Darren shook his head. “I don’t think we did, but it’s going to take some time for Zac to see that. It’s going to be okay.”
Sophia sighed. “I hope you’re right.”
Because she couldn’t bear the thought of her eldest child being mad at her, justified or otherwise.
Chapter Twelve
“What is that?”
“Bubble gum pink,” Zoe replied with a flourish. “I think it’ll look really good on you, Mom.”
Sophia peered at the bottle of nail polish in her daughter’s hand. “That might be a little too much for me.”
Zoe collapsed into the chair next to her and groaned. “Come on, Mom. You said you’d try something new today. You can’t use clear nail polish forever.”
“What’s wrong with clear nail polish?” Sophia wriggled her toes and admired the sheen gloss on her nails. “It’s practical, and it goes with everything.”
Zoe pushed the chair across the floor with a screech, earning a few dirty looks from the other customers. “There’s nothing wrong with being practical, but now and again, it’s good to change things up. I’m sure you used to do it a lot when you were younger.”
Sophia shrugged. “Not really.”
Zoe placed a hand over Sophia’s arm. “Come on. Everyone has a rebel phase. I’m old enough for you to tell me the truth.”
Sophia raised an eyebrow. “What truth is that?”
“That you had your rebel phase,” Zoe whispered with a wag of her eyebrows. “No secret tattoos Grandpa doesn’t know about? No sneaking out after curfew?”
Sophia shook her head. “Nope.”
Zoe waved her comment away. “There’s a rebel in there somewhere. We just need to help her find a way out.”
Except Zoe was going to find out the hard way that her mom wasn’t that interesting.
As far back as she could remember, Sophia had always colored between the lines and kept to herself. Even as a child, she rarely needed to be told what to do or how to behave, and the only time she’d ever surprised anyone was when she announced that she and Darren were separating.
Since then, she’d been trying to keep her head down and navigate the labyrinth of unfamiliarity. Unfortunately, it wasn’t proving to be as easy as she thought it would. While a part of her had assumed she’d slip back into old habits and find her way to her twenty-year-old self again, a part of her knew how ridiculous it all was.
She was a forty-four-year-old mother of two who had made the decision to end her marriage and was now struggling to reconnect with her children. To top it off, she wasn’t even sure what she was doing in her personal or professional life other than trying to find a way to get from one day to the next.
Eventhatfelt exhausting.
Finding little moments of happiness here and there was all Sophia could do until she figured out what she wanted to do next, if she ever figured it out.
When Zoe looped her arm through Sophia’s and led her out of the brightly colored and loud nail salon, the two of them fell into an easy rhythm, wandering around the three-floor mall, with a glass ceiling offering a clear view of the sky, and the latest hits playing through loudspeakers scattered throughout.
“Mom, can I ask you a question?”
Sophia squeezed Zoe’s hand and smiled. “Of course, sweetheart. What is it?”
“This guy I like…the one I asked out…he hasn’t called me back, and I’m not sure if I scared him off or what happened.”
“Hold on. This calls for some frozen yogurt. Let’s sit.”
Together, the two of them sat down at an empty table in the middle of the food court. Sophia disappeared and returned with two cups of strawberry-flavored yogurt. She set Zoe’s down in front of her, and her daughter picked up the spoon and pushed the desert around.
“I think that you need to talk to him and be honest. That’s about all you can do, anyways.”
“What if I did come on too strong?”
