“Are you kidding? I’ve been in training for years with all my dad jokes,” Griffin quipped.
“Just wait until she’s a teenager,” Jenny warned, smiling. “Everything you do will be an embarrassment. Hannah rolls her eyes at me so often, I’m surprised they don’t fall out of her head.”
“Matty’s getting that way, too.” Stella agreed. “He used to hold my hand to cross the street, now he tells me to drop him off around the corner so nobody sees him with mom. Treasure these years,” she told them.
Lila grinned. “You mean, the sleepless nights and crying jags?”
“Good times.” Stella agreed with a wry laugh. She hadn’t known what she was getting herself into with motherhood, she’d still been a kid herself. But there was nothing like being responsible for a tiny, helpless bundle of smiles to make you grow up, and fast.
“Well, I better be getting back to my own pride and joy,” she said at last, getting to her feet. Mackenzie and Jenny followed suit, yawning.
“Remember when we could stay up past 9 p.m.?” Mac asked, teasing, as they said their goodbyes and stepped out into the balmy evening air.
“You mean, back when we were twenty?” Stella laughed. They were all longtime locals, aside from Lila, the Hollywood transplant, and had been good friends over the years. Eventually. “I can’t believe you hated me at first,” she said, smiling at the memory.
“Well, you did steal my parking spot at the diner,” Mac pointed out with a grin.
“I was pregnant!” Stella protested. “I’m pretty sure I just needed to pee.”
“Well, I didn’t know that.” Mac grinned. “I thought you were just another rich summer kid, slumming it on the off season.”
“It’s a good thing Matty was such a cute kid,” Stella cracked, only half kidding. “Otherwise it would have taken you all a lot longer to warm up to me.”
“Now look at us,” Jenny quipped, hugging her goodbye. “Practically toasty.”
Stella drove back, feeling a little better about her run-in with Aidan. Maybe her friends were right; maybe she was over-thinking it. After all, she should be relieved that dating was the last thing on his mind. If it had been the opposite, and he was eager to start something after that kiss?
Well, that would be a whole different kind of awkward. Her friends may not understand her rules about keeping romance out of town, but Stella had her reasons.
Sweetbriar Cove was a safe place for her, and she wanted it to stay that way.
It was why she’d had been drawn back there, after that pregnancy test had turned her world upside down. Things had gotten so ugly with her parents, Stella needed time to clear her head and figure things out – away from the shame and bitter recrimination at home. She didn’t even pause to think it through, just threw her bags in the back of the car one night and sneaked away before they even realized she was gone. She figured she could hide out at the beach house for a few days, but strolling into town that first morning, she’d looked around at the quiet, leafy streets, and the smiles on people’s faces as she passed, and she’d realized:
This place could be home. For her – and her baby.
It hadn’t all been smooth sailing. Her parents threw a fit, and then another once they found out she’d traded in that shiny BMW for a beat-up old Camry and enough money to pay the hospital bills on her own. People around town looked at her sideways for a good few months, but
once they realized she was there to stay, they’d come through for her in ways she never could have imagined, opening their hearts, and their homes to them both. Helen offered up her guest house for them to stay, free of charge. Franny had brought over boxes of old baby clothes and a crib from her granddaughter, and Hank had come to fix the ancient furnace a dozen times that winter, as Stella desperately read a dozen parenting handbooks and wondered what an earth she’d gotten herself into. Her parents may have washed their hands of her, but she found that she wasn’t alone. And when Matty was born, she knew she’d made the right choice. Sweetbriar Cove had been her haven.
So, was she really so wrong for wanting things to stay exactly the same?
Back at the farmhouse, Stella let herself in and kicked off her shoes. There was still a light on in Matty’s room, and she found him sprawled on his stomach on the carpet, eyes glued to the video game on his TV.
“C’mon,” she said, “You know the rules. No screens after nine PM.”
“But mom…!” he complained. “We just have one more level before we claim the castle!”
“And it’ll wait until tomorrow,” she said firmly. “You want hot cocoa? It’s the good stuff, from the chocolate shop in town. Limited time offer…”
With that tempting promise, Stella headed for the kitchen, and sure enough, Matty emerged from his room a few moments later. “Marshmallows?” she asked, setting on the milk to heat.
“Yes please.” He slouched at the table, and she hid a smile. He used to love sitting down with her in the evenings and sharing all about his day, but now that he was a teenager, those moments were getting rarer.
“So, how was your evening?” she asked, “Any wild parties while I was gone?”
Matty rolled his eyes good naturedly. “Yup. The whole football team came over, and brought a keg, too. The neighbors called the cops to shut it down.”
“Well, just as long as you had fun.” Stella poured them both a mug, and joined him at the table. “Although… have you thought about trying out for one of the teams this year? Not football, but maybe hockey, or cross-country running,” she suggested. “It could be a good way to make friends.”
“I have friends.” Matty said stubbornly, the same way he always did when she tried to nudge him to be a little more social.
“I know,” Stella said gently. “But it would be nice to have some at your school, too.”
“I’m fine, mom.” Matty insisted. “I have Bryce and Laurie. We talk all the time.”
Stella stifled a sigh. Bryce and Laurie Johansson were good kids; their parents rented a house on the shore every summer, and the three of them had run around together ever since they could walk. They were into the same thick fantasy novels, and weird movies, and complicated video games – but the twins were only around for a couple of months each year, before heading back to their fancy boarding school… And then Matty was left alone again.
“Still, it’s the festival this weekend, that will be fun, won’t it?” she said brightly. But Matty paused, biting his lip.
“I was going to ask… There’s a big tournament tomorrow, our team is so close to taking the top spot, but Rich dropped out and Kazza can log on at the last minute,” he talked so fast, she could hardly keep up. “Only, with the time difference for the West Coast, the only time we can play is six until midnight.”
“Midnight?” Stella paused. She loved seeing him upbeat about anything these days, but still… “You know the rules.”
“Please mom?” Matty screwed his face up, pleading. “It’s the weekend, and I promise, I’ll have all my homework done. And you can stay out late at the festival with your friends, and not have to worry about me,” he added, with a virtuous look.