Read Online Starstruck - Book Four by Gemma Brooks - Free Book Online Page A

bed.
     
    “I’m fine,” she said. “Just the early stages of detoxing. Makes
me a little sick, but you have to get sick before you can get better. That’s
what my counselor told me.”
     
    “Mom,” I said with sympathetic eyes. I hated seeing her so
weak and vulnerable, but I knew it was for the best.
     
    “Sweetie, don’t worry,” she said as she patted my back. “They
have doctors and nurses here. I’m in good hands. This place is truly amazing.”
     
    I glanced out her bedroom window, which had ocean views, and
watched as the leaves on the trees swayed and ruffled in the Pacific breezes. I
couldn’t have picked a better place for my mom to recover and get healthy.
     
    “So you adjusting okay so far?” I asked.
     
    “Oh, yes,” she said. “I feel like I’m on vacation. Well,
minus the constant puking and sweating. And the food here, it’s so healthy and
flavorful. I’ve never eaten this well in my life!”
     
    I laughed. My mom was never a good cook. The best she could
do was make a box of macaroni and cheese or throw a frozen pizza in the oven.
And we were always lucky when nothing came out burnt.
     
    “What’s wrong, sweetie?” she asked as she studied my face.
“I can tell something’s up.”
     
    My mom, even in her sweaty, clammy, sickly condition, could
tell something was bothering me.
     
    “It’s Hudson,” I sighed. I couldn’t beat around the bush
with her. She knew me too well.
     
    “What about him?” she asked, her eyes squinting. She didn’t
like the sound of it, I knew that.
     
    “He has ex-girlfriend with some problems,” I said. “He
thinks he needs to help her. She’s crazy, mom. She comes over uninvited. She
says horrible things to me. And he won’t get rid of her. He feels like she’s
his responsibility. He has to save her or something.”
     
    My mom sighed and slipped her arm around my back.
     
    “Men,” she said. She shook her head in sympathy. “Am I
right?”  
     
    I wiped a tear from my eye. It felt good to talk to someone
I knew I could trust.
     
    “You know what I think?” she asked. “I think that Hudson’s a
good egg. Look at everything he’s done for you. For me too. He is crazy about
you, that man. Don’t let him go for one second.”
     
    “You make it sound so simple,” I moaned.
     
    “It is simple,” she said. “No relationship will ever be
perfect, Brynn. And every relationship requires compromise. It’s not fair for
you to ask him to change the person that he is. Has he asked you to change who
you are?”
     
    “No,” I replied. “Not at all.”
     
    “See,” she said. “He loves you for you. You have to love him
for who he is too.”
     
    She had a point, but it still didn’t change the fact that I
wanted Ava out of our life for good.
     
    “What about Ava?” I said. “Does that mean I have to put up
with her being in our life and meddling in our relationship?”
     
    My mom, in all her sober clarity, flashed me a perplexed
look. “I don’t know, sweetie. I have a feeling she won’t meddle forever. If
Hudson truly wants to be with you, she’ll have to accept that sooner or later.
Eventually she’ll have to move on when she realizes she’s not coming between
you two.”
     
    “I hope so,” I sighed. I leaned my head on my mom’s shoulder
and breathed her in. The unfamiliar scent of lemongrass and verbena permeated from
her soft skin. It was probably the kind of soap the facility gave them to use,
but she still felt like home.
     
    “I’m so glad you’re not hung up on that Luke asshole
anymore,” my mom said frankly.
     
    We both laughed.
     
    “What was so bad about Luke?” I asked.
     
    “Ugh,” she groaned. “Everything.”
     
    “I never knew you felt that way,” I told her. I’d always had
a hunch, but we’d never actually talked about it.
     
    “I just always knew you could do better,” she said. “I could
never really picture you as a farmer’s wife anyway. You’re too