Catching Fireflies by Sherryl Woods

Author:Sherryl Woods
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780778313595
Publisher: MIRA
Published: 2012-07-29T14:00:00+00:00

13

After Laura Reed left, Diana turned to her precious daughter. “I doubt you’ll ever understand how terrible I feel about not being here for you while you were going through this. I’m so ashamed that I didn’t see how much pain you were in.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Misty said staunchly. “You’ve had your own stuff going on.”

“That’s no excuse,” Diana told her. “I’m an adult and I’m your mother. I should have seen that something wasn’t right. It’s my job to protect you and Jake, and I blew it.”

“You didn’t blow it,” Misty said, tears in her eyes. “You’re the best mom ever.”

Diana smiled at Misty’s determined defense. “Maybe once upon a time,” Diana said candidly. “But not lately. I’m going to fix this, sweetheart. I promise you. Not just the situation with Annabelle, but all of it. I’m going to pull myself together.”

She forced a smile. “Let this be a lesson to you, Misty. Don’t ever let yourself be so emotionally dependent on a man that you can’t figure out who you are without him. I wanted so badly for your father to stay that I lost sight of everything else, including who I am as a person. Believe it or not, once upon a time, I had my own goals, completely separate from us as a family. I need to get back to trying to achieve those. First, though, I’m going to get our family back on track.”

“Mom, I think it’s too late to fix things with Dad,” Misty said, her expression hesitant as if she feared saying that hard truth aloud might be too much for Diana.

“I think you’re right,” Diana concurred. “I just didn’t want to accept it. It’s up to your dad and me to figure that out, though. And we need to do it now, so we don’t go on hurting you and Jake. I guess I kept hoping I could wait him out, that he’d come to his senses and come home.” She gave her daughter a rueful look. “Blinders, huh?”

“Pretty much,” Misty confirmed.

Diana reached across the table for Misty’s hand. “Do you want to talk about this situation with Annabelle some more before I call your dad?”

Misty shook her head. “And I don’t want to be here when you tell him.”

“You can stay in your room, if you like. Why don’t you take some cookies and milk upstairs for you and your brother?”

Misty’s eyes widened with surprise. “You baked cookies today?”

The shock on her daughter’s face was too telling. Things evidently hadn’t been the way they should have been around here for far too long. “I did. I was a little distracted, so they might be a bit brown around the edges, but I think they’re edible.”

Misty bounced out of her chair and threw her arms around her. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

“They’re just cookies,” Diana said, even as she realized that to Misty they were far more. They were a hint that things might be returning to normal, or at least to whatever the new normal might be.

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