“Interesting.” She fake smiles.
“I better get back to the office.” Dean steps forward and I rear back. Then I bend forward and his head tilts back. After an awkward dance, his lips make contact with my cheek. “Dresser offer still stands,” he whispers, and a smile graces my lips.
“Mrs. Walsh.” He nods like some trained elitist. “Please give Mr. Walsh my best.”
“Dean,” she says the four letter word like it is the four letter word.
He steps out, catching my eye before he leaves. Can we please go back to a half hour ago?
“Your office. Now.” Mom heads down the hall without waiting for me.
“Hey, Vic, hold all my calls.”
Victoria gives me a ‘I’m sorry’ smile. It’s not her fault. I’m sure when I check my phone there’ll be messages from her.
By the time I enter my office, my mom is on my side of the desk.
“Shut the door,” she demands like we’re in her office, not mine.
Nonetheless, I follow her instructions.
She hasn’t even heard the click of the door before she’s laying into me. “How could you? He’s the worst person for you. What are you, going to marry him again?”
“Just relax. He’s changed.”
“He’s changed.” She throws her hands up in the air. “A tiger doesn’t change his stripes, Chelsea. He’s still that selfish bastard who let you down five years ago. A man who can’t take care of himself, let alone a wife.”
“I’m twenty-five. Do I have to remind you of that?” I clench my fists by my side in an effort to control my anger.
“Funny. You said that same line to me when you were eighteen and newly married.” She sits in my chair, taking a calming breath and then sets her focus on me. “Chelsea, just because he’s some lawyer now and dresses in nicer clothes than baseball shorts and t-shirts doesn’t mean the inside of that package has changed. You’re a smart woman, he’s just always had this power over you.”
“Because I love him,” I mumble, crossing my arms over my chest.
“You do not. Don’t let him convince you to feel things you don’t.” Her hand slaps down on the desk and I jolt.
“He’s not, Mom. I do. I love him. I love who he was five years ago, and I love him for the person he’s become. I knew you wouldn’t accept this.”
“There’s nothing to accept.”
“There is. We’re in a relationship.” I bring my hands back down to my sides and puff my chest out. “He just offered me a drawer at his place.”
“How sweet of the man.” She rolls her eyes. “Come back down to Earth, Chelsea. You’re sleeping with him, so he’s offering you a drawer so you can sleep with him some more.” She stands and leans toward me with her hands pressed down on my desk.
“Did you ever think that maybe I was as important to him as he is to me and that’s why he offered a drawer?”
I can’t believe I’m having an argument with her over a drawer.
“I think that men like Dean get what they want no matter how many lies they have to tell people to get it. I think as soon as he’s done, he’ll leave you again.”
“I left him,” I grind out.
She scoffs and shakes her head at me in pity. “Don’t fool yourself, he left you way before you walked out that door.”
I plop down in a chair that’s supposed to be for guests in my office, almost defeated. She always plays to win no matter how deep she has to plunge in the dagger.
“Stay out of it,” I say, staring at my knotted hands.
“You’re my daughter.”
I know I’m not wrong this time. I know it.
Standing back up, I decide I’m not going to let her dictate my life. She doesn’t bring much joy to it anyway.
“I’m going to continue dating him, Mom. I’d like you and Dad to give him a chance and see how he’s changed, but if you can’t do that, fine. But know that I’m not changing my mind. I’ve decided to give him a second chance.” I cross my arms for effect and she stares me down, calculated and waiting for me to crumble under her narrowed eyes.
After a prolonged silence, I speak. “Now this is where I work, and I have to get back to it. If you want to talk about this further, call me.” I walk over and open my office door.
“Chelsea, I’ll leave because I’m not going to make a scene, and everyone knows you need the money, but you can engrave this into stone. That boy is going to ruin you—again.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Mom, he’s a man now, not a boy.”
She shakes her head and leaves, stopping just after she’s cleared my doorway. “You can tell your father. I don’t want to upset him.”
“Will do.”
She walks down the hall and I lightly swing my door shut, even though I want to slam it for all it’s worth.
Am I the only one who can feel the tsunami brewing?
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Whoa, what a mama bear.” Victoria cringes while she peeks into my door.
“A grizzly to be precise. She’s not being protective.”
“Oh, I think she is. She’s worried.” She helps herself to a seat and of course Hannah is right behind her.
“I’m going to take the chairs out of my office,” I grumble.
Hannah smiles sweetly, one that says, ‘no you’re not, all is well.’
“Hey, it doesn’t matter what your mom thinks, it matters what you think.” Hannah’s hand reaches over and grabs mine.
“Exactly,” Victoria says.
“Speaks the woman whose mom loves her man.”
“Not always.” Victoria shrugs. “My mom hated Pete.”
I stare blankly at her.
“Yeah, okay I see your point.” She brings her fingers to her lips and zips. Even pretending to throw away the key. Is this what happens to people after they have kids?
“Truly I don’t care, it’s just going to make it uncomfortable at my cousin’s wedding.” I slide my hand out from Hannah’s and type my password into my computer.
“What are you going to do after that?” Hannah asks.
“I’m going to disown my mom.”
Hannah and Victoria glance at one another.
“Seems viable,” Hannah says. “Or you could try to let them see the good in Dean.”
“They’ve never seen the good in Dean. Actually” —I hold my hand up—“they weren’t that upset when they thought he was going to be a number one draft pick. After he hurt his shoulder and they figured out the money train vanished, that’s when they decided they really hated him.”
“They were okay with you marrying him at eighteen?” The judgment in Victoria’s tone is clear and she’s probably put herself in my mom’s position in her head. Jade marrying someone right after she leaves for college. I get it, shortly after we were married I made myself a promise that if we ever had a daughter, she’d know all the mistakes I made so she didn’t repeat them. Not like I really have to worry about that anyway.