He heads to the window and opens it. My jaw drops. “Seriously? Wedohave a front door.”
“We just fooled around, and I was naked earlier. No way. No way can I face your family after that. I’ll face them later after a ‘regular’ day,” he says, using air quotes. “A day whennosex is involved.”
“They won’t care.”
Mike gives me a deadpan look. “Yeah, no thanks.” He places a leg outside the window, resting his foot on the lower roof of the porch, huffing a laugh. “I feel like a naughty teen.”
I laugh again and walk over to him when he wiggles his index finger at me. “Kiss me again.”
I press my lips to his and quickly pull away. He pouts as I fold my arms, shaking my head. “Go to work, naughty boy.”
“Bye! Have a good day, baby. It was fun. Talk to you later.”
“Bye, Chaos."
After showering and getting dressed, I head downstairs to prepare for my run. Sure, it’s weird showering before I’m about to sweat my ass off, but I didn’t want to face Mom still smelling of sex. Now I understand what Mike meant earlier.
With my collapsible water bottles in hand, I walk into the kitchen to fill them. Mom is there, sipping coffee and reading a book at the kitchen table.
“Hey,” I say.
She looks up and gives me a soft smile, but her eyes are all-knowing. Not much gets past her after raising two boys, so it’s no surprise that she’s probably figured out Mike stayed over.
“Morning.”
Instead of grilling me, she goes back to her book and takes a sip of her coffee.
“Shouldn’t you be at the shop?” I ask, filling up one of my bottles with the filtered water from the refrigerator.
“Tish opened for me. I’ve been giving her more responsibility lately, and giving some much-needed time to myself.”
“Cool.”
After I finish filling up my bottles, and Mom, not saying a word, I sit down across from her, trying not to fidget. She doesn’t even look up from her reading. What gives?
I sigh audibly, and she glances up from her book, but her eyes ping right back to it. Mom definitely knows. She’s just not saying anything. Should I tell her?
“So, ah, about Mike…”
“I know, honey,” she says, taking another sip of coffee.
“W-what gave it away? Besides his truck sitting inthe driveway?”
I’m not really worried that my family knows about Mike and me, but Mike has been a part of our family since forever, so I’m not sure if it’ll feel weird to my parents.
“Your brother. He hasn’t pruned since he was a kid. Aaron is practically allergic to gardening. I figured he was distracting me, and then combine that with the truck, well, it’s clear Mike stayed over with you.”
My face heats, and I fidget again. “Yeah, I wanted to tell you all, but we’re still figuring shit out.”
She finally sets her book and coffee down, giving me her undivided attention. “And Mike’s okay dating a boy?”
I roll my eyes so far up into my head I worry they’ll get stuck there. “We’re men, Mom.Men.”
She chuckles, her eyes dancing in humor. “I stand corrected. But no matter what age you and Aaron are, you’ll both always be my boys.”
I smirk and shake my head, my tension melting off me. “Yeah, Mike’s chill about it. We’ve just been close for a long time, and I guess we just finally clicked. I’ve, ah, loved him for a long time,” I admit.
Her face softens, and she tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “I know you have. We all saw it.” She laughs. “Everyone saw, except Mike.” Then she grows serious, frowning a bit, her eyes solely focused on me. “And you’re okay with dating again after everything?” Leave it to Mom to connect the dots after finding out what happened to me.
