Lessons From the Professor

Carissa met her sister’s eyes and nodded as they glistened with tears. “I never really hated you, Sutton. You were just impossible to live up to, and if I couldn’t be like you I had to be the exact opposite.”

“Carissa, the only thing you have to do is be you.”

“Try telling Mom that.”

“Mom is a lonely woman who puts too many demands on us, and we’ve all let her because we feel bad about her losing Dad. I, for one, plan on putting my foot down from now on.” Sutton shook her head as she thought of Jackson’s impromptu appearance at work.

“Good luck with that one,” Carissa said.

They glanced at each other and laughed. The rift between them seemed to grow smaller now that everything was out in the open.

“We’re going to be okay, Carissa,” Sutton said as she pulled her into a warm hug. It would take some time, but Sutton knew eventually they’d get things ironed out between them.

Epilogue

“Are you ready?” Sidney asked.

Sutton nodded her head as she placed her hand in the crook of his arm, and they made their way up the cement walkway that led to the two-story brick house she’d grown up in. After almost nine months of dating, she and Sidney had deemed it past time they visited her hometown. Her sister Carissa had warmed up to him months back, and he’d even earned the seal of approval from her brothers. Landon, Wyatt, and Noah had come up to visit for a long weekend and had ended up hitting it off with her professor swimmingly. Her mother was the last challenge. She knocked on the door and beamed when her mother answered the door and gave her a huge hug.

“It’s so good to have all my babies under the same roof again!” her mother said before she pulled back.

“It’s good to see you, too, Mom.”

Sutton stepped back and smiled as Sidney wrapped a strong arm around her waist.

“Mom, this is Sidney. Sidney, this is my mother.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Atkins,” he said as he extended a hand.

She felt her heart race as her mother studied him quietly.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, Sidney, and you can just call me Ida.” Her mother stepped back and waved them into the house. “That’s enough jawing on the porch. Come on in before we give the neighbors something to talk about.”

Sutton chuckled as Sidney led her inside. No matter how long she was gone, every time she came back things were exactly the same.

“You guys are the last to arrive, so everyone’s in the back yard. We’ll start bringing out the food now.”

Her mother led them through the kitchen to the patio door that opened out onto the back porch, and Sutton paused.

“Sid, you already know everyone else, so why don’t you go outside while I help Mom?”

He gave her a peck on the lips and gave her hip a squeeze before he opened the sliding door and slipped outside to join her siblings. She moved over to lean against the counter and waited for her mother to initiate the long anticipated conversation.

“What do you want me to say, Sutton?”

“I don’t want you to say anything. I want you to listen. I know this is the first time you’ve met Sid in person, but between my schedule and his it hasn’t been possible until now. As soon as I walk out those doors it’s going to take Carissa about five minutes to notice this.” She held up her left hand to reveal the two carat solitaire diamond ring Sidney had presented her with a week prior.

“Oh my God,” her mother whispered. She covered her mouth with a shaky hand as she glanced up at her.

“Sid asked me to marry him, and I said yes. I love him, Mom. He treats me well, and we balance each other out. I have nothing but the utmost respect for you. You raised us all after Dad passed, and you did an excellent job. But I can’t keep living my life worried about your opinions and how they’ll affect you. I know you’re the one who sent Jackson to my job. Things like that have to stop. You need to accept that I’m old enough to make my own choices. We all are.”

“All I’ve ever wanted was for you to be happy, Sutton. Of all my children, you’re the one who I worry about the most. I put too much responsibility on you. You were a child, and I forced you to grow up much too soon. That wasn’t right, Sutton.” Tears rolled down her Mother’s face as she took Sutton’s hands in her own. “You took the role of den-mother to heart, Sutton. It’s in every goal you set and achieve. I’ve been forced to watch that drive almost isolate you from everyone else. I guess I’ve overcompensated to assuage the guilt I felt. I wanted to see you happy and settled, so I pushed when maybe I should have backed off.”

Sutton was stunned by the things her mother had revealed.

“Mom, I’ve spent the past few years feeling like a complete disappointment to you. I know you wanted me to follow a different path—”

“I’ve always been proud of you!” Sutton closed her eyes as her mother embraced her and stroked her hair. “I am so sorry I made you feel that way, baby girl. If this man is the one you want I trust your judgment.”