“Yes.” I didn’t know whether to be relieved or terrified that it was finally out. “We’re all together and I didn’t know how you and Dad would take it, which is why I haven’t said anything.”
We came to a furniture grouping at the center of the store and my mom dropped onto a tapestry covered chair like the information had literally knocked her off her feet.
“Does Bailey know?”
I nodded. “She’s met them. She likes them.”
“Then why haven’t we met them?”
“I just… didn’t know what you’d think. I guess I still don’t.” It wasn’t just the fact that there were three of them. I imagined bringing Bram, Poe, and Remy home to my family, watching them fill my parents’ house with their hulking bodies.
“You obviously don’t think we’ll like them,” my mom said. “Shouldn’t that be a warning sign for you?”
My face heated with anger. “No, it should be a warning sign for you. I don’t think you’ll like them not because they aren’t good for me but because you won’t like the look of it. You won’t like the look of them.”
Now it was my mom’s turn to be mad. “You should know better, Maeve. We’re not going to judge anyone based on the way they look.”
She said that now, and she probably even meant it, but what would she say when she laid eyes on Bram? The rest of the world couldn’t even look at him. What about my parents, who’d lost a daughter to a rage-filled misogynist?
“You wouldn’t mean to, Mom. I know that. It’s just… they’re not like the guys I’ve dated before, and…”
“And?”
“I’m just not sure you’ll understand. I’m not sure dad will understand. And what about Simon and Olivia?”
Oh god… Simon and Olivia.
We wouldn’t talk about the sex part (obviously), but they would know. They would know I was fucking all three of the huge inked guys I brought home to mom and dad.
“Simon and Olivia aren’t babies,” my mom said. “And they’re certainly not an excuse for you to keep something so important from us. You’re living with them for god’s sake!”
A young mom with two toddlers in tow turned to look as my mom’s voice rose on the last sentence.
My mom took a deep breath. “Do you understand why we’d be concerned after… after…”
“After June,” I finished for her.
She nodded.
“I do, but I think the fact that you can hardly say her name is a bigger problem than the fact that I’m in love with three men at the same time.”
Her eyes widened, but I wasn’t sure which part shocked her more, my confession about being in love with the Butchers or the fact that I’d finally called her on her avoidance.
She pressed her lips together like she was fighting to keep herself from crying.
Or screaming.
“I say her name,” she said quietly. “I say her name all the time. You’re just not around to hear it.”
There was an accusation in her voice, one I deserved. “I know. And I’m sorry for that. I just… I needed to step away from it all for a while, at least at home. But I’m here now. I’m trying to fix it now. And Olivia and Simon need to talk about her. We all need to talk about her.”
Her eyes welled. “You have no idea how hard it is, Maeve. No idea.”
I wasn’t offended. June was my sister and it cut me to the bone that she was gone. But my parents had lost adaughter.
There was no loss like that kind of loss.
I reached for my mom’s hand. “I know. I mean, you’re right, I can’t know. Not really. But I get it, and I’m so sorry, Mom. I’m just so fucking sorry it happened, so fucking sorry we — you — lost her.”
