Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 77793 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77793 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
“You also told me that your mother wasn’t able to take care of you.”
“My mother was an addict, and we were taken away from her. There’s a difference.”
Mrs. Johnson shrugs. “You’ve never wanted to find her? You told me she cleaned up and is okay now, but you never asked your granny where she’s living. You didn’t want to look her up. You weren’t ready. Do you think that one day, if you were ready, and she told you how genuinely sorry she was and how she was so relieved that you’re happy and well, you wouldn’t forgive her?”
“My mom lost custody of us when we were six. But Echo was seventeen. It’s different because it’s been a lot longer for me. I’m almost ten years older than her, so that’s an extra twenty-seven years. Or, I guess, twenty years that I’ve had to work on what I think about all that.”
“Echo is a kind person. She tries to be tough and not let anyone in so she won’t be hurt again, but I know what a tender soul she is, and I think you do too. She might have wanted to give you a chance, but family comes first.”
“I heard what her mom said. She basically convinced Echo that love was a shit concept and anything even close to that wasn’t worth it. She played on all Echo’s fears and pressed on all her sore spots, using her own troubles as an example. Echo was already vulnerable. She’d once been abandoned by the person she loved and trusted the most. Now it makes sense why she told me she was scared when we offered to make her a part of our family and when things started getting…um, complicated and real between us. Even just a kiss terrified her. Now that I know the whole picture, I can see why.”
“I’m sure there are still quite a few gaps in her story that you don’t know about.”
“Yeah, I’m sure there is. I’m just summing things up, more for myself than anything else. I’m trying to tell myself there’s a reason to stay, even if there isn’t a reason to hope. I told Echo that I’d have her back and that my family would, too, no matter if she chose us or not. So I want to keep my word.”
“Because keeping your word is important, or because you’re starting to realize that there isn’t anyone else in the world like Echo, at least for you, and right now you have a hard time letting go because she’s going to leave one big, aching gap that you’re never going to want to fill again because no other person is going to feel that right?”
“That’s scarily accurate.”
She grins at me and shoves a piece of sushi in her mouth. She waits until she’s done chewing, washes it down with a gulp of green tea, and gives me the kind of look that Granny is famous for—the one that says I’ve been around for a lot longer than you have, and I’m way the heck smarter.
“I’m not talking about love. That’s a big word, and I know how you two met and then met again. Love takes time, and you haven’t had nearly enough of that yet. I’m talking about connection. A real, true connection that you know is going to last. That connection is always going to be strong between you too. I think when people are made for each other, they know it right away, even if they don’t know it in a rational sense. The way you two met and then got married immediately, I don’t think it was a mistake. I think it was fate.”
“I’m not sure I believe in that.”
“Well, I do. I had my husband. I believed in it, and I still believe in it. It was like that for us, and I can see a bit of that between you two already. Even if you never get the chance to have the kind of life that you want to have with Echo, you’ll always be there for her in some way. She needs a family, even if her mom is back in the picture.”
“I guess that means I should go home. I just wanted to make sure she was doing okay. You said she seems happy, and I trust that. She and her mom are going to rebuild their lives. She has my granny’s phone number if she needs it, which is always going to be my number too, and we’ll always stop what we’re doing and make sure she’s okay if she ever needs us. Always. I’m confident she knows and believes that, so I guess there really isn’t anything else for me to do here.”
“What about me? Am I chopped liver tart?”
“The liver tart…” I can’t help but shudder. “I’m so sorry, but that sounds unappetizingly awful.”