“Hey, Mom!” Dylancalled out as he opened the front door to his mother’s home and headed toward her kitchen. Friday night dinner dates had become their routine in the weeks since he’d returned.
He tossed the takeout bag onto the kitchen table before he started pulling out the food, placing the containers at either his mom’s seat or his own. The appetizers they’d ordered he placed in the middle for both of them to reach.
Maybe he dropped the items a little heavier than he should have, but he was in a mood. He had been ever since he saw Sheridan with his arm around Kelsi’s waist. He’d caught how she hadn’t bothered to correct him when he called it a date. He also hadn’t missed Sheridan’s challenging look over her head and the possessive way he held her, although he thought Kelsi hadn’t seen it.
Barely back in the running and he was already losing the race.
Kole had told him he needed to “make an effort” and “woo her,” and he was trying. But would it even make a difference if she already had someone else?
His mom’s light footsteps padded down the hall, and he looked up as she walked in from the living room. She smiled at him and wandered over to give him a hug in greeting before heading to the drawer next to the oven, where she kept her utensils. She gathered forks and knives and joined him at the table.
“How was work today?” she asked him, opening the lid on her shrimp linguine.
“Fine.” He shrugged, turning to his crab cake sandwich. He took an angry bite from it.
One eyebrow rose in response. “Fine, huh? Did something happen with the case?”
“No, the case is the same.” His tone was terse.
“Ah,” she said, drawing out the word, then went back to her food, leaving it at that.
Even though he knew this was what she wanted, he still couldn’t resist asking, “Ah? What does that mean?”
“It means something happened with Kelsi.” She took a prim bite of a shrimp that she had already cut into manageable pieces.
Curse moms and their second sense for this kind of thing.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
His mom laughed at that. A full-bodied, rolling-in-her-chair laugh that made it nearly impossible not to laugh with her, even though it was at his own expense. And the laughing matter was anything but humorous to him. Still, his eye twitched as he fought not to react.
His mom finally settled down, wiping tears away from her eyes as the giggles subsided until she put her serious face back on. “Dylan, I know that you hurt each other years ago, but I alsoknow that you both miss each other. If you actually talked to her, told her how you feel, maybe you could put it all in the past. Then you can get to the good part of life.”
His shoulders stiffened defensively. “She doesn’t want to talk, Mom, not to me at least.” He stabbed a scallop from an appetizer aggressively.
“Why do you think that?”
“I saw her out on a date tonight.”
His mom froze for a moment, fork suspended in the air over her noodles. “Oh, honey. I’m sure it didn’t mean anything, Dyl.” Her tone was soft, placating. “If it did, you know her mom would have told me.”
He chewed the scallop with more enthusiasm than it required, grimacing when he bit his cheek on accident. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Dylan Jackson Holloway.”
He flinched. She full-named him and was using her no-funny-business voice.
“You listen to me right now, and you listen well. One date does not mean they are in a relationship. You and I both know that you and that girl are meant to be, and you need to get her to believe that too.”
He snorted and shook his head. “It’s not that simple, Mom. Maybe she isn’t interested.”
She rolled her eyes. “That girl has always been interested in you; it was you who held back.”
He sat back, stunned. Had he missed it, all those years? He knew it wasn’t fair to put his insecurities on Kelsi now. He didn’t really think she hated him, either. He knew what she waslike when she truly hated somebody, and she hadn’t acted that way toward him at all. But he hated himself. He hated himself because he did something to break them apart, and he couldn’t fix it.
But the idea of her liking him too, all those years ago? Had all the signs been there and he’d missed them? She’d never said anything if it were true.
His mom’s eyes were sad as she watched him struggle with his thoughts. “I want you to have what I had with your father. A love so strong that your hearts beat as one.”
