Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 84000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
“Sophia Amelia! Answer your mother.”
“I don’t know, Mom. How about he deserves someone who trusts that he’s the good man he seems to be? The kind of man who wouldn’t betray his wife and kids for over twenty years. How about a woman who doesn’t have a cheating father and a mother who put up with it for decades?”
As soon as the words are out, I regret them. I know my mom was just trying to do the right thing. But knowing she lied to me all these years doesn’t feel right. “I’m sorry—”
My mom puts up a finger to stop me from finishing a sentence. “Don’t apologize for having your feelings about this whole situation. I get it. I’ve had plenty of feelings over the years, believe me. And I’m sorry for lying to you.” She sighs and shakes her head. “When your kids are little, you’re telling them so many lies, another one doesn’t seem so bad.”
“What other lies?” I shriek.
“Like Santa and the Tooth Fairy. And that’s just the start. All those toys that suddenly went missing and I blamed the Borrowers. When I said you were the best volleyball player on the team and Noah was an excellent violinist. We all lie to our kids, Sophia. We lie to save their feelings and to preserve their innocence as long as humanly possible.”
“But lies always get found out,” I say.
“Exactly, but the stakes are usually a lot lower, and as long as y’all are getting presents in your stockings, parents get forgiven.”
“It’s not the same,” I say. “You can’t equate lying about Santa with lying to your kids about who their father is.”
“Really?” She turns and pulls a box from the shelf underneath the setup of the model town. “I wanted you to believe in magic for as long as possible, Sophia. I wanted you to think your father hung the moon, because I wish he did. I wanted that for all of you. For all of me. Maybe I didn’t get it right. Your father definitely didn’t get it right. But don’t give away a good man because you’ve seen the failings of another.”
She tips the box she’s holding into the cart.
“You’re going to buy the ice rink?” I ask.
She moves down the aisle slightly and pulls out another box. “I’m buying the whole darn town. I want a reason for my grandchildren to visit Cincinnati in the middle of winter.”
“Mom! You can’t buy this for nonexistent grandchildren.”
“I can do anything I want. I’m grown. My kids have flown the nest, my husband is shacked up with another woman, and finally I can do what I please. And I please to prepare for my future grandchildren.”
She makes a compelling point. I might feel betrayed by my mom, but she did what she did for the right reasons. She was trying to protect me—to do her job as a mother. I scan the shelves for the train station and pull it out of the rack. “You want this?”
“Who wouldn’t want a Christmas train station, Sophia?”
I grin twitches at the corner of my mouth and I pile the box on top of the other two.
“We’re going to need another cart,” she says. “And while we’re doing this, you’re going to tell me about Worth. That’s his name, right?”
I nod and swallow. “I get that you were trying to protect us,” I say, snaking an arm around my mom’s waist. She pulls me in for a hug.
“I just did the best I could at the time.” Her voice wobbles at the end of the sentence and I squeeze her tighter.
“Worth thinks it’s his job to protect everyone. Especially the people he loves. I don’t know if the man would be capable of telling me the truth if it meant he hurt me.”
“Have you tried talking to him? If he wants to avoid hurting you, and he knows lying to you would hurt you worst of all, then wouldn’t he tell the truth at all costs?”
I’d never thought about it like that. I can’t imagine asking anything of Worth that he wasn’t prepared to give me if he were able.
“How do I trust that he’s as good a man as I think he is?”
“Well,” she says, “you bring him around your family. You meet his family and friends. You see what they say about him, what his quirks are. And you see if it all aligns with what your heart is telling you. After that, it’s a leap of faith, Sophia. Just like most of life is.”
She makes it sound so simple, so obvious. But if I’ve learned anything over these last few weeks, it’s that nothing is simple.
We fill another cart with the rest of the model village. Mom circles back to the display to make sure we’ve got everything.