Booktree.ngIt-Starts-with-Us-Colleen-Hoover

Darin looks at me cautiously. “Maybe I’m overstepping, but… I swear
you said your mother was dead.”
That almost makes me laugh. “I never said dead. I said she was gone.
There’s a difference.”
“I can tell her you aren’t coming in tonight.” He must sense the storm
brewing.
“It’s okay. I have a feeling she isn’t going away until I talk to her.”
Darin nods and then spins to head back to his station in the kitchen.
I’m glad he’s not asking too many questions, since I have no idea why
she’s here, or who she even is now. She probably wants money. Hell, I’d
give it to her if it means I don’t have to deal with her calling or showing up
again.
I should prepare for that outcome. I go to my office and grab a handful
of cash out of the safe and then I make my way through the kitchen doors,
out into the restaurant. I hesitate before glancing at table eight.
When I do, I’m relieved to see her back is to me.
I calm myself with a deep breath and then I make my way over to her. I
don’t want to have to hug her or fake niceties, so I let no time lag between
us making eye contact and me taking a seat directly across from her.
She has the same unaffected expression she’s always had when she looks
across the table at me. There’s a small frown playing at the corner of her
mouth, but it’s always there. She’s constantly, albeit inadvertently,
frowning.
She looks worn. It’s only been about thirteen or so years since I’ve seen
her last, but there are decades’ worth of new lines that have formed around
her eyes and mouth.
She takes me in for a moment. I know I look vastly different from the
last time she saw me, but she makes no indication that she’s surprised by
that. She’s completely stoic, as if I’m the one who should speak first. I
don’t.
“Is this all yours?” she finally asks, waving a hand around the restaurant.
I nod.
“Wow.”
To anyone else watching us, they might think she’s impressed. But they
don’t know her like I know her. That one word was meant as a putdown, as
if she’s saying, Wow, Atlas. You’re not smart enough for something like this.
“How much do you need?”