Audrey’s heart ached. She knew they had to. Whatever was between them mattered and it wasn’t going away.
She tapped her fingers, her mind counting slowly to thirty-two as she tried to consider their options. A long-distance relationship. What other choice did they have? As Zora had correctly pointed out, they were already doing that, so why not make it official?
They still needed to figure a lot of stuff out, but whatever it was, whatever they did, Audrey knew one thing and that was that she was ready to figure it out. With Hallie.
She pulled her own quilt up her bed and nodded. “We will.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Hallie smirked when she heard the front door open as she sat at the breakfast bar, sipping her coffee and texting Audrey. She wouldn’t be up yet, but Hallie liked messaging her as soon as she woke up. She liked Audrey waking up to the knowledge that someone had started their day thinking of her.
“Oh, hello,” her mom said as she walked into the kitchen. She’d have seen Hallie’s car in the driveway, but she still seemed surprised.
“Good morning, Mother. Where have you been?” she asked, barely suppressing her amusement.
Sure, when she’d shown up after work yesterday, she’d wanted to talk, but, given that her mom being out all night led to her being able to have sex with Audrey, she was, interestingly, feeling great about the whole thing.
Her mom pointedly avoided her gaze, moving around the kitchen to make herself coffee—decaf, just like Audrey drank. “Just had some errands to run early this morning.”
“Is that right?”
“Yes?”
“So, do you want to talk about the errands you had to run yesterday evening and all night long?”
Her mom deflated and turned to look at her with a surly expression. “You’ve been here all night.”
“I have indeed.”
“Of course.” She shook her head. “Well, we’re all adults here, Hallie. I’m sure you can figure it out.”
Hallie laughed into her mug. She didn’t mind occasionally discussing sex with her family—they’d always been open—but they didn’t get into the details, and she absolutely did not need a play-by-play of her mom’s night. “Dirk, I’m assuming?”
Her mom side-eyed her. “Obviously.”
“I’m happy for you.”
“Thank you.” She pulled some bagels from the pantry and held them out to Hallie, putting two in the toaster when she nodded. “And should I assume you’re here because you wanted to talk about Audrey?”
“It’s a fairly safe assumption, isn’t it?” She wasn’t sure why, now that her mom was here, she was being evasive. She just wasn’t sure what the answer was, and that scared her.
Her mom studied her as she pulled cream cheese from the fridge and plates from the cabinet. “I think the fairly safe assumption is that you’re never going back to the person you were before her and that means you’ve got some pretty big decisions to make.”
“Ones I have no ideahowto make.”
Her eyes looked troubled as she watched Hallie, only looking away when the toaster popped up and she moved to plate up their breakfast.
When she finally took a seat at the island, she half smiled. “You’re thinking about moving away for her.”
Hallie shrugged, biting down on her bagel. The familiarity of it set her insides aching. California wasn’tthatfar away, it wasn’t a different country, but it still felt so far from what she’d always known. And, the bigger problem was that she had no idea if she could make it work. “I don’t know,” she finally said, feeling small and inferior.
Her mom laughed. “I’d find it odd if you weren’t. There’s something special between you two.”
“Kind of wild, though, don’t you think? To be considering uprooting my whole life for someone I’ve known for a few weeks.”
She shrugged. “Maybe, but you’re old enough to know this feels different, that it’s something that needs you to consider the life you want to live. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“Part of me can’t imagine not being here. You’re all here, my whole life has been here…”
