I was certain her mom senses had kicked in and she could see me roll my eyes even from hundreds of miles away. “It’s not like he’d miss me or anything.” I was being petty, but I didn’t care.
“Ryan Michael,” she scolded. “You better get your ass on that planetomorrow morning or, so help me God, you won’t be able to sit for a week.” Before I could even respond, she gave me all the details of the flight she’d booked for me, knowing full well that I wouldn’t do it on my own. “Now, I know you didn’t write a damn thing down, and I don’t need you to say you missed something and that’s what made you miss your flight, so I already e-mailed you. So there’sno excuse. And I’m going to text you the information, too. Oh, and I already booked you an Uber for tomorrow morning, so you can get to the airport on time.”
Damn her. Why couldn’t I have one of those technologically impaired parents like everyone else? But rather than dwell on that fact, I swallowed the last of my drink and simply said, “Yes, Mom,” trying my best to keep the sarcasm out of myvoice.
“You know, your brother is only going to get married once.”
“We’ll see about that,” I snapped, wishing I had never answered her call in the first place.
“Oh, sweetie.” She sighed, her frustration filtering through the line and joining me right here in my backyard. “I wish whatever it is that’s been going on between the two of you, I wish it would go away. I don’t know why you two areso distant.”
“Me either, Mom. Me either,” I lied before telling her I had to go. That was another lie. After the fight we had over me being gay, I vowed never to return. And especially since the fight came on the heels of the huge bombshell our parents had just dropped on us, I couldn’t possibly figure out how there was any way Patrick could redeem himself anyway. There was no reason for me toend the call with her other than I didn’t want her picking at the scab of my broken relationship with my brother.
And I certainly didn’t want to get into the real reason I wasn’t super thrilled about going to the wedding. Because if seeing someone who only looked like him had that kind of an effect on me, I knew I wasn’t ready to see him again.
