“She made a rather generous donation that night, too.”

“Because she felt guilty.”

“Maybe so. But I’m still going to tell her thank you if I ever see her again.”

Reagan almost choked on the sip of beer she was taking. “What? Why?”

“Now don’t look at me like that. If I see her, I will still give her a piece of my mind for hurting you. But that was the biggest single donation we got that night. It’s going to a good cause.”

“I know,” Reagan grumbled.

Her mom put her beer on the coffee table and turned to Reagan, bringing a leg up onto the couch. “I’ve never told you this before, but your dad skipped our engagement party.”

“He did?” Reagan asked, eyes wide. “What happened?”

“It wasn’t a big thing, just family and a few friends were coming over for a cookout. We had a fight that morning.”

“About what?”

“It was so stupid,” her mom said with a laugh. “We couldn’t agree on a paint color for the living room. We had moved into that first house like two weeks before. Damn, we yelled at each other for probably a good five or ten minutes before he stormed off. When people started showing up for the party and he still hadn’t come back, I asked everyone to leave.”

“No way. Then what?”

“Well, he showed up about a half hour after everyone left. I was busy cleaning up all the food that no one ate. He placed a paint can of the color I wanted on the counter and pulled me in for a hug, crying and apologizing over and over. We spent the rest of the night talking, nibbling on all that food…and each other.”

Reagan was too stunned to even comment on that last part. “Why did he run out? I can’t picture Dad doing something like that.”

“He got scared. With the stress of the new house and the engagement, he had a minor freak-out and needed a break.”

“Did that make you question wanting to be with him?”

“For a minute, maybe. But I knew that if he had walked back in that door and told me he still wanted to be with me, I would be all in. He’s who I wanted.” Her bottom lip quivered as she tried to smile.

“Oh, Mom.” Reagan put her beer down and wrapped her in a tight hug. She cradled the back of her head and gently rocked her while she cried. She couldn’t imagine the pain her mom had been going through for most of the year. If she could take it all away, she would in an instant.

Her mom pulled away, grabbed a tissue from the side table to wipe her eyes and blow her nose. “I’m sorry. I just miss him.”