“Don’t get mad at Laurel,” Mom said. “She didn’t call me. She didn’t have to. Your brothers told me about your little meltdown in One Night Stan’s.”
“It wasn’t a meltdown,” I grumbled.
“Well, all of Mabel’s social media accounts, theGazette, and the talk around town say otherwise.”
That would explain the looks I’d been getting around town and why people had been jumpier around me than usual.
“You know that’s just Mabel stirring shit. It’s what she does.”
My mom poured herself a cup of coffee before standing at the island. “And whatyoudo is distract and avoid. Like you’re doing right now. I gave you time to get this figured out. But enough is enough. I’m not going to sit back and let you throw away the two best things that have ever happened to you.” She shot Laurel a wink before pinning me with her unimpressed mom glower, a look usually reserved for my younger brothers.
“Mom, it’s not?—”
“Do not insult me by telling me that what you and Sutton had wasn’t what I thought it was. I’ve known from the first moment I saw you together that you had something special. Something worth fighting for.”
“You’re only saying that because Sutton helped you choose all the fan mail to share with the book club, and she didn’t pull any punches.”
Just the thought of her smiling that night, and the memory of how right it had felt to have her as part of my family—a family that had been fractured but not broken—made my chest tighten, that persistent ache thrumming harder.
A secret smile lifted her lips, and she shook her head. “That wasn’t the first time I saw you two together.”
I snapped my gaze to my mom’s, a dozen possibilities flipping through my mind, each one more horrifying than the last. I could think of countless times Sutton and I had been together—in public—that I didn’t want my mom to have any knowledge of.
Before I could ask her what she meant, she pulled her phone out of her purse, navigated to something, and slid it across the island toward me.
It was the Instagram feed for the Portland Punishers with a post featuring a bunch of photos taken the night of the charity gala. But instead of the ballroom, this black-and-white image had been taken in the bar. Marino, Wilkins, and Sharp, all former teammates of mine, stood together, drinks in hand, smiling at the camera.
But that wasn’t what caught my attention.
It was Sutton and me in the background. And just like that, I remembered that moment. It was after she’d shifted my entire world with that kiss. I held her against me, lifting her right off the floor as if she was meant to be there. As if it had been as natural as breathing.
And that feeling was written across every inch of my face.
“See?” my mom said. “That’swhen I knew. It just took a bit for you to work your way back together. As…unconventionalas that path has been.”
I stared at her in shock, not quite able to believe what she was saying. “Are you telling me you’ve known all along that this was fake?”
“Oh shit,” Laurel whispered, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from my mom.
Mom laughed and leaned over the island, resting her hand on mine. “Oh honey, no. I’m saying I knew all along it wasreal. I was just waiting for you two to catch up.”
“Double shit,” Laurel whispered.
I glanced down at the picture again, enlarging it until just Sutton and I filled the screen. Since the morning after that night, I’d been lying to myself. Pretending I hadn’t felt what I did with Sutton. But I couldn’t continue to lie when the evidence was staring back at me in literal black-and-white.
“We make a good team, don’t we, Laurel?” Mom said.
“Thank god for that,” Laurel said. “Maybe now he can finally do his thing.”
I tore my gaze away from the picture and met Laurel’s gaze. “What thing?”
“You know, where shit happens, and you just handle it,” she said with a shrug, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Fuck, thatwaswhat I did. What I’d been doing my whole life. And while sometimes it got a little heavy knowing I was the one people counted on, I also enjoyed taking care of people I loved.
And I’d fallen down on the job when it mattered most.
“I handle things like plumbing issues and shopping for custom refrigerators and dealing with a cottage flooding. I have no idea how to fix this, kid.”
