As she spoke about her childhood, Austin couldn’t help but focus on the fact she never mentioned having a boyfriend.
She spoke in a tone he’d never heard on Tarton’s Junction. Words flowed from her lips like a grand story, a fantastic departure from her duty-filled speeches on the station. He remembered her chastising him following the simulated competition with the second-year Lobera students and realized how far they’d come in their relationship.
In return for her stories, he shared his past. He detailed his father’s cancer and the final months when he and Mom took turns visiting Dad in the hospital…and then hospice. He failed to maintain eye contact when he recalled the stories, the memories still too fresh. He felt a little guilty about his sadness, knowing she’d never experienced th
