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bust, and I had to make it No matter the cost

And, no, I’d never make the mistakes my mother did

“I’inia so tiny that you can barely find it on actual maps No GPS finds it I was happy to see it out of the cab’s rearview mirror Let me put it that way”

He nodded and cut into his steak “I knohat that’s like”

“Huh?”

“I was hardly born with a silver spoon, Tiger I’h town, has a few antique shops don, and is the type of place with stone geese who get decorated every season They wear raincoats in April and Santa hats in December”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because there’s nothing to do there but that Oh, and bake pies My mom was a county champion in blueberry It wasn’t bad back there, but it was boring, not e, and I never looked back”

I blinked back at hiuy his whole life “Do you ever miss it? The small town, the lack of pressure?”

“I loved my mom Dad died overseas in the military when I was still a kid I visited Mom till she died when I was about thirty Da, you know?”

I sed hard and took his hand “That’s awful”

“But I built a life here I had soreat for a while with ot Tammy out of it I built a company I’m proud of—that anyone would be proud of To be honest, if you asked rets at all”

“What changed?”

“You did,” he said, his eyes boring intoin what I had”

I sighed “You ht I… Mrs Steasn’t delicate about that part when she said she’d heard ru, that it was basically what she’d expect”