“I wanted to wait until we were all together,” Kaidan said.“Do you guys remember what it was like between them before it all went to shit?”
“Nope,” Roman said.“I only know the shit.”
“Same,” Jackson said.
“Me, too,” Gillian said.
The three youngest had vague memories of the bad times and even fewer recollections of the good years.
“When they were together—and happy—Mom was different.She was lighter, giggly and silly.”
“You’re talking aboutmymother?”Jackson asked.“Giggly and silly?”
“I know what she means,” Julian said.“I remember that.”
“I do, too,” Carson said.“She was like a teenager in love around him.”
“Yes!”Kaidan said.“Exactly.Over the last couple of months, I’ve heard her on the phone at night, behaving just like that, and then, this past weekend, she disappeared.”
“What does that mean?”Griffin asked.“How can a grown woman disappear?”
“She turned off her location and went dark for the whole weekend,” Kaidan said.
“She did,” Jordan said, nodding.“I tried to call her twice about work stuff, and she never returned the calls.When I looked to see where she was, her location was turned off.I can’t remember a time that’s ever happened.When I asked her about it this week, she said she forgot to check her voicemail.”
“That also never happens,” Kaidan said.
“I thought it was weird,” Jordan said, shifting uneasily in her seat.
The idea of their parents back together, after one of the most contentious divorces in history, was almost impossible to believe.
“That’ssoweird.”Gillian crossed her arms in a protective pose that tugged at Julian’s heart.“She’s always available.”
“Why do you assume it’s Dad she’s talking to?”Carson asked suspiciously.
“Because I’ve never heard her behave that way with anyone else.”
“That doesn’t mean she hasn’t met someone new,” Carson said.“Why in the hell would she ever go back to Dad after what they put each other—and us—through for ten goddamned years?”
Leonardo stopped short as he approached the table.“What’s wrong with you guys?You look like you’ve seen a ghost or something.”
“Or something,” Roman said for all of them.
“Ready for more drinks?”Leo asked.
“Soready,” Carson said.
After they’d ordered another round and Leo had walked away, Ethan said, “I can understand wanting it to be true.”
“That’s not what this is,” Kaidan shot back at him.“Them back together is the last freaking thing I’d ever want.”
“Same,” Griffin said as everyone else nodded in agreement.
“I’m merely saying the preponderance of evidence has me wondering if it’s possible,” Kaidan said.
They all looked to Carson, who put up his hands to fend them off.“No way am I investigating whether our parents are rekindling an old flame that nearly swallowed us whole.No.Way.”
“You could find out faster than the rest of us,” Jordan said.
