My mother rolls her eyes. “Oh please. It’s not like we haven’t noticed you’ve been gone a lot. Smiling all the time. And somehow, you seem to always leave the house right before Eden comes over for ladies’ brunch. You tell me what all that means. Am I wrong? Are you or are you not seeing her?”
I shake my head and try not to smile. “You and your friends, Ma. You got to stop playing Sherlock Holmes with other people’s lives. I thought you agreed to butt out of your kids’ love lives after Franco and Chloe?”
Ma’s face pinches, and she looks hurt. “Now that’s not fair. Chloe and Franco are perfect together. That might not even have happened if I hadn’t made sure your brother met the new girl in town. Now, honey, I’m not judging. I just…”
“Ma.” I hold a hand up. “You did not wake me up on my day off to quiz me about my love life, did you? What’s the tape for? You going to tape me to a chair until I confess I’m dating Eden?”
“You are.” My mom looks so happy at that, all I can do is roll my eyes. “Son, ever since Michelle…”
“Don’t finish that sentence.” This time, my voice has a warning edge to it. Before I can say anything more, Pops comes up the stairs and makes his way down the hallway.
“Son, you’re up? I told your mother I was going to head out. I didn’t think you’d be vertical this early.”
I yawn and shake my head. “I wasn’t.” My mother opens her mouth to complain, but I hold up a hand. “I’m up now. Where you off to, Pops?”
Mario Bianchi is dressed, showered, and shaved. He’s shoved his glasses up on his head, and the silver hair that looks exactly like mine will in about thirty years is perfectly styled. He takes the tape roller from my mom’s hand like it’s a loaded weapon and shakes his head.
“Your mother’s friends are taking Eden’s move very seriously. I’m on box duty. Lucia is sending me out to the grocery stores to see if I can get some free cardboard boxes so Eden doesn’t have to pay for them.”
I shake my head and try not to laugh. “Ma, did you ask Eden about any of this? You realize she’d hardly unpacked when she had to move out of her rental. Most of her stuff is still in the moving boxes they came in from LA.”
My mother gives me the most shit-eating grin and crosses her arms over her chest now that her hands are free. “How would you know that?”
I roll my eyes like I’m fifteen again. “I was on the engine that responded the night of the house fire, remember?”
I wave my hands at my parents, both of whom are now crowded into my childhood bedroom. “Okay, look out. Both of you. I need a cup of coffee and a shower. Then I’ll run errands with Dad and pick up boxes, body bags, whatever your friends want.”
My mother pads across my room and flags me down with those blood-red nails. I lean down, and she kisses my cheek. “Make it a quick shower, honey. The ladies will be here soon.”
I snort and meet my dad’s eyes, but he just shrugs. He’s as whipped by my mother as he was the day they met back in high school. As she brushes past him, he cops a feel of her ass, and I shout, “Pops! It’s too early for that shit.”
But Pops just looks back at me and waggles his eyebrows, then follows my ma back downstairs, closing my door behind them. I grab a towel and head into the bathroom that I shared with my sister Gracie until she moved in with her husband, Ryder.
While I love the extra space, I have to admit, I miss having my sister around all the time. Things are definitely different being the last kid living at home.
I turn the water to scalding and climb under the spray, grinning about the secret that Eden and I’ve got going. We agreed to keep the fact that we’re seeing each other quiet for now.
Shit’s new, and until she’s settled in her house, it’s not like we’redatingdating. Dinners at her place or walks with Juniper on my days off aren’t exactly hot dates. But it’s been more fun than I expected getting to know them while she waits to move into her new place.
It’s been nice being excited about something for a change.
The shit at work hasn’t changed, and that shit won’t change unless I do something about it. I know what I have to do, but I’m just not sure I’m willing to do what it takes.
A fucking college degree.
I wouldn’t even know how to do that. Show up with a goddamn backpack? What if the classes I need to take are on days I have to work?
By the time I get off my shift, all I want to do is sleep, do laundry, and catch up with Eden.
If I’d had the energy to think about going back to school before, now, things are changing. I’ve never dated anyone with a kid, and I can see from just the last month that having a kid is a full-time job.
I don’t know how the hell my sister still does tattoos, manages to keep a house clean, cooks, and does everything else that needs to be done with three.
I decide to ask my pops about that when we’re alone.
“You ready, son?”
Pops is twisting the lid on a travel mug of coffee when I clomp down the stairs.
