Keeping Claudia (Toby & Claudia Book 2) by Suzanne McKenna Link

Author:Suzanne McKenna Link [McKenna Link, Suzanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25 • Claudia

My mother stood fully dressed beside my bed, her probing eyes on my face. The sun was shining, the beginning of a beautiful day, but there was a dull ache ringing in my heart. I was certain the evidence sat deeply gorged in the tired lines of my face.

“I found this in the kitchen.” She was holding the ring box. In Toby’s dash to escape, he’d left his mother’s wedding band behind. “I have to leave to the airport shortly. I’ll drop it off on the way so you won’t have to see him again.”

The thought of not seeing him made my heart contort in protest.

“No. I’ll do it.” I whipped my hand out for it.

After a brief hesitation, she surrendered it. “All right, but you remember the things we talked about last night. It’s hard now, but it’ll get better. Give it some time.”

I imagined Toby waking today, wondering what the heck had happened, wondering where it had all gone wrong. Perhaps he couldn’t connect the dots like I had over the last few weeks.

I wanted things he didn’t.

I was independent and practical, but maybe despite my parents’ strained marriage, I sought out tradition. It’s what I knew. Maybe my version of tradition would be a hodgepodge of my family’s customs that I’d unwittingly picked over, but I could no longer deny wanting a family somewhere down the road.

Traditions held little value with Toby. In his world, they were to be avoided.

I wasn’t one of the foolish many who believed people could change in the name of love. I didn’t hold any faith or expectation in Toby aligning his beliefs to meet mine. I didn’t blame him. It was neither of our faults, but if I got what I wanted, he’d be miserable. If he got what he wanted, then I would be the miserable one.

As hard as it was to sever the artery of our relationship, I needed to do it. That meant not looking back. It meant not opening the box in my hand. It hurt enough just knowing that what lay inside was the promise of a future never to come. Taking Andrew’s job offer sounded more and more like a good one, the right one. Maybe a change of pace would do me good. Boston was as good a place as any to drop anchor and start over.

The least I could do was be grown up enough to return the ring to Toby myself.

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow turned into the next day. And then the next. Waylaying the return of the ring seemed necessary… I had schoolwork, and I had my father. His recovery was ongoing, but after refusing to return to physical therapy, we attempted to tackle it at home. He struggled, and each time he became more and more onerous and consistently abandoned our sessions unfinished. Then there was April’s bridal shower, which meant a party to plan, invitations to send, favors to order, and games to organize. There were spare moments, but I wasn’t ready.

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