Chapters (43)
- Cover
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-four
- Epilogue
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- AUTHOR’S NOTE
- Readers Guide
- QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
- About the Author
- What’s next onyour reading list?
She gripped the metal of the porch railing, and it nearly burned her palm. “You don’t know him like I do.”
“Then why don’t you know if he’s coming back?” His question hung there until Dad sighed, his voice softening. “Listen, sweetie, if he’s the man you say he is, he’ll be back once his mother’s better, and you’ll have nothing to worry about. And if he wouldn’t do that for you, you need to stop hanging around there waiting on him.”
“It’s not that simple.” She picked at a peeling bit of paint on the railing. His mom would eventually pull out of this lupus flare-up, but it wouldn’t be the last. Every time, LJ would face the same choice: his job or his family. Her or his family.
“It is that simple, sweetheart. When you love somebody, you want them to be happy, no matter what it costs you. If this is the man for you, he’ll do the right thing.”
She squeezed her eyes shut against the sudden threat of tears. LJ would do the right thing. For her, for his mom. Whatever he could do, no matter what it cost him. But would she?
If she were a good person, she wouldn’t ask him to come back to a place where people snuck sideways glances at him every time he went to town. She wouldn’t expect him to leave his mother alone and forget about his friends to move someplace where he had to play his music to the dead space of a tiny apartment. No band. No audience.
“We need you, Andra. Come home.” Quietly, her father disconnected.
She glanced at the front door, then hit the number for her brother’s cell. It rang through to voicemail. He was probably sleeping, which meant she was out of excuses to delay what had to be done.
She walked back inside on numb feet. A pot bubbled merrily on the stove, and Rose rested at the kitchen table, watching the small TV. She flipped it off as soon as she saw Andra’s expression. “Come here, honey. Tell me what happened now.”
Andra shook her head. “I have to go home, that’s all, and—” She gulped down a breath, the other woman’s face coming into sharp focus as Andra realized she might not see her again. She went over and knelt next to her. “Rose, it’s been . . .” She fumbled for the right words. “I’m just glad I got the chance to be here. I don’t think I knew how much I missed my own mom until I met you.”