After our week together at the beach house, we both agreed we had to keep each other at arm’s length. No more secret sex sessions. No more stolen glances. We promised one another to keep things professional, no matter how much it hurt. And we promised not to see other people, which was extremely easy on my part since I didn’t have time to date anyway.
I slid into my leather office chair on a balmy May morning and checked my email, smiling when I saw one from Wilder declaring he wanted to make an offer on one of the warehouses I’d shown him a few weeks back. Having him for a client meant I could scale back a bit on my workload and still come out on top professionally, which was wonderful. I’d been burning the candle at both ends for as long as I could remember.
Kyle seemed to be losing clients left and right, and I wasn’t sure whether or not Brenda Bliss had a hand in it or if somehow Wilder was working a little behind-the-scenes magic. He knew a lot of people in the industry and was one of the most well-connected investors I’d ever come across, though he never acted like it. I neglected to ask Wilder about it, not wanting to know the truth. Though if he did have something to do with the gradual demise of Kyle’s career, he probably wouldn’t admit to it anyway.
My phone buzzed on the table. Mom was calling.
“Hey, Mom, what’s up? I’m at the office,” I answered.
She sighed, long and heavy, into the phone. It was never a good thing when she did that. I’d heard that sigh before. Several times, actually. “I’m leaving Vince.”
I thanked God that she couldn’t see the enormous grin forming across my face in that moment. “Oh, no, Mom. Why? What happened?”
“I’m just miserable with him, sweetie.” She sounded like a deflated balloon, and the nasally sound of her voice suggested she was lying down on the sofa at home. I could just picture her with her left arm draped across her forehead as if she were sick.
“You two seemed so happy, though. In New York and at the beach. I’d never seen you like that before.” I scratched my head. Nothing was adding up.
“He’s a nice man, Addison, don’t get me wrong. He just bores me to tears with how everything has to be so perfect all the time. Perfect wife. Perfect little life. Perfect family. If he buys me another twinset from J.C. Penney, I think I’m going to die.”
“But I thought that was what you wanted? A perfect nuclear family kind of life?”
“I thought maybe that would make me happy. It didn’t. I was still just as miserable as I was before. I never should’ve married him,” she groaned. “When am I going to learn, huh? I’m fifty-three years old.”
“Fifty-eight.”
“Fine. I’m fifty-eight years old, and I’ve got four failed marriages under my belt.”
“Five.”
“Five, whatever. I’m so embarrassed.” I heard her sniffle, though it seemed like her hand had covered the receiver for a brief second. “God, he’s a horrible kisser. He doesn’t have a single tattoo anywhere on him. He goes to bed at nine o’clock every night. I’m surprised he doesn’t suggest we have separate beds, for Christ’s sakes.”
Funny how Wilder could come from a man like that. “I had no idea he was that vanilla, Mom.”
“Well, lesson learned,” she said. “I think I need to be single for a while.”
She’d said that very phrase a million times before. It’d lost its meaning years ago. “Yeah, maybe you should be single for a while.”
“Besides,” she sighed, “Dakota told me everything.”
“Excuse me?”
“I know all about you and Wilder.”
My heart raced and my response lodged itself in my throat.
“It explains a lot,” she laughed. “I mean, the behavior, you two running off together at the restaurant. The Uno debacle. I guess I was too blind to see it. Dakota filled in all the blanks for me.”
“She always did have a big mouth,” I mused, secretly thankful.
“Anyway, I had a long talk with your sister about everything the other day, and it just sort of finalized my decision to leave Vince. I’m not happy with him, and you want to be with Wilder. It’s a no-brainer, sweetie. You have no idea what it means to know that you were going to put your happiness on hold for me. You’re a good daughter, and I don’t deserve you.”
“You’re leaving Vince for sure?” I asked. With my brain suspended in a state of shock and disbelief, I could hardly process the life changing magnitude of our conversation. Something about me being a good daughter. Perhaps I should’ve focused on the kind words she was sharing, and any other day her words would’ve gone down in history. Tammy Lynn never paid compliments, not ones that exposed her innermost feelings.
“For sure,” she said.
“You’re not going to change your mind?”
“Never. My mind’s made up.”
“Mom?” Hot tears fogged my vision as I let them pool and fall onto the desktop below me.
“Yes, baby?” she drawled.
“Thank you.” I hung up with her and immediately dialed Coco. “I can’t believe you!”
“What?” Coco drew the word out, and I could only imagine the mischievous look on her face.
“Mom just called me. Said you told her everything about Wilder and me.” I wanted to hug her, but making her squirm a little was more fun.