only arched a brow in response and then shifted to face Andrew. “Let’s get this visit to the doctor over, and then we’ll stop by Sunnyside Bakery. I’m sure Mary Ellen has some of her famous holiday hot chocolate and gingerbread cookies.”

“Can Gabe come with us?” Andrew asked as he unbuckled his seat belt.

Visits to the bakery were a treat, their special mother and son time. Now her baby wanted to include someone else like it wouldn’t change everything. Death by a thousand small cuts, Angi thought. Sometimes she wondered if all mothers felt that way.

“Sorry, bud.” Gabe spoke the words without inflection. “I’ve got orders to fill this afternoon. I’m going to be too busy. Take care of your head and leave off the fighting. Johnny Rotten isn’t worth it.”

Ignoring Andrew’s heartfelt sigh, Angi got out of the truck and closed her door without meeting Gabe’s stormy gaze again. He pulled away, and she hugged her boy and then led him to the car.

ANGI ALMOST TEXTED Emma and canceled their meeting later that night. Although the walk-through at the old mill had filled her with promise, the day had gone way downhill from there. She thought nothing could be worse than picking up her son from the principal’s office after that frightening call. Then she’d had to deal with her mother.