guess,” Brayden began, walking toward me. “You said no.”
“I didn’t really say anything. I yelled at him for even thinking I was willing to move somewhere I had only spent a few days just so he could be close to his friends and family. What about my friends? What about my life? Doesn’t he understand I worked my ass off for years to make the restaurant as successful as it is? How can he expect me to just walk away from all of it?”
“You said you were planning on taking a few months off from work after the baby was born anyway,” Jenna said. “The restaurant has been practically running itself for a while now. Not to mention we’ve been talking about expanding the brand into newer markets, Boston being one of the places we discussed. If you lived there, you’d be in a perfect position to manage the opening of that restaurant!”
“That’s beside the point!” I exclaimed, my face flaming. “His life is up there. Mine is down here. With everything going on, I can’t leave my dad. And I can’t leave you two! We’ve been practically attached at the hip for the past eight years! How can he expect me to pick up and leave the only family I have?” Tears began to well in my eyes at the thought of not being able to have my traditional Friday girls’ night, of not waking up some mornings to see Brayden lying in bed beside me, of not walking into the kitchen at the restaurant to another one of Jenna’s culinary experiments. When I was younger, I dreamed of finally going back to North Carolina, to the only home I thought I had. I finally had a new home, a new family that I loved more than I thought possible. I couldn’t abandon that again, not when the memory of what it was like to be forced from the only home I had was still fresh in my mind, despite the passing years.
“But we’ll only be a quick flight away,” Brayden assured me, rubbing his hand up and down my arms. “We’ll come visit as much as we can. And when you’re able, you can come see us, especially in those cold winter months.” He shivered in a dramatic manner, bringing a smile to my face. “I’m not a fan of snow, unless I’m watching it fall with a hot guy keeping me warm…if you know what I mean.” He winked.
“You moving won’t change our relationship,” Jenna added. “A few thousand miles can’t come between us, and you know it.”
“It’s just…” I took a deep breath, trying to compose my thoughts. All day, I had been trying to figure out what it was about Tyler’s proposition that I didn’t like. The truth was, it scared me. I would be in a new place, with a new family, with no support system like I had here. “Who will I run to when things get bad?” I asked with a quiver in my voice.
Brayden sighed dramatically. “You’re such a pessimist.”
“No, I’m not!” I insisted. “I’m a realist. Big difference.”
He rolled his eyes. “Who says things are going to get bad? How have things been lately?”
“Great. Better than great. Perfect…which is exactly why I’m worried. I’m just scared I’ll get there and will see a different Tyler than the one who’s been down here with me. I won’t be able to run to you guys for advice…”
“Of course you will! We’re always just a phone call away,” he interjected.
“Mackenzie,” Jenna said, her voice low. “You know as well as I do that this isn’t a place where you can raise a child. Don’t you want Triple B to be near children his own age he can play with? He won’t have that here, not when the population of this island changes each week.”
“I know.” I sank further into the glider, feeling defeated. “I guess I’m just scared of all this change at once. Not only am I going to have to completely rearrange everything because of the baby, but now I have to uproot my life? I just–”
“Do you love him?” Jenna interrupted.
I nodded without hesitation.
“And you know he loves you. If you don’t want to move to Boston, you know damn well he will stay wherever you do want to live. I think you owe it to him to at least consider Boston as an option.”
I sighed, knowing she was right. It was selfish of me to not at least start