“What.” She answered in a clearly annoyed tone. “What do you want now.”

Gail knew she was pulling face as she held the phone away from her ear and glared at it murderously. She waited until there was silence on the other end before responding.

“You know mother,” She replied in an acid tone, “You wouldn’t give two cents about my personal life if you didn’t think it would effect your twisted career ambitions.”

She sighed and continued, “Yeah, I do mean it.

She held the phone away from her ear and shook her head.

No. No. Don’t give me that suddenly concerned for my well being crap either.”

She sighed again, and mindlessly picked up a spoon, trying hard not to simply bend it in half.

“That’s your problem, not mine.”

She shook her head and rolled her eyes again,

“Actually mother, if you really must know, “

She took a deep breath to steel herself, and placed the spoon with exaggerated care back on the table,

“I am wildly, madly, deeply in love, possibly for the first time in my life.”

She reached over to place her hand on top of Traci’s that was still holding on to Holly, and gave a little squeeze,

“And no, I don’t care how you feel about it. So, no, we are not coming to dinner on Thursday, or any other night, until you calm the fuck down and I am sure you will treat Holly nicely.”

There was a moment of stunned silence on the phone before it erupted again.

“I don’t care if you like my language either. And what about Nick? No. No. You leave him out of this. This has nothing to do with him or my being abducted last year. Like you care.”

There was silence on the other end of the phone. The rush of adrenaline was starting to wear off, leaving her feeling empty and tired.

“Listen, I am turning my phone off now. If you want to have a reasonable discussion with me, we can talk after I get back. Goodbye Mother.” She said firmly hanging up and shutting off her phone.

Steve was looking stunned, but Traci was grinning ear to ear. She had finally done it! She had stood up to her mother for once in her life and rendered Elaine Peck speechless.

“Wow!” Steve said, eyes wide with shock and not just a little bit of admiration.

“Good for you!” Traci beamed at her, piling another hand on top of Gail’s.

Holly was silent. Gail looked over to find her staring at the table, eyes brimming with unspilled tears.

“Hey.” She said quietly, removing her hands from the pile.

“Hey, “ She said again reaching up to cup Holly’s chin in the crook of her forefinger and gently turn Holly’s face toward hers. “Why are you crying?”

A storm of emotion clouded Holly’s brown eyes when she finally did look up.

“I heard what you said.” She replied softly

“Uh huh.” Gail replied, caressing Holly’s cheek with her thumb.

“I mean about me, about us.” Holly stammered, barely holding it together.

“That’s right.” Gail said looking into those beautiful, troubled dark eyes. “I meant every word”

“You would be willing to do that for me…” Holly whispered

“That’s right.” Gail said with a tiny smile.

She leaned over to kiss Holly tenderly, not caring that they were sitting across from her brother and Traci; not caring that they were in the diner where she spent her childhood and everyone knew the Peck family. All that mattered in that moment was Holly. Breaking the kiss she looked up to find a pile of money on the table and Traci forcibly dragging Steve from the booth. He was looking rather smug too.

“We got to get going.” Traci smiled as she made their parting excuse, “I didn’t realize how late it was getting to be… Right? Steve!” She pulled on him by the elbow of his sweater.

“Um, yeah…right..” he stammered, and then giving Gail’s shoulder a squeeze on his way out he added, “Don’t worry about Mom, I got this.”

“See you on Monday!” Traci called over her shoulder.

“Thanks!” Gail replied, and then looking back at Holly with eyes full of love and longing she whispered “Let’s go home.”