“Don’t look at me like that,” she scolded. “While I’m upset that Gabe’s hurt you, your relationship isn’t a surprise. I’ve been waiting for a while now to see when one of you would finally tell us the truth.”
“I’m sorry, Aunt Gwen. We didn’t mean for this to happen. But it did, and we shouldn’t have lied about it.” Great, I was rambling again.
“No, you shouldn’t have,” she agreed. “But I’m going to choose to think you were so careful because you didn’t want to hurt DeeDee, not because you didn’t trust the four of us to love both of you enough to get past this.”
“Why do you say that?”
Gwen laughed. “Honey, since the day I met her, everyone’s walked on eggshells around your mom. I think, back then, it was because she was still grieving the loss of your Grandma Bonnie. Over time, it became second nature to all of us and it seems we passed that trait along to you boys.”
Gwen stood and pulled out a stool so she could reach the shelf above the refrigerator. It couldn’t be a good thing that she was bringing out the hard liquor. When she set down a glass in front of each of us, I opened my mouth to remind her I was still underage. “Trevor, if anyone needs a drink tonight, it’s you. And do you honestly mean to tell me you haven’t partied at all since moving out?”
“Never.” Did that make me pathetic? Suddenly, I felt as though I was missing out on part of the college experience. Maybe that was part of why Gabe had grown bored with me. He spent so many nights waiting for me to get home from study groups, maybe he wanted to be out partying but felt guilty. He wanted all of it?—except, apparently, the school part. That, he was willing to throw away without even talking to me first.
“In that case, I’ll take it easy on you. Am I going to have to ask you again to explain to me what that thick-headed son of mine is up to?”
I didn’t want to betray Gabe’s trust, but at this point, I didn’t see much trust to worry about. He obviously hadn’t trusted me enough to?— No, continuing to run in this continuous loop was getting me nowhere. His mother asked me a direct question and I wasn’t going to lie to her anymore. Not to any of them.
“I overheard him talking to his boss tonight,” I admitted. It was the first time I felt any guilt over eavesdropping. “It sounds like he’s going to withdraw from his classes and start working full time.”
“But Gabe hasn’t said anything directly to you?”
“No,” I confirmed. “He probably didn’t want me to panic until he had his safety net in place. In this case, that means renting a room from one of his new friends who graduated in December.”
“I see.” Gwen walked over to the counter and tapped out a quick message. I wished she hadn’t done that, because whether she was talking to Gabe or my mom, nothing good could come for me.
“Have you considered that maybe he hadn’t said anything to you because he hasn’t figured out what he wants to do yet?” Gwen’s explanation made sense. More sense than my own assumption. Hell, maybe I was the one who wasn’t thinking clearly. “If there’s one thing I know about my son, it’s that he’s been head over heels in love with you since he knew what those weird feelings were. He’d rather slit his own wrists than hurt you.”
“You don’t really think?—?”
“It’s a figure of speech, honey,” she assured me. “But the point is, he knows you better than anyone else on the planet, even better than your parents. He’s used to you trying to figure out all of the worst-case scenarios in any situation. If he’d mentioned he was even thinking about this, what would you have done?”
“Assumed he didn’t want to be with me. Figured this was his way of making a clean?—?”
“Uh-huh, go one.” She smirked, knowing she’d won. She motioned for me to continue, but suddenly, there didn’t seem to be much point.
“I see your point. I should probably call him and let him know I’m here so he doesn’t worry when he gets back to the room, huh?”
The front door opened and Gwen chuckled under her breath. “It seems both of you boys had the same thought tonight.”
I couldn’t make myself move to greet him, no matter how badly I wanted to throw myself into his arms and beg him to forgive me for assuming the worst. How did he even get here?
That’s when I heard him telling someone where to find the guest bedroom. I really freaking hoped he hadn’t brought Jayden or Levi with him. They didn’t need to see what a pathetic tool I was.
I waited for Gwen to holler for Gabe to get his butt into the kitchen, but she sat quietly sipping her tea.
Gabe’s footsteps grew louder, echoing off the walls. From where I was sitting, I knew he wouldn’t see me right away. I should be done with listening in on his conversations, but I wanted to hear what he had to say before he knew I was there.
“Sorry, Mom. I was showing Seth to the guest room.” Okay, that wasn’t so bad. Seth at least had some experience with my brand of crazy.
“I see, and will you still be friends with this Seth after you move out of the dorms? Is he one of your friends from the coffee shop?”
“How in the hell do you know about that?” Gabe’s voice was louder now, harsher. “I haven’t even mentioned the offer to Trevor yet.”
“That doesn’t mean Trevor didn’t hear about it,” I chimed in, no longer able to stay quiet. It hurt to hear him admit that he hadn’t told me about his plans.
Gabe raced over to me, not giving a damn who was in the room or if his mom knew about us and threw his arms around me. He kissed my neck, demanding that I promise to never scare him like that again. “What are you doing here? I was getting ready to run down to your place but didn’t think you’d want Seth there when you explained to me how I’d fucked this all up.”
A chair scraped across the granite tiles and we both turned to see Gwen rinsing out her mug. “I’m going to give you boys some time to talk. We could’ve avoided all of this drama as well as two tanks of gas if you’d done that sooner.”
