Page 47 of What Love Can Do
Lilly’s mother hung her head from exhaustion. “Listen, I don’t feel like arguing with you. I do respect what you’re telling me, but if you’re going to try and convince me that there’s nothing wrong with you seeing a boy from that family, you’re very much mistaken.”
“A man, Mom. We’re not teenagers. We’re grown adults, and we actually don’t need your approval, though it’d be nice. Nobody knows why people do the things they do. We can only assume they have a good reason. It’s called the benefit of the doubt. If you did something crazy, wouldn’t you expect me to give you that same benefit?”
“Sure, but I’ve never done anything to make you mistrust me,” her mom replied. They reached the main house and her mother headed for her favorite wood table on the patio. “Don’t even try to compare me to that woman, because I won’t stand for it.” She huffed.
“Are you for real?” Lilly yanked out a chair and plopped into it. “Mom, there’s three sides to every story. In this case, there was Dad’s, Maggie’s, and the gray area in between. The way I see it, you should be thankful Maggie broke up with Dad. It made him come back to you. Isn’t that what life is about? Letting go of the things you want, and if they come back to you, then they’re yours?”
“I didn’t let go of your father, Lillian. He was ripped from me.” Her mother’s eyebrows formed a straight line. “Maggie knew Ken had a girlfriend and didn’t care. She pursued him anyway. Then, when she got bored, she broke his heart, and yes, that opened the door for him to come back to me, but he was wounded. I was wounded. A good person doesn’t go around wounding people.”
“She was living her life, Mom, doing what she felt was right.”
“At the expense of others’ feelings? I’m not even going to dignify that with a response. Look, I don’t know what it is you’re trying to tell me, but like I said, I won’t be convinced. You can talk to everyone in this town, and they will all tell you that Maggie Phillips was no good. She was a tramp.”
“She was a girl, Mom. Just like you at the time. She can make mistakes.” Lilly played with the edge of a cloth napkin. “And she loved Dad greatly, but he was too controlling for someone like her.” She shut her trap quickly. She hadn’t meant to suggest that her mother was good for being controlled, but her mother had tolerated his set ways well. “Is that why you’ve seemed militant ever since he died? Now that he’s not around, you figured someone has to give the orders? Because holy shit, I can barely breathe sometimes.”
Her mother glared at her across the table. “I don’t even know who you are anymore.”
“Why? Because I’m speaking the truth? Because I’m not just sitting idly by while you tell me what you want me to do with my life? Because I’m telling you that, no matter what, I’m moving on with or without your blessing.”
“I thought you came here to apologize.”
“I did, but maybe I was hoping you’d offer one too. Should have known better.” Lilly pushed back her chair and stood. She didn’t know why she had even bothered to sit. Talking with her mom was like talking to a concrete wall.
“You were nice, and now you’re just rude,” her mother said, but Lilly would not give into the guilt trip.
“I used to be quiet, not nice. Don’t mistake the two. Now I’m swallowing my fear of talking to you, and it’s amazing how liberating it feels.”
“Well, don’t stop on account of me!”
Lilly took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Stay calm. “I don’t care if you agree with me anymore. It’s my life, and I just came to say I was sorry.” Lilly started walking away.
“Sorry, not sorry?” Her mother laughed, dismissing her with the wave of her hand. “Listen, if you don’t forget that boy and that entire family, you’ll live to regret it. Your father did, but he learned too late. Go to Miami. I don’t care. Find a good man over there. I’d rather see you happy with a man who treats you well far away from home than you living close to me with a man who doesn’t.”
“Who says he doesn’t?” Lilly held back her rage. Why did this bother her so much? And why was she about to defend Quinn O’Neill the way he wished she would have, even though he’d left? Because he still deserves it, regardless of the outcome. Lilly came charging over to her mother and squatted in front of her face. Evenly, she said, “That man has listened better and treated me better and wished more love and luck for me in the short time I’ve known him than you have in my entire life!”
She was keenly aware that Nancy and the staff was poised at the door to the patio doing a terrible job of pretending not to be eavesdropping.
“Well, if that’s how you feel, then I don’t know why you’re still here. Go already. Leave early to Miami. I’m sure you can find another family there that will treat you better, since I haven’t done anything for you all these years!” A buildup of tears rose into her eyes. “Since I haven’t worked my whole life to make sure that my only child is taken care of, that she won’t have to struggle her entire life like I have. God, how can you be so ungrateful?” Mom broke into tears and hung her head over the table.
Lilly reached out to grab hold of her shoulder. “Mom…”
“Leave me alone.”
“All I meant…all I’ve been trying to say, is that I would like your support very much. I would like for you to be proud of me. I would like for you to trust me.”
“I do trust you!”
“Then don’t worry who I date, where I live, or what I do with my life. Can’t you just be happy for me?” It was a simple enough question, but she knew, from the look on her mother’s face, that it was asking too much. Lilly shook her head slowly. “You know, something I learned from Maggie’s journal is that people always see the person who broke up a relationship as a villain. Even though she did what was right. She spared Dad years of unhappiness and maybe even a divorce. She gave you your marriage. She gave you me, and she gave me…my life. Finally, she gave me Quinn. Even if it was only for a short time, she gave me a man to love.”
Lilly turned and headed out. There was nothing more to say. With or without her mother’s blessing, she was moving to Miami. With or without Quinn’s love as well.
Nineteen
It was hard for Quinn to believe that he and Con had been in Forestville for almost two weeks. Hard to believe that, within that time, he’d managed to visit a multitude of places, see the Pacific Ocean, nearly developed an affinity for wine, and fall in love all at the same time. But it was time to undo the latter. There was no possible way it was going to work between him and Lilly, and he should have known that from the beginning.
The Motel 6 down the road was a far cry from Russian River House, but it would do just a few more days until the others arrived. While Con had gone off with Dara for a bit, Quinn laid on the uncomfortable, spring bed of his little motel room and stared wide-eyed at the popcorn ceiling that must boast the biggest water stain in California.
His chest felt heavy with regret.