“Oh, honey, call me Mel! Now tell me… when am I meeting the woman who finally got my son to settle down?”
“Oh—um—we’re actually really busy with preparations for the gala this weekend, so I don’t think…”
“Well, that works out perfectly!” Mom cuts in. “Why don’t you two come to Redwood Falls tonight? Everyone will be at the house, and we haven’t had a full family dinner in ages. Six o’clock sharp.”
“Tonight?” Alycia squeaks. “I don’t think that’s?—”
Cooper cuts in fast, stepping forward like he’s defending a penalty kill. “Mom, we have a lot going on tonight. Team business.”
“Nonsense,” Mom says immediately. “I alreadytalked to Ramona and Alise. They said you’re all free. Poor Michele has a game tonight, but she said Cole will be there.”
Cooper and I both go still, knowing there is no use fighting any longer. The women in our family are conspiring against us, serving us up on a silver platter to Momma. Serves me right for trying to keep secrets from the once-most important woman in my life.
Alycia, meanwhile, looks like she’s seconds from googling whether faking your own death is a reasonable exit strategy. “Mom, seriously, we can’t just drop everything. We’ve got schedules, and the gala prep, and?—”
“Dinner is at six o’clock,” Mom says warmly, knowing there is no way any of us are going to tell her no.
But Alycia tries again, voice thready but determined. “Mrs. Hendrix, I really don’t want to impose?—”
“You aren’t imposing, honey. You’re practically family now. I can’t wait to hug you. See you soon!”
Click.Silence crashes back into the room.
Alycia looks like the ground shifted under her feet, and she’s trying to find something solid to hold on to. The worst part is that every instinct I have wants to be that solid thing. Cooper is rubbing his temple like he’s developing a migraine on my behalf. I manage, “We’re dead, right?”
“Oh, yeah.”
Alycia turns to me slowly. “Did your mother just invite me to meet your entire family tonight?”
“I’m so sorry,” I say immediately. “We can call herback, tell her it’s too much, we can’t go, that this was all a misunderstanding?—”
“We can’t.” Alycia’s voice is quiet, frayed around the edges in a way she never lets people hear. She’s holding herself together too tightly, like if she loosens her grip even a little, she’ll unravel right here in front of us. And it hits me hard how much she’s carrying for both of us. She doesn’t need to finish because the lie we told is swallowing us whole.
“I didn’t mean for this to happen.” I scrub a hand down my face.
“I know.” She breathes out slowly, steadying herself. “It’s fine. I’ll… figure it out.”
But she won’t. She’s shaken, overwhelmed, and trying to shrink her reactions into nothing so no one sees the cracks. And it hits me harder than anything else today. She shouldn’t have to do this alone.
I lean in closer without even thinking, lowering my voice so it’s just for her. “We’ll handle it together. I won’t let them steamroll you.”
Her eyes lift to mine, and the flicker there—uncertainty, gratitude, the fear of needing someone—knocks something loose in my chest. Because she’s letting herself believe me, and I feel that trust settle between us, warm and dangerous.
Cooper clears his throat loudly. “Right. Well. If you two are having dinner with our entire family, then we need to prepare properly.”
“Prepare?” I echo. “It’s just our family.”
Cooper and Alycia both look at me like I’m delusional. Okay, that’s fair.
“She’s going to need a helmet,” Cooper mutters, causing Alycia to laugh and easing something tight in my chest.
She closes her notebook with trembling fingers, attempting professionalism even as the color has drained from her face. “Okay. I guess… we should go get ready.”
I grab my jacket, pulse thrumming with a truth I’m not ready to name.
Redwood Falls has never scared me, but walking into that house full of my entire family, with Alycia at my side? That’s a different kind of terrifying.
Chapter Twenty-Three
