“Why? Doesn’t Dad always say that marriage is just a piece of paper?”
“Just a piece of paper.” Joy snorted. “That piece of paper made it so that I walked away from this marriage with fifty percent of our marital assets and am not struggling to make ends meet because I haven’t been working for the past twenty-six years.” She turned, giving her daughter her full attention. “Listen, Britt. I’m a feminist. You know that. Women have choices and should be free to exercise them however they see fit. Kids without marriage is fine. I don’t have a problem with it. But when one partner gives up their career potential to raise the children, that partner needs to be protected. Marriage is a legal contract. Remember that.”
Britt frowned. “You make it sound like a business transaction.”
Joy gave her a smile. “It is, kind of. I have a friend who always used to say that you marry for love, but divorce is a business transaction. I never thought your father and I would get divorced. Not even when we were going through rough patches. I was in it for good. But he decided he needed a different life, and in the end, I’m okay. So is he. We don’t hate each other, and we have three children who we love more than anything. Life happens. We just need to deal with it and try to move on.”
“I don’t know what to do,” she said, leaning back against the headboard and closing her eyes.
“About what?” Joy asked.
“Dave.” She shook her head. “He got a job offer in Texas and wants me to go with him.”
Joy’s stomach rolled at the thought of her daughter moving out of state. But she kept her expression and tone neutral. This had to be Britt’s choice. “How do you feel about that?”
Her eyes flew open and they flashed with anger. “I’m mad as hell. He didn’t even tell me he was applying for that job. It’s not even a step up from what he’s doing now.”
“So why does he want to go?” Joy asked, trying to get to the root of the issue.
She sighed. “It has better growth potential. One of his buddies went to work there and is trying to lure him away. The problem is, he didn’t even talk to me about it. He just applied, got the job, and as he was typing up his notice, he asked me to go with him. Like an afterthought.”
Warning bells went off in Joy’s head, and she wanted to throttle Dave. She liked him well enough, but that wasn’t how a partnership worked. “Does your opinion count at all in his decision to move?”
“No. Not at all. He’s going with or without me. He says it’s the opportunity of a lifetime and he wants me with him, but he can’t pass it up.” Her shoulders slumped. “He didn’t even take into consideration that I just got a promotion at work or the fact that I make thirty percent more than he does right now. If I leave this job and try to find something in Texas, my income will take a hit and I’ll have to leave a job I really love.”
“I’m sorry, Britt. It sounds like he didn’t take you into consideration at all.” Joy didn’t want to bad-mouth her daughter’s partner, but she for damned sure wasn’t going to sit there and let her daughter think what he’d done was acceptable. Sure, he’d asked her to go with him, but he’d made decisions about their life together without considering her needs or consulting her first.
“That’s what I said, and then we had a big fight about it. He told me I wasn’t being supportive. I told him he was being selfish. And it went downhill from there. Then I left to come here because I was too upset to sleep.” She sighed. “I don’t know what to do.”
Joy wanted to tell her to leave his selfish ass and find someone who treated her better, but even she knew that there were two sides of the story, and Joy would always take her daughter’s side, no matter what had gone down. “I can’t answer that for you, Britt. Only you know what’s most important.”
She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. “That’s not helping, Mom.”
Joy chuckled. “I know. Adulting sucks.”
Britt sucked in a deep breath and opened her eyes to peer at Joy. “Would you do it all over again?”
“Do what? Marry your dad?”
“Yes. If you knew then what you know now, including Dad leaving you and you sacrificing a career, would you have done it anyway?”
“Yes,” Joy said without hesitation. “Absolutely no question. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have three kids I love more than life itself. But even so, I liked our life. Your dad and I loved each other and had a true partnership for a lot of years. The fact that we’ve parted ways doesn’t change that. It just means we have a new path from here.”
Britt narrowed her eyes. “Why do I get the feeling you’re sanitizing this for me?”
Joy held her hands up and chuckled softly. “I might be toning down my disappointment in how things turned out, but I absolutely do not regret any part of it. I loved being home to raise you kids and working at the Arts Market. Now I’m off on another adventure. That’s all life is, you know. An adventure. You just need to decide if Dave is going to be part of yours.”
“I could stay here like Aunt Hope,” she said.
“You could. That was the right choice for her, and in the end, she still got her Prince Charming.”
“But she had to wait for thirty years for him,” Britt said with a snort of irritation.
“True. But if you asked her the same question you just asked me, I bet she’d say she doesn’t regret her decision. She’s led a life full of love, and if she and Lucas had stayed together way back then, they probably would’ve stifled each other and ended up apart anyway. They both needed to walk their individual paths before they were ready for what they have now.”
“This isn’t helping,” she said with an air of frustration. “You’re my mom. You’re supposed to tell me what I should do.”
Joy reached over and pulled her daughter into a hug and whispered, “Welcome to adulthood.”
“You’re evil.” Britt climbed out of bed and started to pull her clothes on.
“Maybe. But it’s still a question only you can answer. Which is more important? Your job and staying here close to home? Or Dave and a new adventure?”
“Ugh.” She turned to stare out the window. “Why couldn’t he have talked to me about it first? Maybe then I wouldn’t have been so blindsided.”
Joy moved to her daughter’s side and placed a hand on her back. “It sounds like you two need to talk. Make sure you understand where he’s coming from and that he understands your concerns. Then the two of you can decide.”
Britt turned to her. “That sounds suspiciously like the adult thing to do.”
“You are twenty-four.”
“I hate you,” Britt said, but she was smiling when she draped her arm over Joy’s shoulder and added, “Let’s go make breakfast. I’m suddenly hungry.”
Chapter Eleven
“Kye Kye!” Britt called as she ran into the kitchen and wrapped her arms around Kyle, who was sitting at the table with a mug in front of him.
“Kye Kye?” Jackson said, both of his eyebrows raised. “Since when are you a thirteen-year-old girl?”