Chelsea was always kind, unless someone hurt her family, but this was above and beyond. “And chamomile tea,” she said, taking two cups and saucers from the stand in the hallway just outside Lily’s door.
Her good china, Lily noticed, with the pink roses and gold rims. That seemed rather…special. She looked at Chelsea more closely, suddenly wondering if Willow had seen her and Ethan after all and had said something.
Chelsea was a beautiful woman. She was letting her hair age naturally, and it was coming in light silver. She had big, brown eyes, a smile that could light up a room, and Lily thought she was one of the smartest people she knew.
She carried the tea to the nightstand, set one cup down, and took the other with her to the rocking chair near the window. “I was thinking,” she said, “about when I first came to Texas, and right into this house. How confusing it all was, and how much I wished for my mother, just…to talk to.”
“Your mom died young, too?”
“My mom died the same way my sister did.”
“Your sister…Ethan’s birth mother?”
She nodded. “My father…he beat my mother their whole marriage. One day he went too far.”
“Oh my God. I didn’t know. I’m so sorry, Chelsea.”
Chelsea smiled sadly, then nodded toward the second window seat, a small, overstuffed chair in pale blue. “Sit with me a while?”
Lily took her cup and saucer from the nightstand and went to the little chair, moving aside its lacy white throw pillow before sitting down. She sipped the tea, which had cooled to the perfect temperature and tasted like heaven.
Chelsea said, “I thought you might be longing for a mom to talk to, like I was then. And I thought I’d let you know I’m here to stand in, if you think it would help.”
The teacup in Lily’s hand was jiggling on its saucer with a soft ting ting ting ting ting. She looked at her hand in surprise. And then Chelsea came to take it from her trembling hand and set it on the windowsill. She crouched in front of Lily’s chair and opened her arms.
Lily burst into tears and leaned right into them.
Chelsea held her and stroked her hair until she’d cried herself out. She had no idea how long that had taken. Her face burned from the salt of her tears, and her nose was running. Little spasms kept tearing through her chest—aftershocks. She straightened and pressed the heel of one hand to her cheeks in turn, embarrassed to her very toes.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“You’re in love. You know that, right?” Chelsea tilted her head, searching Lily’s eyes as she rose from the floor where they’d wound up. She eased Lily back into her chair, and then she took her own.
“Yeah,” Lily said. “I’ve come to that conclusion.” And then she panicked, and blurted, “But you can’t tell him!”
“I will never betray your confidence,” she said. “Besides, I’m here as your stand-in mom. I asked her if it was okay, and she said go for it, so…”
Lily smiled at the notion of the two of them chatting. It felt completely plausible when Chelsea said it. “I just…I don’t know what to do. How do you make someone love you?”
“You can’t make someone love you, hon. That’s not possible. But the question is, why would you want to try?” She reached across the space between them, took Lily’s hands in hers. “You are an amazing, brilliant, ambitious, beautiful, funny, kind, gemstone of a female, Lily Hyde. Your mother must’ve been so proud, and she’d be even prouder today. And I think she’d ask you the very same thing I’m about to. Do you really want a man you have to work this hard to land? Wouldn’t you rather have a man who’d work this hard to land you?”
“Sure, I’d love that. But only if it was Ethan.”
“Well, then?”
Lily frowned. Chelsea was looking at her as if she’d just answered her own gnawing questions, but she was no clearer on anything than she’d been before. “I don’t understand.”
“Know what you’re worth, Lily. There’s no man you ought to be chasing, not even our thick-headed Bubba. And the sooner you stop, the sooner he’s gonna realize it.”
Chelsea got up. Her teacup was empty. She was going to leave. But she couldn’t leave! She’d given hints but not real answers.
“But…but what if he doesn’t?” Lily asked. “What if he just doesn’t feel the same?”
Chelsea pressed a warm, soft palm to Lily’s cheek. “Then he’s not the one for you, and the sooner you know it, the better. Don’t you think?”
“Oh.” It was, even to Lily’s own ears, a heartbroken syllable.
“I don’t think that’s the way this is will go, though. I know Ethan pretty well. Better than anybody, I think. And I don’t think that’s anywhere near the way this will go.”
