“I?
??ll go make us some coffee and get you something to eat.”
“I’m not hungry, Momma, truly.”
“I’m going to fix you something and you’re going to eat it. Then you’re going to tell me everything.”
“I don’t have any food in the house,” Chloe protested.
“And why do you think I came around this morning?” Loretta asked as she moved around the room opening windows. “I got you some groceries. If you’d given me notice that you were coming home, I’d have aired the place out and had some food in the fridge for you for when you arrived. But as it stands, I’m glad you didn’t, because you’d have just borne this alone, wouldn’t you?”
Chloe couldn’t deny it. She’d spent the last nineteen years learning to suck up whatever bothered her and, while this was more monumental than anything she’d endured before, she would have tried to shield her mom from this, too.
“It makes no difference. Telling you won’t change the outcome.”
“A problem shared is a problem halved, honey. Remember that.”
Chloe cracked the weakest of smiles as her mom espoused one of her dad’s favorite sayings. He also used to say that happiness shared was doubled, but Chloe didn’t know if she’d ever feel happy again. She sat back on the couch and watched as her mom put away a couple of bags of groceries and then put a pan on the stovetop. Soon the air was redolent with the aroma of fresh coffee, toasted bread and fried eggs with bacon. The scents of her childhood, she realized as Loretta loaded everything on a tray and brought it through to her.
Despite her protestation that she wasn’t hungry, Chloe did her best to eat the simple meal her mom had prepared for her. To her surprise, once she started, she couldn’t stop until it was all gone. She was on her second cup of coffee when her mother sat down next to her and patted her on the leg.
“Now, tell me everything,” she urged her daughter.
So Chloe did. She unloaded everything—well, the G-rated version anyway—that she’d said and done with Miles right up until he’d ordered her out of his life. To her credit, Loretta didn’t once interrupt, and when Chloe was finished speaking she merely shook her head.
“It was like that with your daddy and me. Falling in love hard and fast. High emotions. They’re exhilarating and exhausting all at the same time, aren’t they?”
Chloe just nodded. She knew her parents had had a whirlwind courtship, but she hadn’t wanted to ask her mom too much by the time she was old enough to show an interest, because doing so would only cause her mom more pain.
“I’m sorry, Momma. I failed you.”
“No, don’t you dare say that! You haven’t failed me at all.”
“But I didn’t get the revenge we’d both talked about for so long. When it came down to it, I couldn’t do it.”
“And I’m glad you didn’t, to be honest. When you called me and told me that you weren’t going forward, I’ll admit I was mad at you for not following through with your plans, and I was determined to finish off what you started.” Releasing a pent-up breath, Loretta admitted, “But then I got to thinking, and I realized it shouldn’t have ever been your fight. It was mine. Realizing that made me see I’d failed you as a parent all these years. I put unrealistic pressures and expectations on you your whole life and, you know, to be totally honest, it’s all credit to you that you’re the incredible human being you are.
“I also realized that I’ve been selfish for quite long enough.”
“No, Momma, never selfish,” Chloe protested.
“Yes, honey. I can see that now. I was so wrapped in my own grief and all we’d lost with your daddy dying, and I harbored a fair amount of anger toward him, as well, for leaving us to deal with it all on our own. I just didn’t see how much you needed me, too. I took all the support you gave me and I expected more. That was wrong—and that’s going to change from here on in. I promise.
“When you told me about the drugs and the DEA, I knew that making that news public would be crippling to the Wingates. I wanted to do that more than anything, to bring them to their knees the way Trent Wingate brought your father to his. But I also realized that doing so would hurt you, too, and I’ve hurt you enough, my darling girl. It’s time I stopped living in the past. Time I took control of me and my life and let you live yours.”
“Oh, Momma, I don’t ever want to be without you,” Chloe said fervently.
“And you won’t be. But I’ll be the mother from this moment forward. You will be able to depend on me as should always have been your right. And I want you to reach out to your young man once he’s had a few days to calm down. You both deserve a bright future together.”
Chloe shook her head slowly. “I don’t think he’ll ever forgive me for this. I betrayed him in the worst possible way.”
“Keep the faith. If your love for one another is as strong as you believe it is, it’ll work out eventually.”
“I hope so.”
“Believe it, honey. True love never dies. It takes a hit sometimes, but it never goes away.”
Chloe watched as her mom stacked their cups on the tray together with her breakfast plate and took it through to the kitchen. She wondered if her mom was right.