“True,” her mother murmured.
“I can forgive him…in time.”
“In time,” her mother echoed. “Eventually, you’ll be able to look past his behavior—if you choose to. Men can be completely oblivious to what matters most. When you think about it, Vance must’ve known how upset you’d be, and yet he wanted you to send him off with hugs and kisses.”
Annie felt better talking this over with her mother. Everything was starting to seem a little clearer. “I heard from Jason, too. He called me the day I spent alone in Branson. We’ve kept in touch since Vegas.”
“So, what do you think?”
“Well, to be honest, it felt good to have someone interested in me after Vance was such a jerk.”
“Do you like Jason?”
Annie shrugged. “He’s okay.”
“That’s not a glowing endorsement.”
“I know. I tried to figure out why I feel this way. He’s really nice and fun and we had a great time together. Another girl would be over the moon about meeting someone like him. Then I realized what’s wrong. Jason didn’t act like Vance. I’m so used to being with Vance that it felt sort of…wrong to be with someone else.”
Her mother shifted onto her side. “I remember when Paul— Tiffany’s ex—and I went to dinner after your father moved out.”
“Yeah?” Annie didn’t like to remember that. Her father and the lovely Tiffany had hurt and betrayed two people. Well, four, including her and Andrew.
“I hadn’t been out with another man for so many years that I started to shake. I didn’t know how to act or what to say, and when I did find my tongue, I was convinced I sounded like a nutcase.”
This wasn’t a fair comparison to her situation with Jason. Her mother had been close to a nervous collapse the first few weeks after Annie’s father moved out. Those days had been dreadful for all of them.
Annie had been furious with both her parents, but especially Bethanne. If her father fell in love with another woman, it had to be her mother’s fault. Bethanne was boring, Annie decided. Her mother’s whole world revolved around the house and the family and those dinner parties she put on for her father’s business associates. She’d let herself go, too. Her hair was too long and she didn’t shop for herself often enough.
In the weeks that followed, Annie had done her utmost to bring her father home. She’d cried and pleaded and told him she’d make sure Bethanne did whatever was necessary to make him happy. In retrospect, Annie was embarrassed by her behavior. She understood now that nothing she’d said had put a dent in his determination.
What hurt the most was discovering that he didn’t even want to talk to her anymore, although they’d always been so close. Annie was convinced it was all lovely Tiffany’s fault.
After she’d finished blaming her mother, Annie had turned her anger on the new woman in her father’s life. The divorce was completely her fault, and if Annie could show her dad the truth about Tiffany, Grant would change his mind and come back to the family.
Annie had pulled some nasty tricks on the lovely Tiffany, but they’d backfired. The only thing her efforts had accomplished was to upset her father and widen the rift between them.
With her mother a weakling and her father refusing to have anything to do with her, Annie had nearly self-destructed. Fortunately, Andrew had stepped in and, with Courtney’s help, gotten her away from the dangerous path she’d chosen.
“You’re quiet all of a sudden,” her mother whispered.
Not wanting to confess where her mind had wandered, Annie said, “I had a thought.”
“Don’t let it go to your head.”
“Funny one, Mom.” Annie smiled into the dark.
“And? Want to share that thought?”
“Jason’s actually really nice.” Jason was more than nice; she’d probably try to keep this going, see where it went, although he lived in California and long-distance relationships were a drag.
“Do you know what you’re going to tell Vance?” her mother asked.
“I think so.” She paused. “Vance should’ve thought about being a third wheel when he agreed to go to Europe with Matt and Jessie,” she began. “I’ve got more to do with my life than give up a whole month just so he doesn’t feel lonely while he’s away. He had his chance and he blew it.”
“But you’d still like to be with him, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes, but for all the wrong reasons.”
“Oh?”
“I want to be with him because we’re comfortable together. Familiar. But that isn’t a good enough basis for uprooting my whole life.” The more Annie verbalized her thoughts, the more convinced she was that she’d made the right decision. And the more she felt that pursuing a relationship with Jason made sense. The very reason she’d had doubts about him—the fact that he wasn’t Vance—was now why she wanted to see where a connection between them might lead.
“Can we go back to sleep now?”
“Okay,” Annie said, but she didn’t think she would.
Twenty-Four
They stayed in New Orleans another day, and after a leisurely drive, got to Vero Beach late Monday afternoon. Bethanne hadn’t heard from Max. She’d toyed with the idea of contacting him, but had resisted.
For now.
“I can’t believe how much everything’s changed,” Ruth kept repeating as they made their way into town. On the drive down Route 60, she’d pointed left and right, shaking her head at what were once orange groves as far as the eye could see, but were now mostly housing developments and suburban sprawl.
“Call Royce,” Annie said when they reached their hotel and had unpacked.
Ruth paced the room, nervously rubbing her palms. “You think I should?” she asked, looking at Bethanne. “I mean, so soon? We just got here.”