When 20-year-old Kara Bennett moves to Boston to escape her post-high school drama with her daughter, she didn't expect to fall straight into it in the form of Austin Mayer.
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All Kara Bennett...
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KARA DIDN'T LOOK AT ME IN THE EYES.
When I met them at the park, she welcomed me with a dry hello and a loose hug. I was getting tired of these unsaid things between us. It was like a silent doubt was creeping between us each time we were apart, and I was exhausted, devastated trying to fix it — assure her that things were going to be okay when she clearly didn't believe in us in the first place.
Sophie, on the other hand, had all the enthusiasm in the world to go around for both herself and her mother. She was so happy to see Max. I decided to lose my own thoughts within her sparkling eyes and put Kara and my relationship aside for the time being. Sophie pulled me to the playground in pursuit of Max and Daisy.
From time to time, I looked back and watched Kara and Ace stand there, their arms tight, talking — Ace doing the talk and Kara mostly nodding. Then, Sophie said something and I was allured back into her innocent, colorful life. However, even all the colorful magic she possessed couldn't prevent the tight knot in my stomach, reminding me of the bad things that were about to happen.
"Austin."
"Hm." Sophie apparently asked me a question.
"Daisy loves Max," she said proudly.
I wish it were that simple, princess. "Max loves Daisy, too."
"How do you know?"
She was the one who was throwing ideas about love in the first place, but she asked me how I would know. Maybe she was trying to make sure that what she saw was real. Was I really the person who could give her advice about love? My own love was slipping away from my fingers, and there was nothing I could do about it.
I thought about what Kara said all night. What she didn't understand was that I couldn't erase Mila from my life just like she had, because she was my sister. If I had been there for her in the first place, guided her, she wouldn't be in such a dreadful place. I left her in that horrible house, and she grew into a monster. I couldn't leave her behind and let her be just like that.
"Because Max barks all the time when she's around."
"Maybe he's angry," Sophie replied.
"You only get angry at people you love."
She paused, taking my words in. They were big for a girl her age, but she smiled. I didn't know whether she absorbed my words or she just wanted to quit the conversation. I just went with it when she turned and resumed playing with the dogs.
I only noticed Kara came when she kneeled down next to me and called for Sophie. "Hey," she said, turning at me with a soft smile that didn't reach her eyes. It suddenly felt like those times she was running away from me — the times curiosity was eating me alive and there was an emptiness inside me waiting to be filled.
