LITMIR.BIZ

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When the time was right. In another year or so when the idea of being with someone new didn’t seem out of the realm of possibility. When it wouldn’t feel like a betrayal of her husband, of what they’d shared.

      Someday she would move on. Fully. Without regrets or guilt. She had to. Even when you lost the man you loved with all your heart, life went on, day after day.

      It was funny that way.

      She ate a red M&M followed quickly by a blue one. She froze in the act of reaching for another handful, her fingers twitching, and glared at Joan. “What are you, a sadist?”

      Her mother-in-law considered that, as if the question deserved real thought. “I don’t believe so.”

      “Then why are you letting me eat these? You know I’m trying to lose this extra baby weight.” Baby weight she carried on her hips and thighs despite delivering said baby two and a half years ago.

      Guess not everything worked out the way you wanted, no matter how hard or long you stuck with it.

      “I was afraid to suggest you slow down,” Joan said. “Or take the bowl lest you chomped my hand off at the wrist.”

      “Ha ha.” Harper flopped onto the chair as Joan reached for the candy. “Wait,” Harper cried, leaping back up. She took two more. “Last ones. I swear.”

      She’d make up for the extra calories by getting on the treadmill tonight.

      Feeling better, if not entirely virtuous about her choice, she sucked on the first M&M to make it last as long as possible.

      Joan tucked the bowl into a side drawer then clasped her hands together on top of the desk. “Now that you’ve settled down, why don’t you tell me what’s got you so upset?”

      Harper slid the second chocolate into her mouth. Perhaps she’d chosen the wrong person to vent to. Why did she have to have a psychologist for a mother-in-law? And vice versa?

      But they’d known each other a few years before Joan had introduced her only child to Harper. Even though Beau no longer tied them together, they were still family. More than that, they were each other’s connection to the man—the husband, the son—they’d both lost. During the worst grief imaginable, they’d stuck together, had been there for each other.

      That would never change.

      Through it all, their relationship had grown and evolved into friendship, one Harper cherished. It was that friend she needed now.

      She’d just have to put up with the therapist butting in with her two cents every once in a while.

      “I’m upset because he wouldn’t even listen to reason.” Wouldn’t listen to her. “I explained that Max needed help, that he was dangerously behind in all subject areas, and the first step toward getting to the bottom of Max’s problems was for you to observe him, but Eddie...brushed all my reasons aside.”

      Like she was some annoying gnat come to burrow in that mop of hair on his head.

      “Uh-huh. Is that all?”

      Harper gaped. “Didn’t you hear me? He threatened to take Max from my class.” The more she thought of it, the more upset she got. She started pacing again. “Not once, in all my years of teaching—”

      “Sweetie,” Joan said not unkindly, “you don’t get to use in all my years of teaching until you’ve been here at least twenty years.”

      “Well, in the ten years I’ve taught I’ve never had any parent ask to remove their child from my class. I’m the most requested teacher in second grade.”

      Joan arched a perfect eyebrow. “Bragging, dear?”

      Harper’s cheeks heated. Too bad the candy was put away. The best cure for the blues, bad temper and embarrassment was chocolate. It fixed what ailed you.

      “I’m stating a fact.” She chewed on the inside of her lip. “Maybe I should have told him that. Then he could have realized what a mistake it would be for him to take Max away from me.”

      “I’d like to make sure I have this straight.” Joan steepled her fingers under her chin, her reading glasses on top of her graying blond curls. “Mr. Montesano is reluctant to discuss the possible reasons behind Max’s struggles in school and became defensive when you stated your opinions.”

      “Very defensive. And then he got offensive.”

      Joan hummed in a way that made Harper feel as if she was being analyzed. Which, let’s be honest, she completely was. “And how did that make you feel?”

      Harper’s lips twitched. “Please. I’m trying to keep a good mad going here.”

      “And you’re doing an admirable job. But it might be better for your stress levels if you collect your thoughts and think of a solution to the problem.”

      “I’d rather stay mad,” she grumbled.

      “But mad doesn’t solve anything.”

      True. She sighed. Stared at the framed photos on Joan’s desk—one of Harper and Beau on their wedding day, another of Beau holding their daughter, Cassidy, on his birthday last year.

      Ten days later, Beau was gone.

      “Eddie accused me of not doing my job.”

      “Ah...”

      “Oh, no. No.”

      “What?”

      “I know what you’re up to with that ah. You think you’ve got it all figured out, that there’s some deep-seated issue here causing me to be so upset. Probably something to do with my dog running away when I was four or my not getting enough love as a child.”

      “Your parents adore you.”

      “Exactly.” And, being an only child, she didn’t have to share that adoration with anyone else. “So there’s nothing to ah about here.”

      “Hmm...”

      With a groan, Harper flopped into the chair. “That’s even worse.”

      “Seems to me,” Joan said in the same slow, thoughtful tone she employed when speaking with students, “the problem isn’t Mr. Montesano’s reaction—or at least, not only his reaction. It’s your reaction to that reaction.”

      “He started it.”

      Joan smiled. “Surprisingly, that’s not the first time I’ve heard those words uttered from someone sitting in that chair.”

      Considering Joan’s usual clients were the under-twelve set, Harper wasn’t sure whether to be horrified or amused. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have let him get me so upset.”

      “Have you considered the reason why you reacted the way you did?”

      “I’m going to blame it on my never getting over Sparky running away and leave it at that.”

      Unfortunately, Joan never left anything alone. Tenaciousness must have come with her Ph.D. “You’ve dealt with numerous parents on matters both big and small throughout the years without letting them upset you. It seems to me, the difference this time isn’t that Mr. Montesano was resistant to your help, but that he bruised your pride.”

      Though the words were said gently, without reprimand or judgment, Harper flinched. “You think this is about my ego?”

      “What do you think?”

      “I think it’s annoying the way you answer a question with another question.”

      Joan simply waited. As if she knew it was only a matter of time before Harper broke. She was right.

      About everything.

      Harper slouched farther into her seat, wished she could disappear into the fabric. “Maybe he poked at my pride a little.”

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