“Great.” Rosemary took another long sip of her drink before she grimaced. “Damn, that liquor’s making it hard to think. Well, let’s see…” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “There’s something you and Pax don’t know. That’s part of why I’m here. In high school, Sawyer wanted to adopt you.”
I gaped. “Wh-what?”
“Well, I did, too, of course.Always. You were my darling girl. But you clearly had a family, and I found it odd, even then, that Sawyer was interested in you. I mean, you know the man. I may love him, but his head permanently lives up his ass.”
“I think you’re the coolest mom I’ve ever met,” Naomi murmured. “I want to be you. I take back all the mean thoughts I had about you when Adam told me you and your husband tried to pressure Naese into ditching Hana the second time.”
Rosemary lifted her glass in salute. She wobbled a little, and the tip of her nose had turned red. “Not sure Paxy—er,Paxwill agree with you, because I had no idea my husband was a cheating cheaty cheater. The absolute bastard. If I’d known, I would have left his butt years ago. As it is, I’m more than ready to let him take the medicine he most richly deserves.”
Poor Rosemary. She’d spent decades with Sawyer Naese, and now she was in her estranged son’s kitchen spilling secrets and tears with women she didn’t know. This couldn’t be how she’d seen her life playing out.
Supportive noises and pats came from all sides.
I blinked, shocked by the surrealism of my situation. “I don’t understand…”
“I need to start at the beginning, honey,” Rosemary slurred. “Problem is, I guess I don’t know exactly where that is.”
“Um…maybe the fact that my mother and Pax’s dad were… uh, they were together?” I pressed my hand to my stomach, which heaved and twisted. “That’s…”
“Horrifying,” Keelie whimpered.
“You had no idea?” Ida Jane asked Rosemary.
“Nope, none. I mean, he was a hockey player. Never got called to the NHL, but he was good. I traveled with him until our older boys came along, and he wasn’t cheating then. I know because he was in my bed every night. That cameafterPaxton’s brothers.” Rosemary inhaled and grimaced, staring into her empty glass. “He met your mother in Manhattan. I don’t have all the details, but it wasn’t a—what do you call it?” She pursed her lips as she stared into her empty glass. “It wasn’t just a hookup.”
The women around me shifted, likely not enjoying someone their mother’s age using their slang—or the story Rosemary had to tell. They were all married to professional athletes, and they were well aware of the women throwing themselves at their partners.
“There’s something seriously wrong with a culture where women try to incite cheating so they can brag about fucking a professional athlete.” Naomi shook her head, a frown pulling at her thin, perfect eyebrows.
“Totally agree,” Rosemary said. She faced me again, taking my hands in her trembling ones. “But this was a full-blown affair. He started making up excuses to go to New York or to scout a potential kid for the program—he’s a coach for the University of New Hampshire. He did that for years, I realize now.”
“What does that have to do with adopting Hana?” Paloma wanted to know.
Rosemary blinked, clearly pulling herself out of a memory—or the alcohol haze. “Right. Yes. Well, it was obvious that your mother wasn’t much of one to you, and I was worried about both you and Aiki. He’d fallen into the wrong crowd. Sawyer was worried about you following down that path. We talked about it often.”
It was hard not to worry. My older brother had turned sullen, then mean. I nodded as those memories washed over me.
“Well, Sawyer was very worried he’d get physical with you, and I wasn’t going to let that happen.” Rosemary puffed out her cheeks as she blew out a long breath. “So Sawyer and I talked to your mother.” She studied me. “She never said anything?”
I shook my head, but dread had built in my belly, turning it heavy. “Yeah, actually, she did. I just didn’t understand it.”
“What did she say?” Keelie asked.
I sucked in a breath as my stomach pitched.No, no, no, no, no…That couldn’t be. Paxton and I couldn’t have the same… “That I sure had proven to be her meal ticket.”
Chapter23
Paxton
“Mom said she talked to you,” I told Hana as I walked into the kitchen the next morning. Well, technically, it was the middle of the night, but I wasn’t surprised to find Hana awake. My mother had been inebriated on the phone, the first time I’d heard her that way, and the story she’d told me was even more unsettling than the slur in her words.
Sleep wouldn’t come for Hana either, if she felt anything like I did; I was keyed up on anger, disgust, and worry that swirled through me like a toxic stew, and I didn’t like it.What on Earth had my father done?I set my keys on the counter before I pulled out my wallet and phone. I plugged the phone into the charger, completing my little routine.
Hana stood in the opposite corner of the kitchen, wearing an oversized sweater she’d pulled down over her hands. She looked small and dejected. “She did. I’m shocked.”
“Me, too. I mean, my father and your mom didn’t even seem to like each oth?—”
She raised her hand, and the cuff of her sweater fell back. I was taken by the daintiness of her long fingers. She could have been a cellist or pianist—her hands seemed made for creating music. But Hana loved sump pumps and spark plugs more than strings and chords. I’d seen her work her hands deep into an engine where she’d managed to fiddle with a tiny screwdriver to make my dad’s old Chevelle sing.
