But Cade had made it pretty clear that he wanted his space. If Aiden showed up at the library, he wouldnotbe going along with Cade’s perfectly reasonable request. Standing guard over him the night before had been a new height of invasive attention, and Aiden needed to make sure he didn’t get any more carried away.
So he obediently ate his breakfast and then staggered off to bed. He slept until midafternoon and woke up in time to greet his father as he returned from a business trip. A short visit, and then it was time to get ready for his mother’s event.
She was waiting in the living room, a barely touched glass of white wine in her hand, when Aiden came downstairs. She smiled in approval. “Very handsome.” Then she frowned and set down her glass to run her flat hands over his shoulders. “You’re filling out. You’ll need a new tux before Christmas. I wonder if Gregory could find time to get you measured tomorrow?”
“I was planning on heading back tomorrow morning. Probably not time for a trip downtown.”
“Tomorrow morning? I thought you were planning to go back later in the day.”
He fiddled with his cufflinks, avoiding her gaze. “I should probably go to the library and get some studying done.”
“The library,” she said dryly.
And suddenly, he was angry. Not at her, necessarily, but at something. “Yeah, the library! Maybe I should actuallydosomething with my time! Maybe I should be taking better advantage of this opportunity I have! Instead of just being a generally pleasant party boy, maybe I should be something more! Something better.”
She looked at him like he’d asked her a riddle, then picked up her wine glass and took a thoughtful sip. “Maybe you should,” she agreed. “You could start by watching your tone of voice when you’re speaking to your mother, but after that, I’d certainly love to see you applying yourself to your studies.” She smiled at him almost sadly. “But, sweetheart….” She stopped, took another sip of wine, and said, “College is an exciting time. You get to meet new people and find out what you have in common and what you don’t. Meeting someone from a different background is a valuable experience. But admiring someone else doesn’t mean you should think less ofyourself. If you want to go to the library and study more becauseyouwant it—because you’re interested in what you’re learning and want to do well—that’s wonderful! But if you’re trying to change yourself for some boy?” She shook her head. “Take it from me. It’s not productive.”
“What about being inspired by someone?” He wasn’t angry anymore, but he wished he had his own glass of wine to sip while he collected his thoughts. “He makes me want to bebetter, Mom. Not different, really, just better.”
“Didn’t Will make you feel inspired?” she asked. “He takes school seriously. He and I had lunch last week, and it sounds like he’s really enjoying his MBA program. And I’m sure he wasn’t accepted to the University of Chicago without excellent grades.”
“You had lunch with Will last week?” Aiden knew his mother and his ex had stayed in touch, but he’d thought they exchanged an occasional e-mail or something. He hadn’t known they were breaking bread together. But he’d be disturbed about that later. For the time being, he said, “I had lunch with him too. And he was annoying. We ate at the cafeteria where Cade works, and the whole time Will was going on about all the people he was meeting and his classes and whatever? I was staring at Cade. Watching him work. I mean, it’s a simple job, you know? He’smaking sandwiches. And it’s not like he wants to be a chef or something. But he still totally focuses on what he’s doing. Because he takes it seriously. If he does something, hedoesit. Not like me, just floating around and being half-assed about every damn thing I do!”
His mother had a peculiar expression on her face. He wondered if she was torn between her usual instinct to protect her baby and her usual instinct to support her baby—kind of hard to reconcile the defensive urge when the person attacking her baby was, in fact, her baby. Interesting, but he didn’t get to see how she’d resolve the conflict because his father came into the room then and the conversation shifted to their plans for the evening and other more traditional topics.
They shared a car on the way downtown, and the conversation stayed casual—stories about Aiden’s father’s trip to Germany, stories about Aiden’s experiences at school. Through it all, though, Aiden’smother was quieter than usual, and he felt like she was watching him more intently than she normally did. Not that she didn’t always keep an eye on him, but this was something more, he was pretty sure. It felt evaluative, as if she was trying to figure him out. Not exactly pleasant, really, and he was happy to climb out of the car when they reached the hotel.
“You both look very handsome,” Aiden’s mother said. She linked her hand into the crook of her husband’s elbow and smiled at her son. “Let’s mingle a little, and I’ll see you at dinner. Oh, Aiden—Will’s at our table. I should have mentioned that earlier, I suppose, but I thought it would be a pleasant surprise. And, obviously it’s notunpleasant, if you volunteered to have lunch with him earlier in the week.” She smiled, the smile she used as a shield against unpleasantness. As if no one would dare say anything to ruin her happiness. “You two were good together, and I think he really regrets ending things when he moved away.”
Aiden stared at her. “He regrets it? I dumped him, Mom. What does he regret? Getting dumped?”
She frowned a little. “I understood that it was more of a mutual decision?”
“Not really,” Aiden said. “He decided to go to school up here but he wanted to do long-distance. I said long-distance didn’t work for me. But if he’d decided to stay in West Lafayette, I would have said close-distance didn’t work for me.”
Will’s father grinned at his wife. “Sounds pretty clear. Aiden’s always known his mind.”
“You haven’t heard what thatmindhas gotten him up to lately,” she said with another defensive smile. “But we can discuss all of this later. For now, let’s enjoy.”
She led the way into the hotel ballroom like a queen, her consort beside her but a little behind, the crown prince trailing at a respectful distance.
Aiden had never minded being a cast member for his mother’s productions. It was often fun; the woman certainly knew how to throw a party. If it had been all there was to their relationship, he supposed he would have felt that it was empty, but he had plenty of quality time with both of his parents. His father traveled a lot, but when he was home, Aiden was his priority. Not just the golf and tennis that Cade had predicted, but sailing andhiking and lots of time to sit around and talk. They had their own little book club, just Aiden and his dad, and they’d pick out five or six books a year to read together and then discuss over dinner on a boys’ night out.
And his mother? Aiden and his mother had always been close. She’d been the first one he’d come out to, and when he’d started dating, she’d been the one he’d talked to about guys. Not the physical side of things, although she’d made him sit through several two-parent safe-sex talks, but the emotions and the strategies. Trying to figure out the dating politics of two teenage boys had been too much for Aiden’s father, but his mother had been a star at it.
Just like she was a star at everything else. Aiden stood inside the door of the ballroom and watched as his mother worked the crowd. There was nothing fake about her enthusiasm or her joy at seeing people, but it was all somehow calibrated to the precisely appropriate level, not too shrill and not too subdued. Aiden wondered what Cade would make of her performance.
“You want a beer?” Aiden heard from close beside him. The words were too casual to be a waiter, and he turned to see Nate. His first boyfriend, from high school, now a junior at Northwestern. And holding two glasses of amber liquid in his hand, one a little lower in volume than the other.
“Hey, man.” Aiden instinctively reached for the fuller glass. Did he want a beer? Probably, yeah. But he thought of Cade’s parents from the night before, and his first sip was a little more cautious than it might otherwise have been. “How’s it going?”
“Not bad,” Nate said easily. “Same ol’ stuff. School, parties… looking forward to ski season. How ’bout you?”
“I think I’m falling in love with a superhero,” Aiden said. He hadn’t exactly planned to say it, but he wasn’t sorry that he had. It added a little interest to what had otherwise been destined to be a dull conversation.
And a littlemoreinterest was added when Aiden saw Will working his way through the crowd toward them.
“A superhero?” Nate said. “Cool. What’s his superpower?”
