This I wasn’t sure was good.
“Do you think it’s a good idea that we leave Dad and Tor in the dining room…” my mother’s eyes came to me and I finished, “alone?”
“Why wouldn’t it be a good idea?” Mom asked.
I grabbed a wineglass and started drying it, muttering, “I don’t know.”
Mom hesitated, rinsed a plate and put it in the dish drainer before asking, “Is there something you aren’t telling me?”
I bit my lip. Then I put the glass away. Then I reached for the plate.
Then I lied, “No.”
“Cora,” Mom said softly and I hated it when she said my name like that. Soft with disappointment. I hated to disappoint my Mom. That was the worst.
I dried the plate, put it away, turned my side to the counter and leaned into it.
Then I found my mother’s eyes and I whispered, “I’m in love with him.”
My mother, who never hid her expressions from me or anyone – she was who she was, she thought what she thought – didn’t do it then either. And her face looked at war. She looked hopeful and happy at the same time she looked frightened and concerned.
She pulled the towel from my hands, dried her own, dropped the towel on the counter and got close to me.
“You’re in love with him?”
I nodded.
“If you’re in love with a man who obviously adores you for everything you are, sweetie, why do you look like your dog just got run over?”
“Things are… complicated,” I explained.
“You got that right,” she muttered and I shook my head.
“No, it’s not just the alternate universe thing,” I told her and her brows drew together.
“Things are more complicated than the alternate universe thing?” she enquired and I nodded. “How?”
“Well…” I started, quickly weighed the pros and cons of confiding the fullness of my history with Tor to my mother, then I decided to do it. I had no one else to talk to about it, my Mom was awesome, she was also wise so who else would I choose? “In his world, I was up front with him about who I was, where I came from. He didn’t believe me.”
Her head tipped to the side. “And?”
“For two months he didn’t believe me, Mom. The Cora of his world is different than me. A lot different. She isn’t a very nice person and… he doesn’t like her much.”
Her head straightened, her eyes went alert and she repeated, “And?”
“But he used to love her. But she spurned his love, I get the gist that she wasn’t nice about it and they were prophesied to marry so he was kind of stuck with her. I got there, he didn’t know I was me, I told him I was me and he thought I was her playing a game with him. So he played one with me. He pretended that he was into me. During this time, I fell in love with him. I found out right before we both came to my world that he thought I was a liar and he was playing me.”
“Well I’m guessing he knows you’re not a liar now,” she replied.
“Yep, he knows,” I affirmed the obvious.
“So this is a problem…?” she trailed off and her brows went up.
“Mom!” I hissed, leaning into her. “He thought, for two months, that I was lying to him. He played the devoted, adoring husband and the operative word in that is played. He never believed me but he led me to believe that he did!”
At this, her brows drew together. “Yes, sweetie, I get that. But that was then. This is now.”
I leaned back and whispered, “What?”
She took my hand and held tight. “Cora, that man in there doesn’t think you’re a liar and he’s not playing at the devoted, adoring anything. I don’t know what went on between you two in that other world but whatever it was, he’s seen it for what it was, he’s seen you for who you are and now he’s just plain devoted and adoring.”
I sucked in breath and stared at her.
She squeezed my hand.
“Love is a mighty thing,” she carried on. “When we deal with the people we love, everything they do, no matter how slight or how huge, has awesome power over us, our emotions, our behavior, our reactions. You love this man and you feel betrayed that he didn’t believe you but pretended he did. I get that. I even get why you’d hold onto it and the power that betrayal would have over you. But, sweetie, you’d told him you were from a different world. If Rosa was not in that world, our dinner in there,” she jerked her head to the wall between the kitchen and dining room, “would have had a far different ending. There is no way in hell you, or Tor, would have been able to convince your father or me that he was from another world. I still find it unbelievable. And the only way I can make it so it doesn’t freak me out is to understand the little girl I lost wasn’t lost in that world, she has a beautiful life in that world. The rest of it…” she trailed off and shook her head.
“I’m sorry it freaks you out,” I whispered.
“I’m sorry you’re going through this. And I’m worried you’re going through this,” she whispered back.
“Me too,” I agreed with considerable feeling.
“But I have to tell you, sweetheart, that if you have to go through it, I’m pleased as punch you’re going through it with that man in there.”
I blinked. “You are?”
She nodded. “That man in there would run through fire for you.”
Oh my.
“Do you think?” I whispered.
Her head tipped to the side again. “Don’t you?”
“I –”
“Let that go,” Mom interrupted me on a shake of my hand. “Cora, you could close your eyes tonight and be anywhere tomorrow. The only way I’m going to be able to live with this is to hope to all that is holy that wherever you wake up tomorrow, that man is with you.”
I felt my nose stinging (yes, again!) and whispered, “Mom.”
“I’m being straight with you. I could… I could… hell, I did lose you for two months and…” she trailed off and her eyes filled with tears.
“Mom,” I whispered again and pulled her into my arms, her arms went around me tight and we both held on as we cried.
Then she suddenly let me go but her hands came up, she grabbed both my cheeks and she got right in my face. Her eyes were bright and intense and at the sight of them, my breath hitched.
“I could lose you tomorrow and never see you again,” she told me fiercely and my breath hitched again. “And the only thing I can hold onto to be able to rest my head on the pillow at night is the thought that wherever you are, you’re with him and he’s riding his horse or driving his car or flying his spaceship, I don’t care, but he’s doing it with you, he’s not letting you go and he won’t let any harm come to you. That’s the only thing I have. And right now, that is what your man is giving your father. So, I think it is very wise to let your father have as much peace of mind as your man can give him before whatever happens next, happens.” Her thumbs swept my cheeks and she finished on a whisper, “Do you get me?”
I nodded and my fingers came up and curled around her wrists. “I get you, Mom.”
“Promise, whatever happens, you’ll be safe,” she demanded fervently.
“I promise,” I promised on another hitch of breath.
“No more wielding daggers,” she ordered and I pressed my lips together because who knew what could happen? I couldn’t promise that.
“How about, I promise not to wield daggers unless absolutely necessary?” I replied, she stared at me a second then she burst out laughing and wrapped her arms tight around me again.
I shoved my face in her neck and when her hilarity calmed, I said into her skin, “I love you, Mom and when I was gone, I missed you and the worst thing about being gone was thinking I’d never see you and Dad again and I
