“They don’t usually own up to what they’ve done,” River concluded my thought.
“Yeah.” I squeezed him closer. “Mom told me to apologize on her behalf. She feels rotten that she believed his lies about you.”
“What did he tell her?” River moved his head so he could see my face.
“That you were related to the boy who killed my cousin.”
“The way your mom was messed up, I can understand why she freaked out.” He shrugged. “She was driven by a trauma reaction, I think.”
I hummed. “I think she tried her best with me in the way her mind told her to raise me. She’s a good mom, she was just…”
“Lost.”
“Yeah.”
River settled again. “How did she take the news about his call?”
“It was Dianna he was calling. One of the secretaries at the company he worked at. I remember her. She was probably pretty, kind of bubbly. I didn’t like her; she seemed fake somehow.” I thought for a moment. “Mom will figure it out for herself. Depending on how it all went down and for how long, I would guess. She made sure I knew they would have a private discussion after the call.”
“Is it weird I almost feel sorry for him?”
“Yes and no.” I chuckled. “You’re a good person, River.”
“So are you.”
He leaned up to kiss me on the lips. “Oh, and she invited us for Thanksgiving.”
His eyes widened a bit as he considered it. “Okay. Well, if I have time off, then of course. I haven’t gone home to see my own parents in years, and they don’t expect it, so…”
“Do you think Lake will be upset if we go?”
“Maybe, but we could have a Friendsgiving here before or after we go.”
“We’ll ask them, see what they think.”
“Yeah.” River yawned. He’d had a tough day at work but hadn’t wanted to talk about it. “Can we go to bed?”
It was a bit early for that, but since we were ready, I nodded. “Let’s go.”
Chapter 15
River
I wasn’t sure how life could get better. Well, actually, I knew a couple of things, but those were long term goals and plans.
For the time being, I’d made love with my boyfriend who loved me “very much”—I adored the way he said it—and we were going to move in together.
The situation with his parents, well, that would fix itself in some way given him, I was sure. I wasn’t too keen on going to visit them on Thanksgiving, but I would do it for Ben’s sake. Besides, I felt it would be good for them to see that he was in a healthy, adult relationship.
I felt trepidation when I thought about meeting his dad, but the man couldn’t assault me anymore without repercussions, so there was that at least. I sometimes wondered what would’ve happened if I’d told my parents about it back then. They’d have gotten angry, maybe pressed charges. But I didn’t think either of them would’ve comforted me much. I hadn’t wanted anything to break Ben’s family then, and I didn’t want it now, but now I was an adult who could see that sometimes things changed. Besides, Ben was an adult, too and he was clearly doing his best level-headed, logical thinking on how things might go between his parents. He was a bit sad about the prospect of his parents separating, but he said he also understood why his mother might not forgive his dad. Then again, we didn’t know the details of all of what Mr. Harries had done, so we both agreed not to speculate more and just let his parents give us any information they wanted.
Ben and Lake got to work finishing the second draft of the book. They were both happy with where it was going and what changes they were going to make, and that was all I needed to know, really.
Meanwhile, at the clinic, Dr. Cobb had hired another nurse, this time an enby called Rue. They were awesome, and instantly bonded with our other enby, Ani.
A few days after the whole Harries debacle, Dr. Cobb closed the clinic early and came over to the rescue with me. He wanted to chat with Lake, Theo, and Sierra about those future things we’d discussed before.
Since I felt like I was sort of the middle man in the situation, I went with the four of them while they walked to the new stable. Well, where it would be. The building of the walls and the rest of it was to start the next week. The foundation was there though.
