Ashley assumed the distance was judgment, or quiet disapproval she couldn’t quite name. She wondered if Rowena found her careless, too loud, or too alive. The thought stung, even as she told herself she shouldn’t care. Still, the feeling settled and hardened over time.
Ashley occasionally wondered if her presence reopened a wound—if she reminded Rowena of the daughter who never reached this age. But then everyone had their own kind of wounds. Ashley had lost her mother while still a small child. Maybe unconsciously, she had hoped for the warmth of a mother from Rowena, but that wasn’t to be.