Trusting the Plan by Charlotte Golding

Author:Charlotte Golding [Golding, Charlotte]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sweet River Publishing

Chapter Eleven

When Stella arrived home, Kelsey was in her room. Gwen was out of the house and had left a note explaining that she had walked down to the beach for some sun. Stella could tell that was likely code for “I didn’t want to be home when you came inside.” Oh, well, she thought. Jeff had always told her that his mother held grudges and often needed time to cool down after an argument, but Stella had never really had to test that firsthand. Whenever she and Jeff had argued, Gwen had usually been on her side.

“You know the saying,” Gwen had always told him. “Happy wife, happy life.” Stella had always known that she was showing favoritism toward her in a way that was biased from how unfairly Gwen had been treated in her own marriage. Her own husband had always been away, and when he was home, he nitpicked everything Gwen did. She was left to raise Jeff by herself, clean the house, do all the shopping, and all she ever heard (at least, the way Gwen told the story) was how she should have done better. Stella couldn’t imagine. She and Jeff had rarely argued, but when they had, it was always resolved fairly quickly and almost never resulted in hard feelings for more than a day or so.

Arguing with her daughter, on the other hand, was a much more difficult thing to do. Kelsey was not a confrontational person though she was by no means timid. She would make her distress and upset feelings known, but she never wanted to talk about it directly. Stella supposed it was a product of her age. Eighteen-year-olds tended to prefer stomping around the house and slamming doors over having an open and honest, if difficult, conversation to resolve issues.

Stella decided that she wasn’t going to play that game this time. She knocked on Kelsey’s bedroom door, hoping to take advantage of Gwen’s absence, and waited for an answer that didn’t come.

“Kelsey,” she called. She heard the soft rock music that Kelsey was listening to increase in volume to drown out her mother’s calls, and she rolled her eyes. “Kels, come on. I want to talk to you.”

“Go away,” Kelsey commanded. “I’m doing homework.”

“Well, take a break,” Stella said. “I’m coming in.” She didn’t wait for an answer as she pushed Kelsey’s bedroom door open, ignoring the indignant shout.

“Mom!” Kelsey screeched. “I said go away!”

“I heard you,” Stella said, “and I will after you talk to me.” Kelsey huffed.

“I have a test tomorrow. I’m busy.”

“Then you’d better talk fast, huh?”

Kelsey scowled, reaching for the knob on her radio, but Stella was faster. She pressed the power button to turn it off, so Kelsey had no choice but to listen.

“What’s going on with you?”

Kelsey rolled her eyes. “Nothing. I’m fine.”

Stella felt a little reassured by the fact that Kelsey seemed to mean that, but she wasn’t backing down. “You’re angry with me. I don’t know what I did, but I want to.

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