Chapter 197 I'll Always Choose You
Sitting on the bed, trying to read a book, Andrea was calm and collected, glad to have Rhonda away from her. She could only imagine what the woman would try to do with the video she’d recorded. She’d watched her own one time through to make sure that she’d gotten everything, and it was obvious Ms. Meyer was setting her up.
Case slowly opened the door and stuck his head in, and Andrea couldn’t help but giggle. He looked exhausted, and he’d just come into the house a few minutes ago, she assumed. “Hi.”
“Hi,” Andrea said as he came into the bedroom, closing the door behind him, and then collapsing next to her on the bed, sprawled on his stomach with his head buried in the mattress. “I take it you saw your mom.”
Without looking up, he said, “Yes. Why did you push her in the pond?”
Andrea knew he was teasing, but when he looked up and shook his head slowly from side to side, she laughed. “Sorry. I just couldn’t help it. I’m evil through and through.”
He moaned and slid over so that his arms were around her waist and his head was on her lap. Smoothing back his hair, Andrea was at risk of forgetting Rhonda even existed—for a moment. “Did you see the ridiculous video she shot?”
“No. But I knew she was doing that. She told me. I have my own video, if you’d like to watch it.”
“Do I have to?” he groaned, looking a lot like a little kid who’d been asked to do a chore he didn’t want to do.
Hiding a smile at his cuteness, Andrea replied, “No, you don’t have to, but the first part is her telling me all the reasons why we shouldn’t get married.”
“Oh, yeah? Anything valid?”
Glaring at him, Andrea tussled his hair. “Are there any valid reasons? Hmmm, maybe I should think this through.”
He was laughing as he sat up. “I’m just kidding, beautiful. Let me see it.”
Andrea handed over her phone and watched as he listened to his mother try to convince her not to marry him and then walked over to the pond and tossed herself in, pretended to drown, and then Andrea offered to help her out, which she refused before Jill came out to help her.
When it was over, he shook his head and handed the phone back. “I’m gonna go tell her she has to go. She can’t keep acting like this. Her whole purpose for coming down here was to do this, to try and break us up, and I don’t have time for this sh*t. I hate that it’s come to this, but I want you to know, Andrea, no matter what the other option is, I’ll always choose you.”
Andrea caressed his cheek. “Case, I don’t want you to feel like you have to choose between us. She’s your mother, and she obviously loves you, even if she has an odd way of showing it.”
“I don’t know, Andrea. Sometimes I think she’s not capable of caring about anyone but herself.”
“Maybe she just needs a little more time to come around. I mean, I can keep trying to be nice to her.”
“You’ve been nothing but nice to her, Andrea. After her apology, I was hopeful we’d had a breakthrough, but she didn’t mean that. She was just trying to win some brownie points. Now, here she is up to these same shenanigans. I watched my brother go through all of this, and now she’s doing it to me.”
He let out a loud sigh and slid off the other side of the bed, his shoulders slumped. Andrea wished there was something she could say or do, but she felt like she’d done everything she could to try and bridge the distance between herself and Rhonda, and the other woman just wouldn’t reciprocate. What else could she do?
“Good luck,” Andrea said as she watched him walk out the door.
Case paused in the hallway, the door still open, and turned back to look at her. “Thanks. I’m going to need it.”
Taking a deep breath, Andrea held her head in her hands, thankful for her own mother and the relationship they had. She prayed Case’s discussion with Rhonda went better than he’d anticipated, but something told her it wouldn’t, and Rhonda would be leaving in tears within the hour.
It was tempting to be happy that she’d be gone, but she hated what that meant for Case. Everyone needed their mom from time to time; Rhonda just wanted to pick and choose when that could be, and that wasn’t working for anyone.
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