My dad answers. “Hello, baby girl.”
“Hi, Daddy. Is Mom around?”
“Hmm…. You don’t want to talk to the old man, huh?”
I smile. “I love you, Daddy.”
I hear him sigh. “But you need your mother.”
“Please.”
“All right, darling. I love you. Hang on.”
I hear him call for her.
“Hey, sweetheart. Is everything okay?” The worry in her voice filters through phone.
“No, Mom,” I wail into the phone. “It’s not.”
“Oh, dear. Tell me what’s wrong.”
I fill her in on Andrew’s arrival. I tell her all about my turbulent emotions and my uncertainty about Brady’s feeling for me. I even go so far as to tell her that I think I may have made a mistake marrying him.
“Wait! What?” she shrieks.
I realize my error. I never told her that Brady and I had run off and gotten hitched. “Brady and I went to Vegas. He wanted us to be married before Mona was born.”
She gasps into the phone. “I can’t believe you never told me.”
“I know. We were going to plan a big family wedding after she was born.” It’s one of the many things that were never talked about again after Mona died.
“Well, I’m disappointed, but I did foolish things when I was young.”
I play with a string hanging from the end of my cover up. “I have no idea what to do.”
“Have you talked to Brady?”
“I can’t.” I suck my bottom lip to stop it from quivering. “That’s the worst part. I’ve always been able to talk to him.”
“Oh, Tori. You should tell him how you feel.”
“I can’t.”
The phone goes quiet, the silence lingering until I almost hang up. “What do you want to do, honey?”
“I’m thinking about school,” I admit, knowing it will make her happy. She was disappointed when I quit. “Can I move there?”
“Of course, but you need to really think if you want a life without Brady. You’ve been through something tragic. That, on top of your hormones, can take a toll on your emotions. Make sure you don’t make a decision you’ll regret.”
“I will,” I say with a sigh.
“Listen, give it a week. If you still feel the same way, Dad and I will make the arrangements.”
“Thanks, Mom. I love you.”
“I love you, too, sweetheart.”
After I hang up with my mom, I think about what she said. Am I prepared to live without Brady? I don’t know if I am.