“Oh my god, Mom!” My face turned the brightest shade of Red Delicious apple. “You’re so embarrassing. I cannot believe you just said that.”
She put her hand up to stop me. “I don’t want to hear it. I have eyes. And that little display when you walked in was all I needed to see. Have you at least been using protection?”
The horror of it all was complete. I wanted to slither under the booth, a pile of bones, to join all the other greasy, grimy remains below.
“Yes,” Rory finally answered for both of us. “We’ve been careful.”
“Well, hallelujah for that,” she mumbled. Mom looked away. Then back at us. Then toward the restaurant’s bar-style kitchen. Preparing for a difficult conversation, she smoothed out her napkin and arranged the sugar packets by color. The whole time Rory and I sat there like little ice sculptures frozen in time. We both instinctively knew to let her work through the fact that her musical prodigy had just admitted to having sex with her underage daughter. I could appreciate it wasn’t an easy thing to hear, and I had some sympathy. However, if my mother planned to forbid us from seeing each other, well then, that was where I’d draw the line.
“Mrs. M,” Rory finally broke the silence. “Can I just say how sorry I am? When we met, I had no idea you were Grace’s mom. You’ve been so nice to me, and the training you’ve given me… it’s more than I ever could’ve asked for. I promise none of this was meant to disrespect you.”
The waitress approached the table, and we all fell back like slices from an apple corer. Once our drinks had been dropped off, Mom seemed to have gathered the strength of mind to speak again.
“Obviously, the two of you are tight.” She winced at the word ‘tight.’ My god, she hadn’t just tied the loss of my virginity to it, had she? Yes. Yes, she had. My cheeks burned.
“I meant”—she sighed—“you’re very clearly in a relationship, and there would be no point in my forbidding it because, god knows, I can’t have you two sneaking around. Grace, I am all kinds of disappointed. You put yourself in danger by wandering around the streets like that. And after all the talks we had, I’m hurt you didn’t tell me about Rory. I could have maybe helped him. And then you outright lied to me about coming over here. You are going to have to earn back my trust. And Rory… I know you’re a good kid, and that’s why I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt. So, here’s what’s going to happen. There will be no more meetups at Rory’s apartment. From now on, you will come to our house if you want to see Grace. Starting tomorrow for dinner. And Grace, your father does not need to know about any of your extracurricular activities. Speaking of which, there will be no more hooking up between the two of you until this girl is on birth control.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but my utter mortification prevented any words from exiting.
My mother wagged a finger in my face. “Ah! Silence. And, Mr. Higgins, that does not mean you get a free ride. Even after my daughter is on birth control, you will continue to wrap it up tight. Am I clear?”
Numbly, we nodded our agreement.
And that was how my mother discovered I had a boyfriend.
27
RORY: ALL IN THE FAMILY
“Don’t give me that side-eye, Higgins.”
I gave it to her anyway. How could I not? Grace was entering her residence through a security gate powered by facial recognition technology.
“I’m not even looking in your direction, Caviar.”
“What do you think side-eye means?”
Keeping my eyes straight ahead, I fought to suppress a smile. If she was embarrassed by her wealth, far be it from me to make her feel better.
“All the security is because of Jake. His fans have been known to scale the walls. This tends to slow them down.”
“I thought you said he doesn’t live here.”
“He doesn’t. That’s the jacked-up part. He bought the place for my parents when he was still a teenager, but he’s never actually lived here, except maybe during that first year or two when he’d stay between tours. But the celebrity sightseeing buses still drive by here multiple times a day hoping to spot him.”
Who could blame them? This was definitely a home base worthy of a rock star. When Nikki and I dreamed of our matching mansions on the hill, this right here was the shit we were talking about. Spanish style, circular driveway, two-story white exterior, emerald-green window shutters, clay tile roof. And it was huge—the size of two or three large houses combined.
“Just know,” Grace said, trying to play down her swanky digs, “the house is fancy. The people are not.”
Yeah, sure, I thought, looking down at my jeans and t-shirt and suddenly feeling way out of place. I’d grown up on the edges of society, and whether people wanted to admit it or not, there was a stigma attached. Grace seemed unaffected by it, but that didn’t mean her family would be. “I feel like I should be wearing a suit and tie.”
“That’s only because you haven’t met my dad yet. Once you do, you’ll understand why formality is neither required nor appreciated. Honestly, the best I can hope for is that he’s wearing a shirt with coffee stains on it. The worst is that he’ll be walking around bare-chested in board shorts and flip-flops. Mom promised to rein him in tonight, but who knows.”
It didn’t matter to me what the man wore. All I cared about was that he didn’t corner and question me about my intentions toward his daughter. I didn’t have any. My only plan at this point was to hold on to her for as long as I reasonably could. There were no illusions; I knew this wouldn’t last. She’d outgrow me and trade up. I glanced at her house. Way up.
The security gate roared to life, and Grace inched her car forward until there was enough room to pass. Once through the gate, Grace reached up and pushed a button in her car, which stopped the gate and sent it back in the direction it had come. It was only then I felt my pulse tick up. From the outside, waiting dormant in its locked position, the large metal gate seemed harmless, but when it slid into action, the deep clanging of the metal caused the hairs on my arms to rise to attention. Ever since the flyer had been left on my door, I had been seeing threats everywhere. I rotated in my seat, and suddenly I was in the back seat of Hartman’s car, the gate closing, locking behind me, sealing my fate. My heart raced, and my hands started twitching. I blinked in quick succession.
Grace witnessed my transformation, her eyes growing in alarm as they bounced between me and the rearview mirror.
