Page 15 of Small Town Sizzle

“George? That’s not possible,” she argues with a loud laugh. “He’s harmless unless it’s death by licking. He’s a trained service dog, so he’s so well-behaved.”

“Not the dog I met.”

“Must have caught him on a bad day. Did you have bacon in your pocket or something?”

“No,” I laugh. I look around the building. “Why was this place Mom’s pride and joy? Why is she in all these pictures?”

“Your mom built it, helped with it. She bought the land it’s on because of the protected wetlands behind it and then built this for the kids in town to have someplace to go.”

I suck in a breath as I mull over her words. Mom never mentioned a land purchase or even building anything. I feel a little sadness tugging at me as I wonder what else I didn’t know.

“Why didn’t I know this place existed?”

“You didn’t know she purchased it?” Laura asks with a cocked eyebrow.

I shake my head. She’s looking at me like I’m crazy for not knowing.

“Yeah. I’m clueless. She used to get so excited about the wetlands, I’m not surprised she bought land with it, but I didn’t know.”

“When was the last time you talked to your mom?”

“We talked or texted every day. She never mentioned any projects she was working on. She told me that she was retired from protecting the environment.”

“She was pretty modest,” Laura laughs as she shakes her head. “Your mother never retired, really. She had been working on the wetlands for a while and got it to be a protected area for the town. She was volunteering as a substitute teacher at the high school, too. She started this project not long after you left.”

“What?”

“Yeah, it’s been here for about fifteen years, I think. We’re starting renovations on it soon. She had big plans for upgrades.”

“Fifteen years,” I repeat, mostly to myself.

My stomach twists as I shake my head. Here, I thought Mom and I had a pretty decent relationship, despite my past transgressions. It wasn’t good enough for her to fill me in on the big things she was doing, it seems.

“You look shocked.”

“Because I am. She never told me any of this.”

“Your mom was a special lady for a lot of reasons, but she never wanted recognition for the good things she did. I’m certain she felt telling you would be bragging, even though it isn’t.”

Maybe she’s right, but it still feels wrong that I didn’t know.

I never felt like Hicks Creek was the place where I belonged, but now I’m getting a small glimpse into what I missed by not coming home.

She reaches over and squeezes my hand. “Still have that headache?”

“No,” I lie. “It’s just suffocating to be back here.”

“I know you think everyone is angry or judging you for the car accident still, or even for being gone so long, but no one is. We all know that you have to break free from the comfortable to find your true self. You’ve done an amazing job and spent a lifetime proving you’re a good man, Garrett.”

She squeezes my arm before she walks away and over to Chantelle. I clear my throat and try to fight back the tears that she’s invoked.

She’s always been able to see through my hard exterior to the root of the problem, and today is no different.

I walk around the youth center, looking at pictures and trying not to stick out in a building full of teenagers. There are pictures of my mother everywhere.

She’s breaking ground. She’s cutting ribbons. She’s grinning from ear to ear with kids upon kids. She looks so happy and proud; I can’t believe she never told me about this. It makes me wonder why she never mentioned it to me.

“This house isn’t big enough to have the entire football team here, Greta,” Dad had chuckled as Mom stood in the kitchen, furiously flipping pancakes on the griddle.