June huffed. “Why can’t you support me—for once?” Her eyes filled with tears, and she looked away before her mom could see.
Her mom clasped the strand of pearls around her neck as if they were a life raft. “Look around!” She waved her pencil-thin arm. “Even after your dad died, I gave you everything—kept this roof over your head.” She made a face. “I’ve given it all to you.” She stopped to take another long, exasperated breath. “But I can’t give you this. One day, when you have your own children, you’ll understand.” Her voice was shaking. “You’ll want to protect them.”
“Hold on,” William said, and June refocused on the here and now. He pulled his phone back, and his screen went black for a few seconds. “I’m sorry. There’s an emergency C-section coming into the OR, and I need to get downstairs to administer the spinal block. Continue this discussion later?”
June wasn’t sure which one of them he was referring to, but she answered anyway. They needed to talk about this—privately. “Yes. Call me later.”
His square disappeared without a good-bye, which didn’t faze Chloe or June. When William was at the hospital, it was hard to compete with the patients he was trusted to anesthetize. June had eventually given up trying.
“He seemed to take that well,” Chloe said. June murmured a noncommittal response. She knew her ex-husband. He would have a lot to say about this when they talked one-on-one.
June changed the subject. “What does Grandma think about Olivia getting married? Have you spoken to her? Olivia said she texted her and hasn’t heard back.” Eileen was surprisingly savvy with technology. June worried her mother’s nonresponse could mean only one thing.
“You want me to feel her out about it, don’t you? See if she approves?” Chloe frowned. “Why don’t you want to call her yourself? She’s definitely not ghosting her. She probably hasn’t responded yet because of the time change. It’s still early.”
“Regardless. It’s better if you call. It’s complicated,” June said.
“Isn’t that interesting? A child who doesn’t want to face a parent.” Chloe raised her eyebrows.
“Touché,” June said, picking at a loose thread in the couch’s cushion. “So, will you?” What June couldn’t say to Chloe was that Olivia’s announcement would be the catalyst for a conversation she and her mother were careful to avoid.
“I got you. But Grandma will be happy for Olivia.”
June felt a pang. She needed to do a better job of staying in touch with her mom. She told herself she didn’t call more because she was busy running the bookstore, but the truth was she avoided picking up the phone because every conversation they did have seemed off a beat, like they were listening to two different versions of the same song. They’d fallen out of sync the night June stormed from her house over two decades before and had never found their rhythm again. “I hope you’re right,” June said, before signing off to swim in the sea of regrets from that night.
CHAPTER THREE
Zach turned off Orange Grove Boulevard and on to Waverly Drive and tugged at the collar of his pale-blue shirt. It felt like it was cutting into his larynx, making it hard to breathe. He undid the top button and drew a deep, harsh breath, as if he’d reached the surface after being underwater. He hadn’t told Olivia how nervous he was to introduce her to his mom. Correction: he hadn’t mentioned he was nervous at all. Because that would mean he’d have to explain his relationship with his mother. That he had a hard time telling her no—almost always deciding the battle wasn’t big enough. That she was tough to please, never thinking any woman he’d dated was right for him. That she liked to spend a lot of time with Zach. He was her only child and she’d never remarried, so she leaned on him a lot. He loved her, but he was feeling the pull to separate from her. And he knew that pull was Olivia.
Logan had told Zach he could tell Olivia was different from the others, that she’d understand. Zach wanted to believe he was right. But every day since they’d returned to the States a week ago, he’d told himself it would be the one when he’d tell Olivia everything. But as soon as he got up the nerve, he would remember past girlfriends who had accused him of being a mamma’s boy when they’d seen how much his mom’s opinion mattered to him. Especially her opinions about them. They’d put him in the middle—forced him to make a choice. They’d never won that fight. But Logan was right; they also hadn’t been Olivia. Zach would go to bat for her if it came to it. But he prayed that it wouldn’t. That his mom would see that Olivia was different from the others. And that Olivia, who was also close with her mom, would understand the tight bond he had with his.
He took another deep breath as he thought of something else he hadn’t told Olivia. Something he probably never could. Not even Logan knew.
“Are you okay?” Olivia asked. “You’re breathing pretty hard over there.”
Zach met Olivia’s bright-blue eyes and felt like she could see inside of him. He wanted to tell her everything, but he couldn’t. Now wasn’t the right time—not that there ever would be a right time.
“I’m fine,” he lied.
“Okay,” she said. He could tell she didn’t believe him, but he was thankful she let it go.
“Here we are,” he said as he pulled the car to a stop in front of his mom’s house.
“Wow, this house is sick. Now I’m really nervous,” Olivia said as she stepped out of the car. She tugged at the hem of her floral dress—one he’d never seen before. And since they’d returned from Italy, all of the clothes she’d brought with her had been hanging in his closet. The dress was nice, but it didn’t look like her. This morning she’d kept changing her outfit, she and Chloe on FaceTime as she modeled the different ensembles—finally settling on the one Olivia had once worn to a sorority tea. They had called it a “mom pleaser.” Zach hated that he was relieved she’d worn the dress. That his mom would be pleased.
Zach had changed his flight home from Positano to come back with Olivia. The astronomical change fee had been worth every penny. When they landed at LAX, Logan picked them up in his truck. It made Zach smile to watch Olivia stand on her tiptoes and Logan bend down so they could hug. He hadn’t told her how tall Logan was—nearly six foot seven. He liked that he knew Logan would be another person who’d look out for Olivia, that she could call him at any hour if she needed something and he would be there. They’d swung by Olivia’s place to grab some of her things and went on to Zach’s, where they’d slept ever since. She’d already called her landlord and given notice. They’d gone to her place over the weekend and packed the rest of her items.
Zach had gotten to see a whole new side of his future wife (the words still sounded odd to say) as they packed her apartment. Her bookshelves were overflowing with tomes. He found a worn copy of Summer Sisters by Judy Blume and noticed she’d annotated it. They filled two boxes with journals alone. Zach read a few lines from a poem written in a diary labeled Seventh Grade, which described rivers of tears streaming down her face because Jake Boranski had broken her heart. “I will hunt him down for hurting you!” Zach teased. Olivia snatched the journal away and swatted him playfully, ordering him to get back to work.