In that awful moment, Ed Roberts saw me too.
Josie
“Josie, what do you think about this top?” Mom asked, holding up the green polka dot blouse.
I shook my head, the shoulder bow too gaudy to pair with the pearls she wore daily. “It’s a little busy, Mom.” I delivered the news gently, still tiptoeing in conversation.
It’d been three weeks since I’d walked out of Liv’s wedding with Luke, and it was the first time I’d seen her since. Dad was still raging, barring me from the house when I picked her up, not that I cared.
“What the heck do you wear to a book signing anyway?” she sighed, setting it back on the rack.
“Something cute in case someone takes pictures with you?” I offered with a laugh, grabbing a pale pink tunic. “How about this?”
Mom was always subtle in her glamor, Briar’s own Jackie-O of sorts. Seeing her get so worked up over a semi-casual event was amusing.
“That could work!” Her eyes widened as she rushed over, heels clicking on the wooden floor of the third boutique we’d visited downtown. “If I wore it with white capris, do you think I’d look too frumpy?”
“No one would ever call you frumpy.”
Mom woke up looking like a dang movie star. I’d never seen her have an off day in my life, even in the hospital. She was meticulous.
“How are the boys?” she asked, flipping through the rack with a scowl at the options.
I cocked my head.
Boys?
“Linc and…?” I trailed.
Was she really asking about Luke?
Was I dreaming?
“Luke, you egg!” She rolled her eyes, heading over to another rack with dresses, face scrunching once she realized it was a clearance rack where caftan went to die.
“We’re great.”
We were more than that, but I was treading lightly in the new territory. It was a huge step for her to at least ask about Luke. I didn’t want to come barreling in with guns blazing to tell her I was moving in with him when my lease was up in August.
“How is Linc with him?” she asked, turning from the rack to face me for the first time all day.
“He loves him.”
Luke was probably Linc’s favorite person, shoving me aside as his number one with his boat and backflipping skills off the dock. I couldn’t even land a cartwheel.
She pulled me close with a smile. “That’s great. I’m so excited for you. All I’ve ever wanted was for you to be happy, honey.”
The room turned into a blurry mess as the waterworks came, no amount of hand fanning saving me.
I still had so many questions for her.
If she knew.
What she knew.
But I wouldn’t ruin the day with questions. Somehow I knew all the answers without asking. My mother would never hurt me.
* * *
With armloads of shopping bags, caffeine was necessary if we were ever going to make it to my car.
We stopped into the Daily Grind for a helping before setting out on the hike. Mom camped out at a table with our bags while I waited in line to grab the goods, an iced coffee for me and an iced chai for her.
I hadn’t been in the shop since the day I went bridesmaid shopping with Liv, and of course, the menu changed. The handwritten chalkboard was now practically illegible with angry chicken scratch.
Lynette stood in front of me, oblivious to my presence luckily. Her hair hung in thick waves, new extensions giving her platinum do serious volume, while her hairspray was heavy in the air from a few feet back.
Her nails tapped on the back of her cell as she chattered into it loudly, making an appointment from what I’d unwillingly gathered. Her handbag dangled from her elbow and swung in the face of a brown-haired little boy just behind her.
I wasn’t even his mother, and I wanted to smack her for him as she swung back and forth, the bag getting closer and closer to his face. He was dodging it stiffly, taking a few steps to the side for precious inches of personal space.
I scanned the cafe for traces of his mom, surprised to see no one other than Mom.
After she almost nailed him in the eye with its corner, I’d had enough. “Lynette!”
She spun, the boy ducking to avoid the collision.
“Oh, I need to go; it’s her,” she muttered, quickly disconnecting and tossing her phone into her bag. “Hi, Josie. What’s going on? Where’s Luke?”
“Fishing,” I replied. “Can you be more careful? You almost hit that boy in the face with your bag.”
She glanced at the boy, rolling her eyes at me. “That boy is my son, Josie. He’s fine!”
She had a kid?
Like she took care of someone other than herself?
“Your bag still almost hit him in the eye. Just giving you a heads up.”
“An unnecessary one. I don’t tell you how to raise your kid.”
“Alright,” I sighed, putting my hands up, not about to get into a mommy smackdown. “Have a nice day.”
“Yeah, I’m a single mom, Josie. I can’t just spread my legs for the next bad boy like some people.”
So that’s what it was about.
I had the one thing her money couldn’t get her: Luke.
Still, I couldn’t believe she said something so vulgar in front of her kid.
“Lynette, that’s enough.”
I wasn’t going to get in the mud with her. She could have all the money in the world, but she’d never have class or character.
“Evan, want to meet one of mommy’s old friends? I used to babysit her little sister.”
More like talked on our phone all night and watched television, but if she wanted to call that babysitting, I’d let her.
The little boy turned, his auburn hair a shade I hadn’t seen in years. His eyes were the same ones that stared back at me in the mirror, while his sharp jawline was the same as the man who I’d inherited them from.
I didn’t know how I knew, but Lynette’s son was my brother.
Luke
“What do you do if you catch a
