Page 58 of The Last Goodbye

But I knew in my gut that tomorrow would be a different story.

It never bothered me that my mother wasn’t at my graduation from high school or college.

I’d had Jovi there.

My friends had all shown up.

Sometimes family came in different forms.

I was fine with that.

But my sister—she cared.

And it was going to hurt like hell tomorrow when she wasn’t there.

I just hoped that we could distract her.

All I wanted was for my sister to be happy. She’d earned it. She deserved it.

Maybe this one time, our mother would surprise me.

fourteen

​. . .​

Briar

“I spoke to Cutler, and he knows that we’re installing the new windows on Monday,” Wayne said as we stood in front of the current windows, staring out at the lake. He owned a local window and door company in town.

“Great. I can get the drywallers and painters in here as soon as the windows are installed.” I closed my iPad after typing in a few notes, and I sent an updated email to Cutler before walking Wayne out.

“Sounds good, Briar. See you on Monday.” He waved from his truck and then backed out.

My phone rang, and I looked down to see Gracie’s name on the screen. I talked daily to both Gracie and Tatum now, but I didn’t expect to hear from either of them while they were out of town.

“Hey, how’s New York?” I asked as I answered the call.

“It’s good. We’re at the dinner for Jovi, and I snuck off to the bathroom because I need a huge favor.”

I walked back inside and started turning off all the lights. “Of course. What do you need?”

“Cutler just filled me in on this whole situation with Bass and Jovi’s mom, and I think he’s just hoping to get some information so he can help Bass navigate things for tomorrow.”

“Okay. What’s going on?”

“Jovi really wants her mom there to see her graduate tomorrow.” She blew out a breath and added, “And she flaked on the dinner, claiming she missed her flight. But she insisted that she’d be taking a later flight, making it possible for her to be here in time for the commencement.”

I knew that feeling too well.

The disappointment. The hope. The refusal to believe people, even after they continued to show you their true colors.

“Bass mentioned that. He was worried this would happen.”

“Yeah. She called when Jovi got to the restaurant, so she already knew she wasn’t going to make it, and she waited to tell her.” Gracie sighed. “And the tough part is that Jovi truly believes she’s at the airport waiting for her new flight, which is what she told all of us at dinner. Bass is trying to play it off, but we can all tell that it’s weighing heavily on his mind, and he opened up to Cutler about it.”

“I’m so sorry. It sounds like a really tough situation. Of course she wants her mom there.” I hopped up on the counter, put the phone on speaker, and set it beside me. “What can I do?”

“Well, I think what would help is if we knew if she was actually at the airport, or if the whole thing is just a made-up story, which is what I think Bass believes. But if we knew, then Bass could break the news to Jovi tonight, privately, and let her know that their mom won’t be showing up. Unfortunately, she’s clearly not going to tell Jovi that she’s not coming until the last freaking minute, which is what everyone is worried about, because then it will put this dark cloud on her big day. I mean, it would be a miracle if she actually made it. Just this one time, you know? If she surprised everyone and showed up for her daughter for this big occasion. But we’re all fairly certain she’s not coming. And I just think Bass’s concern is that it’s going to be a devastating blow tomorrow on her big day. He tried calling his mom’s cell to try to find out, but she’s not answering.”