at him.
He just shrugs innocently.
I tear the tape off the cardboard and flip open the box. “Clothes?” I ask. I pull out tops with plenty of room and jeans with tan belly bands around the waist and panties and bras and pajamas.
“Maternity,” he says. “You’ve been saying for two weeks that you want to get some maternity clothes, and I had Debbie help me figure out what to order when you cried the other night that you could no longer get your jeans to button.”
I laugh at the memory as I shake my head. “Man, the emotions are strong sometimes.” I look at the box again and my eyes fill. I swipe away an escaped tear, and he chuckles. “Thank you. This is so kind of you.”
He reaches for me and pulls me into his arms as he thumbs away another tear that tipped over. “You’ve taken such good care of me, Ellie. It’s the least I can do to try to pay that back.”
“It’s not about being even or paying back. I take care of you because I love you.”
He presses a soft kiss to my forehead. “Right back at you.”
I melt into a puddle right there, and I’m trying to pull myself together again when the doorbell rings. We’re both still standing in the foyer.
“Are you expecting anybody?” he asks.
I shake my head. “It’s probably Josh stopping by to see how your appointment went.”
“I bet you’re right,” he says, and he moves toward the door and tosses it open as I sink down into the pile of clothes as I hold up a gorgeous white sweater made out of the softest material.
I wait to hear my brother’s voice, but instead I hear Luke say, “Mom?”
Mom?
Carol?
What the hell is she doing here?
“Hi,” she says, and her voice sounds tentative. Carol Dalton has never been tentative about anything a day in her life.
“Come on in,” he says, opening the door wider.
She glances down at me in my pile of clothes as she walks in. “Am I interrupting something?”
I giggle. “Your son just surprised me with all this. He is just the sweetest, most wonderful man in the world.”
Luke looks embarrassed, and Carol looks proud. “How kind,” she says.
“Mom, what are you doing here?”
“Don’t I get a hug first?” she asks, and I almost laugh at the question. She’s never started a greeting with a hug.
It’s been three weeks since we last saw her, and I study her as her son wraps his arms around her. She looks tired. Worn down. Defeated.
Different.
I hug her next even though she didn’t ask for one. She seems like she could use one anyway...maybe I could, too.
“Can I get you something to drink?” I ask.
“Some water would be lovely,” she says.
“Of course. Come on in.” I pile the clothes back into the box and head to the kitchen.
“So...are you going to tell us what you’re doing here?” Luke asks once we’re sitting around the kitchen table.
She clears her throat. “I thought a lot about what you said, about how I don’t need that big old house all to myself, and you’re right. I don’t. All my friends in Michigan came by way of your father’s job. Everything there reminds me of him. Every corner I turn, I see mistakes I made. And now it’s too late to change them, but it’s not too late to change other things, to fix other mistakes.”
She pauses, and my chest tightens. Is she moving here? In with us? Can I even handle that?
No. The answer would be no.
I love Luke, and I want him to thrive and to succeed. I don’t want him to be pulled down by the weight of his past and the mistakes of his family, and I’m terrified this will only lead to disappointment all the way around. People don’t really change. Some tragedy happens, and everyone acts differently for a little while, but then things go back to the way they were. That’s just life.
“I’m moving to Las Vegas...if you’ll still have me,” she says, and my heart drops into my stomach.
I school my expression to blank, but I’m not sure how successful I am in keeping the horror off my face.
“Of course we’ll have you, Mom,” Luke says. “You’re welcome to stay here a while if you need to. Right, Ellie?”
I nod as I’m supposed to. “Of course,” I murmur.
Carol glances at me. Gone is the look like I’m some annoying nuisance, and at least that is a small comfort. At least maybe