She grins at me. “I have a lot I need to tell you, sweetheart.”
When was the last time she called me that?
“Uh, okay,” I mumble out.
“First of all, yes, my hair is a different shade. More like our natural strawberry-blonde.”
“It’s pretty,” I tell her.
“Thank you.” She takes a deep breath. “Okay, here goes. Van,” she says, referring to her third husband—who is not just a friend of the billionaire Tripp Archibald, like I first thought, but he’s also his brother—“has been really good for me. He’s incredibly honest and humble, and because of him, I have been in counseling for about six months.”
My eyes get huge. “Counseling for what?”
“Me,” she says simply. “Van overheard me speaking to you one day and talked to me about it. He loves me, but he loves his family more than anything. The Archibald family, for all their money, have managed to stay incredibly close. He said it’s because their parents taught them to treat each other with respect. He felt that what I told you that day was not only disrespectful, but also possibly detrimental to you.”
“What did you say?” I ask, trying to figure out where this is all coming from.
“It doesn’t matter at this point, but I realized he was right. Since then, I’ve come to discover a lot about myself. The biggest thing is that I was—am—insecure when it comes to love. I loved your father so much when I married him, but before I’d met him, I’d had my own dreams. Dreams that, honestly, weren’t even mine. They were what my parents had told me I needed to do to succeed. When you hear something over and over, it becomes part of you. And it morphed into what I thought I wanted out of life.
“You might find it both funny and ironic that my parents were hard on me. They preached to me about getting excellent grades, going to medical school, becoming a doctor, and of course, marrying one. That was literally my life plan, all spelled out.
“My parents never went to college, but my father was smart and moved up in his company. My mother very much tried to keep up with the Joneses, and she always worried about what people would think of her. And, well, me.
“My first few years in college, I worked hard. I chose my sorority based on their grade point average and didn’t get involved with it any more than required. I didn’t like Jadyn and thought she was slutty because she hung out with so many guys. In some respects, she was the girl I wished I could be. No parents to tell her what to do. Crazy, carefree, and popular. Eventually, we became friends. And then she bribed me into going on a date with her best friend. Your father. I tried to resist his charm because I didn’t think marrying an athlete was in the cards for me. But I fell in love with him. We married. I got pregnant quickly. It was easy to get caught up in all things Danny Diamond.”
She pauses for a moment to take a sip of water. And it shocks me to see tears glistening in her eyes when she speaks about being in love with my dad.
“Things were great for a while, but then … your dad was famous. Girls cheered his name. I was jealous. Even of Jadyn. Your father and Jadyn were so close, and when I was pregnant, those insecurities rose to the surface. And when you were born, I was scared to death. I had always wanted to be a doctor, but being a mother seemed so foreign. I thought it was supposed to be natural, and when it wasn’t, I got rigid, trying to maintain a sense of control when, in reality, I had none. It led me to cheat on your father because I was searching for something.
“The counseling has made me realize that what I was searching for was me. I’ve never had a strong sense of self. I simply kept trying to fit myself into other people’s expectations. And that is hard.”
She smiles at me. “I’m still a work in progress, but it was really important for me to tell you all this today, before you go to college. I want you to try to forget any expectations you think I have. I promise you, starting today, you’ll get no more pressure or judgment from me. If you decide you don’t want to rush and you’d rather, I don’t know, join the Peace Corps, you’ll have my full support. What I’m trying to say is that I don’t want you to carry the burden of family expectations with you to school.”
I throw my arms around my mom—something I haven’t done since before the divorce—and start crying. What a relief it would be if what she is saying is true.
“I had a meltdown over a pair of shoes,” I admit, trying to lighten the mood.
“Devaney, you’re an incredible young woman. Smart and sweet, and you’ve always had such spunk. I know the divorce was hard on you, and I know I’ve gone overboard in worrying about what others think. I know that’s affected you and possibly even your love life. Or so I’ve been told,” she says with another grin.
“By who?”
My mom glances at her phone. “Maybe I’ll let them tell you.” She gets up, goes to the plane’s door, and seems to motion to someone.
I’m shocked when Jennifer, who I thought was already well on her way home by now, and Jadyn, who I just said goodbye to at the house, come on board.
“They told you?” I practically stutter out. “But you don’t really like them.”
When I watch Jadyn and my mother hug though, it feels … genuine. Jadyn smiles, and the usual tension in her jaw when my mom’s around is gone.
“We’re all BFFs now,” Jennifer says, throwing her arm around my shoulders.
“What?” I say in shock.
My mother has tried to break Jennifer and my dad up on more than one occasion.
How could this possibly be?
Jadyn nods in agreement, and while I know she wouldn’t lie to me, I still stand here with my mouth hanging open.
“During my counseling,” my mother explains, “I examined past relationships. My insecurity, especially regarding Jadyn and Danny’s friendship, is what undermined my relationship with them both. We were all so close in college, and I hope, someday, we will be again.”
“And you forgave her?” I ask Jadyn. Because I don’t know if I can handle all this change at once.
Jadyn sits down next to me and pats my hand. It’s as comforting as always. “We had a few phone conversations, and then I went to her house for lunch. Five hours and a whole lot of tears and laughter later, it was healing—for both of us.”
Jennifer sits on the other side of me. “Similar deal. Only dinner. First with me and then with both your father and me. I’m a huge believer that when children are involved, no matter how old they are, coparenting is important. I’ve always wanted us all to get along. It makes life so much nicer. Happier.”
“One of the questions my counselor asked me,” Mom says, “was for the names of the two strongest women I personally knew. These two are who I immediately thought of. And thanks to Van believing in me and helping me on this path, I feel secure in a relationship for the first time in my life. It’s something I never felt with your father—or Richard for that matter. And this sounds crazy for someone who is taking her daughter to college today to say, but I feel like I’ve finally grown up.”
I stand up suddenly and hug my mother, tears falling again—this time not over the hurt she’s caused me, but from relief. “So, you’re not mad I’m not going to an Ivy League school?” I ask, still not quite able to believe this is happening.