“We’ll get there,” I promise my daughter, closing my eyes with a soft sigh.
Though…I’m not sure if that’s a promise I can keep. I’ve spent ten years hiding away from getting my heart broken once more. I’m not certain I can open those doors again.
And then, abruptly, Georgia’s face flashes into my mind.
My eyes pop open. Wait, what? I shake my head. My mind is playing tricks on me after Saturday night, that’s all. I let go of Lily and nudge her toward the cupboard.
“Eat your breakfast or you’re going to be late,” I say.
Lily smiles at me and turns away. I pull myself to my feet. The hardest thing about all this, I know, is that Lily is involved. Maybe I should have kept Polly and Lily apart until I knew what was going on. But I’ve made it a policy not to lie to my daughter. I couldn’t just pretend that this didn’t happen. She has the right to know that her mother is around, especially with how she’s been asking about her lately.
I just hope that Lily isn’t the one to get her heart broken this time.
When twelve-thirty rolls around, Georgia shows up, a full half hour before Polly is due.
“I did some research on the area code Polly put on her number,” she says when she walks in, making me look up.
“Hello to you too,” I say pointedly.
“Yeah, yeah, hello and all that,” Georgia says, grinning. “Anyway, the area code is from the Newark and New Jersey areas. So she lives about eighty to ninety miles away from here.”
“That’s a fair distance,” I say, trying to remember. “About an hour away, right?”
“Approximately an hour and a half, depending on where exactly she lives,” Georgia corrects. “Also, I looked into the last name Sanders. It’s really common.”
“Thanks for that,” I say, deadpan.
“But,” Georgia stresses, glaring at me. “There’s actually a local councilor in the Newark area with the last name Sanders. I looked him up, just in case, and found a few articles on him. There’s a few with his wife…Polly Sanders.”
“Wait…seriously?” I gasp.
Georgia hands me her phone with a picture on it. It’s in color, so Georgia likely copied it from a website. The politician, Warrick Sanders, looks like he’s around forty-something, and he has the same distant smile most politicians have. He’s waving to a crowd of people who are gathered nearby. At his side is a tall blonde woman with striking green eyes and a pleasant smile on her face as she threads her arm through her husband’s.
It’s been ten years, and she looks older than my memories paint her. But I still recognize my ex-wife.
“Whoa,” I say, sitting back, stunned.
“Hasn’t changed a bit, has she?” Georgia comments, taking her phone back. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah…yeah, I’m fine,” I say, shaking my head. “It’s just really fucking surreal, you know?”
“A little,” Georgia agrees. “To think, she lives fairly close, all things considered, and she’s married to a politician… I guess we don’t pay enough attention to the news since we never saw her and her husband doing their campaigns.”
“I’ve got too much on my plate to trawl news sites,” I groan.
“True,” Georgia says. Her eyes flash. “Which reminds me…at some point, we will be talking about this loan you think you’re applying for.”
I look at her, startled. How the hell does she know about that? Then, abruptly, the answer comes to me. I told her myself last night when she came in to find me drinking.
“Right,” I sigh. “Later. I can only handle one thing at a time.”
Georgia’s face softens. “Well, I do want to apologize, before anything else. I heard Lily ask you for that computer…but I didn’t think to ask how you felt about it. I knew you couldn’t afford it and just put the issue aside. Sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” I said instantly, shaking my head. “You don’t have to consider those kinds of things, you know. Just concentrate on your stuff.” I give her a small smile. “Stop trying to take my worries on your shoulders. It isn’t fair for you.”
Georgia looks startled. I vaguely remember saying something similar to her on Saturday night. But, in case I didn’t, I want to say it now. I’m grateful that Georgia is trying to make things easier on me. But I need to be able to handle my own worries. And she needs to stop taking on that burden, otherwise she’ll never be happy.
Georgia opens her mouth to reply. Before she can, however, a knock sounds at my door.