“Because I love her.”
She stared at her hands on the album.
“Mom. Look at me.” When she met my eyes, I repeated myself. “I love her.”
“But why?” Her chin jutted. “I don’t understand. You can have anybody. Why do you have to love the girl your brother chose?”
“I don’t know, Mom. It wasn’t a choice for me.”
“But you’ve never even tried to find anyone else.”
“I wasn’t a monk before I came home. I’ve known plenty of women and never fell in love before.”
“You didn’t give yourself a chance! You took up with Hannah the minute you got back in town!”
“When you know, you know.” I was determined to stay calm.
“I just don’t understand how she can be in love with one brother for so long, and then suddenly decide she loves the other,” she sniffed.
“It wasn’t like that, Mom. Hannah didn’t just decide to love me. Our feelings grew as we spent more time together.”
“How do you even know she loves you? How do you know she’s not just substituting you for Drew?”
That cut a little close to the bone, but I kept my temper in check. “The same way I know you love me. I can feel it.”
She sighed. “I do love you, Wes. I want you to be happy, but I can’t accept this. It feels wrong to me.”
“What about giving it some time?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean taking some time to reflect on it, try to see things from our point of view. See if you can find it in your heart to accept that we love each other and want to be together.”
“And what if things go wrong?” she said. “Have you stopped to think about that? What’s that going to do to Abby? What’s that going to do to our family?”
“Things aren’t going to go wrong.” I said it firmly and looked her right in the eye. “This is it for me. This is what I want. I know people are going to talk, and I don’t care about them. But I do care about you. I want you to be happy for us. Do you think you can?”
“I don’t know.” She looked down at her hands.
“Please, Mom. Hannah and I want your blessing.”
“Are you sure she even cares what I think? I don’t think she does.”
“Of course she does. She’s so upset right now, she asked me for a few days to think things over. She thinks she’s driving a wedge between us.”
“She is,” my mother said petulantly.
I ignored that. “I’d like to be able to tell her that you and I talked calmly and there’s hope for accord. Otherwise, I’m afraid she’s going to decide to end it. And that will break my heart.” I could have told her that I was going to be with Hannah whether I had her blessing or not, but I didn’t think that would get me closer to my goal. It would hurt and anger her, and that did nothing but make this worse.
She continued to study her hands for a moment, and then she spoke. “I suppose I could give it some time.”
I inhaled and exhaled, relief swelling in me. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. I still might not be able to give my blessing.”
“All I ask right now is that you try.”
“Okay.” She looked at me again, a little hopeful this time. “Can I still plan a birthday dinner for you?”