Status Updates From Challenged by the Rugged Lu...

Before Elisa. Before family. Before I learned that walls aren't just for keeping people out, but for creating spaces where the right people can gather.

"She always said you had the biggest heart of anyone she knew. You just needed the right people to share it with."

Oooo! Twist!

this powerful, beautiful man has waited thirty-eight years for this connection—

(So Josh is 38.)

Jordan saw Mason as competition. Josh sees him as a person, small but complete, worthy of respect.

For twenty years, I've defined myself by what I lost, by who left me, by the walls I built in response.

I'm confronted with the possibility of defining myself by what I might gain instead. By who might stay, if I let them.

Small towns have long memories and loose lips.

~~~~~

"Got a minute?"

"For you? I've got as many as you need."

I tend to overshare. Small-town life—you forget how to have normal boundaries.

"You fight dirty," he mutters.

I smile slightly. "I'm a mother. We do what works."

Elisa is 24.

"Sometimes carrying less weight makes it easier to move forward."

I'm beginning to understand this about him—his tendency toward practical solutions, his discomfort with praise or thanks. It's as if he believes helping is simply what one does, not something that requires acknowledgment. How different from Jordan, who kept a mental ledger of every favor, every kind act, tallying them up for later collection with interest.

“I know what it's like to have parts of your history you don't want to discuss. I shouldn't have pressed."

she seems both stronger and more fragile than she did last night. Like a sword that's been tempered by fire but could still shatter if struck the wrong way.

"It's fine," I say, meaning it. "Sometimes it's good to... put it out there. Makes it less powerful."

"You didn't have to cook for us."

I shrug. "Already making it for myself. Just added more."

Running isn't always cowardice. Sometimes it's survival.

My father's rage was a storm that never passed, just gathered strength in the eerie calms between downpours.

Elisa was 19 when she met Mason’s father. So she’s at least 22 or 23?

"Haven't spoken in twenty years."

“When I was fourteen, he turned eighteen and joined the military.”

So Josh is 34?

"Kids are easy. They say what they mean. Do what they feel." He pauses, then adds, "Adults are the complicated ones."