Chapter 48: Skylar

“Mom, I’ve come to a decision.”

I sat at her bakery counter and watched as she arranged a fresh batch of blondie bars onto a tray. Her eyes shot toward me but then went back to the task at hand. “Are you breaking up with Gavin?” she asked.

“What? No!” As my carefully garnered composure evaporated, I scrambled for a response. “I mean; I don’t know for sure. But why would you say that?”

“Because you seem ambivalent about him.”

“I do?”

Mom put the last blondie bar on a plate and set it in front of me. “If you are planning on ending things, you should do it soon. Leading Gavin on will only hurt him more.”

“That’s what Mitch said.”

“You’re talking to Mitch about your relationship with Gavin?” Mom’s raised eyebrows shouted her disapproval.

“Mom! What’s up? When did you become a police interrogator?” I took a huge bite of the blondie bar, which was buttery and divine, and spoke as I chewed. “Stick to baking. You’re good at it and your cross-examination style scares me.”

She laughed. With her hair pulled back, and her makeup-less face relaxed in a moment of happiness, she looked young again. She looked like the mother I’d known before sorrow had etched dark shadows and grief-stained crevices where her laugh lines used to be. “Fine. Sorry. So, what’s your decision?”

I took a deep, steadying breath. “It actually has to do with Mitch. I’ve decided that Jo Beth would have wanted Bijou to have the condo, so we should sign it over to the two of them.”

So much for a happier version of Mom; her face immediately turned sour. “We can’t sign a condo over to an infant, Skylar.”

“But we can give it to Mitch, and then he can live here and raise Bijou in Black Diamond. Isn’t that what you want?”

“No.” She took a step back as her body tensed. “What I want is to raise Bijou myself, so she can have a stable, normal upbringing.”

“Mom—”

She held up a hand to silence me. “Mitch is a nice enough guy, but he’ll get tired of single parenting soon and he’ll want to move on to his next adventure. Call me ruthless, but I’d rather speed that process along so we can all settle in. Please don’t give him an excuse to stick around any longer than he was already going to.”

“I can’t believe what you’re saying, Mom. Mitch is a good father and he loved Jo Beth.”

Mom picked up a towel and a spray bottle, and she started vigorously wiping down a counter that already seemed clean. “And I can’t believe your abrupt change of heart! Weeks ago, you were convinced that Mitch murdered your sister and now you trust him completely!”

“Because you and Dad said I was crazy for accusing him. Now I know you were right. I see how he is with Bijou, and he and I talk about how much we miss Jo Beth. I won’t have Mitch or Bijou shut out of an inheritance that rightfully belongs to them.”

Mom aggressively scrubbed at what must have been a stubborn spot of gunk. “But have you thought things through? Mitch is young! Eventually he’ll meet someone new and get married and have more kids with her. When that happens, do you want his new family living in Jo Beth’s condo?”

Her question sank its imaginary fangs into me as sure as if it was a monster living underneath my bed. “Maybe we could make a provision that if Mitch remarries, the condo becomes mine again?”

Mom looked up from her cleaning. Her cynical laugh made her seem a stranger. “You can’t. If you’re going to give him everything, it has to be unconditionally.”

“All or nothing, huh?”

“You wouldn’t ski halfway down a mountain, would you?”

I rubbed my knee. “I would if I fell.” My blondie bar was now mostly crumbs scattered across a white china plate and I picked at them.

Would Scarlet O’Hara have signed over Tara to Ashley if she thought it was rightfully his, if she believed that doing so would get him to love her? Maybe, but unlike the soft blondie bar I’d just finished, Scarlet was a tough cookie, and though her love for Ashley was strong, her survival instinct was even stronger. Yet I was no Scarlet, hopelessly in love with a man I couldn’t have and unappreciative of the man I could be with…well, anyway, love had nothing to do with my decision. I knew there was nothing between Mitch and me, except for the shared bond of wanting to do right by Bijou.

I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, hoping to return to the graceful, composed young woman I’d been earlier, when I’d walked in here ready to tell my mother how things were going to be. “Fine,” I said. “I’ll give him everything, unconditionally.”

A couple of hours later I got home and once inside, the first thing I encountered was a large backpack, the type that students take when they’re traveling internationally and staying in sketchy youth hostels. It was dusty and carried a strong odor, a combo of incense and exhaust. It couldn’t belong to Mitch. Everything he owned was somehow pristine.

There was nobody in the living room, but I heard voices, laughter from behind a closed door. I mounted the stairs, taking two at a time, my nerves jangling though I wasn’t sure why. Just as I got to Mitch’s bedroom and rose my hand to knock, his door swung open and he stood in front of me, dressed in a glow I’d never seen him wear before.

“Hey, Sky! You’re back! We have a guest!” Grinning, Mitch pulled me towards his bedroom: it was the first invitation I’d ever gotten into his sacred space. “She’s like family to me, and since you and I are family now as well…”

“I get it.” I said, knowing I sounded snappish.

“Sorry to show up unannounced,” she said, rising from her stretched-out position on Mitch’s bed. In a previous life that had been my bed.

In a previous life, Jo Beth would be furious to have Magda here.