“OH. MY. GOD!” I hear a familiar voice cry. “Ohmygod, ohmygod,ohmygod!”
Yeah, there’s no way I’m keeping my eyes covered after that. I drop my hand and grin wildly when I see Steph in the living room jumping around and squealing like she’s just won backstage Taylor Swift tickets.
“Oh my goooodddddd! This is soooo awwweeesssoommmee!”
I let out a bark of laughter as I hastily cross the living room to wrap her in a fierce hug. “It’s so good to see you. What are you doing here?”
“Duh, what do you think I’m doing here? You get your results tomorrow!” She hits me with a beaming smile and wraps her arms tightly around me. “My baby’s going to be a lawyer!”
“I haven’t actually got the results yet, Steph,” I remind her.
She lets go of me and offers a dismissive flip of her hand. “As if you’re not going to pass. And if by some miniscule chance you don’t, we’ll go out drinking anyway and I’ll cheer you up by recounting all ofmyfailures.”
I hug her again and drop a kiss to her dark brown pony tail. “I don’t think that’ll work, Steph—I can’t imagine you failing at anything. You’re the reason I’ll even be getting Bar results tomorrow. You’ve never let me down. Or Jax. Ever.”
She pulls away a little, smiling up at me as emotion plays over her features. “I think you’re giving me a little too much credit, sweetie. All I ever did was encourage you.”
“That was enough.”
“Damn it, Skyler, I told you to cover your eyes,” Jackson groans as he emerges from Rocket’s room, shaking his head in exasperation.
“Iwasbut then I heard Steph—what did you expect me to do?” I protest.
Jackson sends his mom an unimpressed look. “You couldn’t stay quiet for two minutes?”
Steph turns to Jackson with a dramatic huff. “You try staying quiet when you discover your two baby boys are finally an item.” She glances back at me for a moment, one eyebrow arched. “I mean, I’m assuming that’s why you said you wanted to see Jackson naked, right?” she probes. “Or have you suddenly turned into a perve? Do I need to be worried about you?”
I let out a soft chuckle, shaking my head. “No, you got it the first time. Jax and I are together.”
This sets her off in another round of crazy, jumping squeals.
“Jesus, Mom, you’re forty-four,” Jackson grumbles, unimpressed. “You want to tone it down a bit?”
“What, I can’t be excited that my life-long dream has finally come to fruition?”
Jackson holds his hands up. “I’m just suggesting maybe you could be excited in a more age-appropriate fashion…”
My brows shoot up. “This is your life-long dream?”
“Hell yeah,” Steph says with an eager nod. Then she sighs, her expression turning wistful. “Well, this or singing on stage with Whitney Houston, but I don’t think that will ever happen.”
“Yeah, it doesn’t seem likely,” I agree, doing my best to keep the amusement off my face.
Jackson rolls his eyes before side-stepping Steph so he can greet me properly with a soft kiss.
“Aww, you two are socute!”Steph coos.
Jackson groans. “Fucking hell, Mom, are you going to be like that every time you see us together.”
“Jackson, don’t swear,” Steph chides. “And, yes, of course I am. My two baby boys are finally together and in love. It’s just so exciting—let me enjoy it!”
“You might want to clarify that we’re notactuallyrelated if you’re telling other people about this,” I warn her. “Society tends to frown on that kind of thing as a general rule.”
“Can you please close your eyes again so I can show you the surprise?” Jackson asks, hitting me with an expectant look.
My brow furrows. “I thought Steph was the surprise.”
“No, apparently I’min the way,” Steph says with a dramatic sigh.
