That wasn’t what I wanted to hear, because there was a good chance it would take forever.
We sat there in silence while Mom gently ran her fingers through my hair. When I was a kid, there wasn’t anything that Mom couldn’t make better with brownies and cuddling me. Life gets bigger than that the older you get. I wish I could go back to the time she had the power to fix it all for me.
“I was thinking about turning the guest bathroom into the Gryffindor common room,” Mom told me. Which meant she was going to paint the walls and ceiling to look like the Gryffindor common room. Several parts of the house had Harry Potter paintings.
“Have you grown tired of Alice in Wonderland?” I asked. “I’m fond of the Cheshire cat and the Mad Hatter.” Which was what that bathroom was currently painted with.
“I think it’s time for a change,” she replied. “Want to help me?”
I lifted my head to look at her. “You want to do it now? Today?”
She shrugged. “Why not? Painting always makes me feel better.”
“I thought baking made you feel better.”
“It does, but you don’t eat enough for all the baking that would require. Let’s paint instead,” she replied with a grin.
“Sounds like a good plan,” I replied. I had nothing else to do. My friends in this town were Nash’s friends first, which meant I’d lost them too. Why had I wanted to come back here so badly? Why did the idea of going back to Chicago make me want to cry? All I had here was Mom. I had nothing else. Yet now that I was here, I didn’t want to think about going back to my life in Chicago.
“First you must eat a brownie,” Mom said, standing up. “Then we will paint.”
Giving in so that she would stop worrying about my weight, I stood up to follow her to the kitchen when a knock on the front door stopped me. Mom paused and turned around. “Wonder who that is,” she said, frowning. I didn’t move as she walked past me and headed to answer the door. Although I was closer to the door, I didn’t make a move to get it. No one in this town would be coming to see me.
“Riley.” My mother sounded as surprised as I felt.
Why was Riley Young here? We hadn’t spoken since the breakup. Mom moved and waved her inside. “Come on in. I just made brownies, and we were about to have one. Please come join us.”
Riley’s eyes met mine, and a small smile touched her lips. “Hey,” she said almost cautiously.
“Hey,” I replied, not sure what else to say or why she was here. The last time we had spoken, Brady hadgraduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in architecture. He’d already had interviews in Nashville. I didn’t know if he’d gotten a job there or if he was here now. They had done the long-distance thing successfully for four years. Riley had done college online and stayed in Lawton to raise her daughter. I was glad they’d made it.
“Maggie told me she saw you this morning. I didn’t know you were in town,” she explained. “I wanted to stop by and catch up, if… if that’s okay.”
I nodded, willing myself not to cry. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
“And I’ll leave you both to do just that,” Mom said, beaming brightly, then left the room without mentioning the brownies again.
I motioned toward the chairs across from the sofa. “Uh, have a seat,” I told her, feeling awkward. Once we had been close. Riley had been the closest female friend I’d ever had. I missed her, and I missed Bryony, too.
She reached up to tuck some hair behind her ear as she sat and I saw it then. The diamond on her hand. The sunlight through the windows hit it just right, and it sparkled beautifully. “You’re engaged,” I said.
Riley nodded her head. “Yeah,” she said.
“When?” I asked, realizing just how much I had missed.
“Bryony’s seventh birthday party,” she replied with a soft smile on her face.
“Congratulations. I mean, we all knew this day was coming, but still, I’m happy for all three of you,” I told her honestly. “Did Brady get a job in Nashville?” I asked.
“Yes, the company is in Nashville, but he is working in Cullman. It’s for a new shopping development. We bought a house in Lawton.” She laughed then. “Who would have thought six years ago that I’d have wanted to buy a house and raise Bryony here? But it’s home now. It’s where we belong.”
“I’m happy for you, I really am,” I told her.
A slight frown touched her lips then. “What about you? How is Chicago? Are you still loving it there?”
I wasn’t sure I had ever loved it there. I shrugged. “I don’t know what I’m doing, honestly. Do I love Chicago? No. But is this my home still? I don’t know. I can’t figure out where I fit and what I’m supposed to do.” I said more than I meant to. Riley hadn’t stopped by for me to unload on her.
“He’s lost too. He’s got his job, and that’s all he does.”