Gritting her teeth to keep from shrieking at them, she said, “Buddy’s at the vet clinic.” She told them what’d happened the night before, which clearly upset them. “Luke was right by my side through the whole ordeal. He’s been very good to me.”

“Because he wants you back,” Mary Alice said. “Can’t you see that?”

“I know he does, because he’s told me as much.”

“Sydney,” Mary Alice said in that disapproving tone that reminded Syd so much of the summer she was nineteen and her parents had convinced her she could do so much better than Luke. As if she’d read Syd’s mind, her mother added, “You could do so much better.”

Furious, Syd threw her hands in the air. “There it is! The famous line! Guess what? There’s hardly anyone better than Luke. He’s one of the kindest, sweetest, gentlest people I’ve ever known. He is too good for me, if you want the truth.”

“I find that hard to believe,” Allan said.

“Is he kinder and sweeter than Seth was?” Mary Alice asked, hands on hips, girded for battle.

The question shocked Sydney to the core, causing her eyes to fill and her throat to close. She ran upstairs and started throwing clothes into a backpack.

One thing was patently clear to her—it was time to take control of her life. And what felt good and right to her at the moment was being with Luke. Whether she was ready to commit to him permanently, she couldn’t say, but that didn’t need to be decided today or even tomorrow.

Her mother came to the door as Sydney zipped her backpack.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that about Seth.”

“No, you shouldn’t have.”

“I don’t want to see you going backward, Syd. You need to be moving forward.”

“That’s exactly what I’m doing.”

“You’re vulnerable, honey. Luke knows that. He’s taking advantage—”

Sydney spun around. “Do not finish that thought. He has been nothing but patient and accommodating and supportive. I feel better being with him than I have since before my life was shattered. Don’t take that away from me by being narrow-minded about who and what you think he is.” She zipped her bag. “You don’t know him at all because you never bothered to take the time to know him. You were too busy judging him for all the things you thought he lacked.”

“We only want what’s best for you—then and now.”

“If that’s the case, then trust me to decide that for myself. I’m not a child anymore, Mom. I won’t let you run off the man I love because you fear he won’t fit in at the country club.”

“Mary Alice,” her father said, startling both women. “She has to find her own way, even if we don’t approve.”