“What?” I asked. “Are you surprised?”
She shook her head, and for the first time, I could sense what she’d been thinking this whole time.
“We never really belonged together, did we?”
“I was waiting for you to figure it out,” she said regrettably.
“Dad too?”
She didn’t have to respond. I could see it in her eyes.
“God, I was so stupid.”
“Look,” she said, taking my hands and holding them. “Life is about figuring things out on your own. Being a parent is tough. We can see things, but it’s not our life. We need to decide when to give our two cents and when to let the cards fall as they may. It wasn’t hurting you to be with Gino. It just…never made much sense.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you kind of lost your sparkle while you were with him.”
“My sparkle?” I asked dubiously.
“You were a wild child—not like Kason—but you were adventurous and fun and always going somewhere with a big group of friends. And, with Gino, you became this awesome businesswoman, but it was as if so much of you disappeared.”
“It’s still here,” I said.
“Oh, honey, I know it is.”
She wasn’t wrong. I’d become consumed with the boutique and making money. Nothing else interested me. Not going out with friends. Not anything.
“What are you waiting for?” she asked. “Why not break up with him already?”
I closed my eyes. “With everything that happened…with him being my business partner…him leasing my condo. It was just hard to consider cutting ties.”
“It won’t be any easier in a month from now. Or a year from now. And I don’t think it’s fair to Thayer.”
“I know.”
“That boy’s loved you since he first discovered that girls weren’t gross,” she said.
“That’s not true.”
“It is. Anyone with two eyes and half a brain can see it,” she said.
“Then why hasn’t Kason?”
“I said ‘with half a brain,’” she said, and we both laughed because, though she was kidding, my brother could be oblivious at times.
“It’s still new, Thayer and me,” I explained.
“It doesn’t matter. There’s not a thing in this world that boy wouldn’t do for you. And I think you know that.”
I did know that. I was starting to hate myself for not realizing it sooner. “I started writing a text to Gino last night.”
My mother leveled me with a knowing glare. “A text? Really, Giselle?”
My eyes cast down. I knew it was a copout.
“You’ve got that plane ticket that Kason and Shay gave you,” my mother reminded me. “Why don’t you use it. Go see Gino. Tell him it’s over. You owe it to yourself. And you owe it to him—and Thayer.”