some of us… we adjust. I’d rather remember what
we had than regret never trying.
Bubba: I’ll talk to her tomorrow.
Coop: About that…
Bubba: Right, your b-day.
Coop: Yeah, just be you. Don’t overplay it.
Bubba: Easy for you to say.
Coop: Ha.
Bubba: What?
Coop: Everyone thinks I never worry. You’re wrong.
I’m always worried. Tomorrow, just relax. We’re
gonna have fun.
Bubba: Happy early birthday
Coop:Thanks. See you tomorrow…
Chapter Fourteen
Pictures of You
Archie was there when I got home, waiting with take out from the Japanese steakhouse he’d taken me to for dinner and his overnight bag. That meant he was also there when I found the door to my mother’s bedroom open, for the first time in ever.
I told him about the parents’ earlier visit before I went to work as I studied the room. Mom’s half-empty closet and the partially open drawers told me when she said she’d come by to pack up a few things, she meant packing to move out.
The stack of mail had been cleared off. Some of the knickknacks that she’d had most of my life and I’d never been allowed to touch were also gone. The bed had been stripped down to the mattress—that was something—and even her bookshelf had been emptied.
The most telling piece? Tory sat in the middle of her bed, looking like a queen.
Aware of Archie’s presence at my back, I pushed the door inward to her bathroom.
Everything was gone. Cosmetics, hair products, everything.
It was a mess and needed to be cleaned, but anything and everything she used regularly had been removed.
“Frankie…”
“Well,” I said, blowing out a breath. “I guess they were serious.”
When he wrapped his arms around me, I leaned back against him. “We’re going to figure this out,” he promised. “I can get some people over here and clean this all out whenever you’re ready.”
Clean all of this out?
“You don’t think she’s coming back.”
“At the moment,” he admitted. “I’d be more worried if she did. Especially about you.”
Staring at her bedroom, I tried to work out what I was feeling. Particularly when I stared at the one photo she’d left behind. It was on the far side of the bed, on the other nightstand. It was me and Mom at Scarborough Faire. We’d gone there a few years back…like forever ago. She’d woken me up early one morning.