Page 59 of Hate On
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Julianna
Julianna foundher mother in the greenhouse.
It was a lavish affair that had been added on one year as an anniversary present and more often than not, if her mother was home, she was either in the greenhouse or in the kitchen.
Since her father was still out of town, Julianna doubted her mother would bother cooking—she’d always said cooking for one was terribly boring.
Her first stop had been the greenhouse.
She found Janice pruning one of her prized rose bushes, her hair swept back from her face and for a moment, she just paused to study her mother. She was beautiful and love made her heart hurt.
“Mama.”
Janice glanced over, a smile curling her lips. “I had a feeling I’d see you tonight.”
“Did you?” Julianna asked, moving over to the low stone wall close to where her mother was and sitting down.
“Hmmm.” She met Julianna’s eyes, then her gaze moved down.
Julianna resisted the urge to curl her hand over the necklace she wore.
“I need to ask you something,” Julianna said. “And you may not want to tell me, but I need to know.”
“If I can tell you, I will.” Janice lifted her hands, spread wide. She wore her gardening gloves, a pair of Mickey Mouse ones Julianna and her sister Sarah had bought for Janice one Christmas as a stocking stuffer.
The sight of them made Julianna smile.
Janice glanced down, then grinned back at her daughter. “The two of you and the silly things you buy for me.”
“You always end up wearing them.”
“That’s so they don’t go to waste,” Janice said loftily.
But Julianna knew it was more than that. Her mother loved those silly gardening gloves, just like she loved the silly slippers and socks.
Janice peeled the dirty gloves off and sat down next to Julianna, reaching out to take her daughter’s hand. The gloves never protected her from all the dirt, but Julianna ignored it as she closed her fingers around her mother’s hand. “You know the story behind why Dad and Michael Montrose can’t get along, don’t you?”
Janice arched one elegant brow. “Is that what you came here to talk about?”
“Yes. I want…no, Ineedto know why,” she said, correcting herself. She needed to understand what the story was.
Janice sighed, looking away from her daughter. “It all happened so long ago.”
“The way they act, it might as well have happened yesterday,” Julianna pointed out.
“That depends on which one you’re talking about.” Janice shrugged. “Your father could easily let bygones be bygones. Michael, though…”
An odd look crossed her mother’s face, one that Julianna had never expected to see on her mother’s face. Not when it came to Michael Montrose.
Fondness.
“Mom?”
Janice blinked and the look was gone, just like that. But Julianna knew what she’d seen. And Janice realized it, too. The older woman tugged her hand from Julianna’s and reached up to pat at her hair. “I guess it’s time you hear the story. Especially considering…” She didn’t elaborate, but Julianna heard the unspoken words loud and clear when her mother’s gaze dipped to the locket once more.
“You know, your father and I felt something almost the moment he and I met. But…” Janice bit her lip and looked away. “We started dating, but it was casual. It stayed that way for a while, because I was also seeing somebody else.”