“Yes?” I say, bracing myself for whatever will come next. Is she going to ask me for her phone back, or to let her go to the game on Saturday? I must stay strong and refuse all attempts at buttering me up. Vodka Gate could’ve ruined her chances to get accepted to a good college. And if she can’t see how serious the topic is, I need to be the responsible adult and show her that choices have consequences. Even if it sucks just as much for me to enforce the rules as it does for her to follow them.

“I wanted to apologize for yesterday.”

“For which part?” I say dryly.

She looks down at her interlaced hands in her lap. “All of it. I’m sorry for drinking at school; I know it was stupid… But I’m also sorry for what I said afterward, to you.”

A little string pulls in my chest. For as much as Tegan’s words were hurtful yesterday, her apology today is heartwarming. Damn, she’s good. If she wanted to find a perfect way to stroke my mommy feathers, she just did. I inwardly prep myself for the upcoming ask. “And?”

“And nothing. I was mad at myself because I’d acted foolishly and got caught, and I was mad at those bitches Mykenna and Sydney because they tried to pin it all on me when it wasn’t my fault, and I took it out on you. I was mean, and I’m sorry. Whatever punishment I get, I deserved it. And, Mom, I know you’ve made a lot of sacrifices to raise me on your own, and you’ve always been in my corner. You didn’t deserve for me to lash out the way I did yesterday. I’m sorry.”

Okay, whatever Tegan asks next, she can have. No mom’s heart could resist such a declaration. I’m barely able to contain the tears, and I’m even willing to slide past her calling her classmates names. Those two sure sounded like bitches.

I reach across the table to hold Tegan’s hand, and the fact that she lets me is already a sign of how momentous the circumstance is. “Thank you,” I whisper.

Tegan nods and, to my utter astonishment, doesn’t ask for anything in return. No phone, no volleyball game, no laptop. Yesterday, she made me question my ability to be a good mother by her reckless behavior; and now, today, she goes and behaves like this perfect human.

It is true kids never cease to amaze.

***