Page 11 of The One Who Got Away (Murdock Brothers #4)

Eloise

I walked into a war zone.

My mother had pulled every one of her China dishes off the top shelf of the hutch. They were in stacks with Post-it notes on them with prices. All the remaining clothes my father had left behind were in piles on the dining room table.

Their wedding photos were stacked in a box, the glass shattered on each of them.

“Crap,” I whispered.

I could hear her tearing around upstairs. I slowly walked upstairs. Her bedroom was stripped down to bare bones. The bed taken apart and the mattress against the wall.

“What’s going on, Mom?”

“I’m purging,” she said as she came out of the closet with an armful of dresses.

“Are we having a yard sale?”

“I was just going to send it to Goodwill, but maybe your idea is better.” She dropped the dresses on the bench that used to sit at the foot of her Queen-sized bed.

I glanced around. “Um. Where are you going to sleep?”

My mother blew a curl out of her eyes. “I’m moving into the guest room.” She put her hands on her hips. “I can’t stand this room any longer.”

“What happened?”

“Well, you’re going to be going now so I have to just figure things out.”

“Going where?”

“Didn’t you see your mail on the table?”

“No. I was a little distracted by everything on the dining room table.”

“Well, there was a letter from your old company. It was a big packet, so I assumed it was to go back to work. I wish you’d told me. I can deal with it, you know.”

I went right over to my mother and wrapped my arms around her. “Mom, I’m not going anywhere.”

Her fingers clutched my shoulders. “You shouldn’t have to be here for me.” I heard the bubble in her throat that was a precursor to tears. I was well versed in all of my mother’s moods.

Well, until that day.

“Of, course I want to be here for you.” I set her back from me and smiled at her. “Let me show you something.”

She frowned. “What?”

“Come down to my room.” I led her down the hall to where my room was and sat down at my computer desk.

She glanced around the walls and sniffles started up again.

I glanced up at her. “Oh, Mom don’t cry.”

“You’ve been staying in here in this time capsule. I’m so sorry. It was like a haze over my eyes. I couldn’t even see it until today.”

“Hey, it’s okay.”

“It’s a kid’s room.” She swiped at her eyes. “Like it was twenty years ago.”

I looked around at the posters on my walls. “Okay, it’s bad enough I’m almost thirty-four living at home, let’s not age me up that much.”

She sat on my bed, her fingers tangled in her lap, her head bowed. “Because of me.”

“No, no.” I rolled my chair over to her and took her hands. “I wanted to show you what I’ve been working on. If I didn’t come home, then I never would have had the courage to work on this.”

She sniffled. “Work on what?”

I rolled back to my desk and hit preview.

The screen filled with my fictional town. The sunset over the houses inspiration from Gus’s photo started the game. And like a drone flying over the town, it showed a fictional bakery, bookstore, library, and the park. It was a bird’s eye view.

“I’ve had this idea for a cozy game where you build your own town. I call it Story Brook Valley.”

She leaned forward. “Is that our library with the fountain?”

I laughed. “Yeah, it is. I took a little bit of Indigo Valley as inspiration and twisted it a bit so it wasn’t so obvious.”

“It’s really amazing, Eloise.”

“Thanks.”

“I never really understood what you did. I’m not much for video games except for my match game.”

I squeezed my mom’s arm. “That’s okay. But you needed me and if I hadn’t come home then I wouldn’t have had the time or the courage to try making my own game.”

“So, you don’t want to go back to Everest Games?”

I shook my head. “No. I wasn’t happy there for a long time, but it was safer to stay than to go out on my own.”

Her blue eyes filled. “Are you sure?”

I turned in my chair and held my mom’s hands. “Yes, I’m positive. But I’m happy that you want to change the house. I’m sorry Dad did this to you but living in the past isn’t helping.”

“I know.” Her voice broke. “And I’m sorry I’ve leaned on you so much.”

I gathered her in. “It’s okay. I promise. I just want you to be happy again.”

She sighed before she firmly set me back. “I have to be the one to do that. Which is why I’m getting everything out of here that reminds me of him.”

“Fresh start.”

“I know he’s still your dad and for right now I need to be selfish about that part, but I don’t expect you to stop talking to him.”

“I’m mad at him too.”

“I know, but he’s still your dad.”

I swallowed down the lump in my throat. We’d never really been close, but she was right. “He is.”

“I’m going to be okay. I can’t promise I won’t backslide again, but you just tell me when I’m getting too clingy.”

I laughed. “I will.”

“I didn’t ruin anything with Gus, did I?”

“No.” I blushed. “We had a good day together.”

She sighed. “I can’t remember the last time I blushed doing that.”

“Maybe you will again one day.”

“Maybe.” She pushed off my bed. “But first I have to make this house mine instead of the one with your father.”

“I think that sounds like a really good idea. Handily, I know a bunch of guys who could do some work on this place.”

“I’m thinking about selling it, actually.”

“Oh.”

“I’m still in the thinking phase. There are just too many memories in here.”

“I think thatmight be a good idea.”

“Me too, baby.” She smoothed a hand down my hair. “Now I’m going to move into the extra bedroom so I can get some sleep.”

I stood. “How about I help you?”

“That would be great.”

“Just let me shut down.”

She nodded. “Take your time.”

I looked around my room. Moving forward into a new life sounded really good on a number of levels.