Prologue
Six years ago
“I don’t get why I need to meet them,” Lane complained.
“I keep telling you,” his mom, Delia, said, ruffling his hair affectionately as she drove them to the restaurant they were meeting at for dinner. “Tom and I are serious.”
Lane didn’t roll his eyes but he wanted to. Shedidbelieve that, and if the world was fair and just, it would all turn out to be true. His mom was awesome. Pretty and always smiling, even when life got her down, with a fierce drive to try to better their situation.
He would’ve believed that Dr. Thomas Thompson was the tool she was using to permanently improve their lives, but he’d seen her come home the day she’d met him, in line at the grocery store. Despite that Tom was a doctor and very clearly comfortably well-off, her eyes had been sparkling and smile even wider than normal. She’d likedhim, not what he could do for their little family of two.
“I know,” Lane said instead of all the other things he wanted to say. Like,he knows we live in the trailer park, right?Like,this isn’t going to last and I’m terrified of what happens when I need to pick up the pieces, after.
Delia turned to him, her usual sunny smile replaced by an unexpected seriousness. “I know you’re worried, baby. But you don’tneedto worry. You’re going to really love him. He’s so sweet and thoughtful.AndTrevor’s nearly your age! That would be exciting, wouldn’t it? To finally have a brother?”
“Abrother?” Lane couldn’t hold back the astonished exclamation. Obviously Delia really liked this doctor, but it had only been a few months. They couldn’t be thinking ofgetting married. On one hand, he did want that kind of security for his mom. On the other, it washis jobto do it. He was so close to actually making it happen too. Next year he’d be in college, and after two years, he’d declare for the draft and then he’d be making NFL money. It wasn’t the responsibility of some snooty doctor who’d just moved to town,justmet her, and swept her off her feet.
“Honey, this can’t be a surprise,” Delia said.
It was a huge fucking surprise.
Lane opened his mouth and snapped it shut. “You’reengaged?” And she hadn’t told him. For so long it had been just the two of them against the world. That hadn’t always been easy—and there’d been a lot of difficult times, especially early on, Lane aware even though his mom had tried her best to shield him from the worst of it—but they’d always hadeach other.
“No, no, not yet.” But the private smile on her face made it clear shewantedthat.
Yes, she’d told him that she and the doctor were serious, but Lane had never imagined it wasthisserious.
“Oh.” Lane swallowed hard.
She glanced over at him right before she pulled the car into the restaurant parking lot. “But we have talked about it, which is why this is so important to me.”
Parking the car and turning it off, she turned fully to Lane. “Baby, you’re always going to be mine, you know that. It’s the two of us, right? But that doesn’t mean it always needs to be.”
And he wanted her to be happy. He wanted her to not be lonely and disappointed in love—which had happened a handful of times before she’d sworn off dating. Then she’d come home glowing after meeting the doctor and Lane supposed he should’ve known this was coming. But he’d been in denial.
“I know that,” Lane huffed out. Not sure who he was more annoyed at—this situation orhimself.
He’d gotten so used to the idea it wasjustthem. That he was going to be the one to pull them out of the trailer park, andGod, it felt like he was so goddamn close to getting it done.
“Promise me you’ll give Tom a chance,” his mom said, “and I think you’ll really like Trevor too. He’s a sweet kid. You’re sure you’ve never seen him around? I know he’s on the team with you.”
“The season’s over, Mom, and I’m a senior,” Lane reminded her. “I’m sure I’ve seen him around, I just didn’t know who he was.”
“Well, you will now. I hope you’ll be friends. We both hope that,” she said, that small, secret smile playing across her face again.
And what was Lane supposed to do when she looked so happy?Notagree?
“Alright,” he said.
The way the happiness bloomed across her face made it worth it.
As they walked into the restaurant, Lane bargained with himself. Wasn’t that all he’d ever wanted? For his mom to behappy? Maybe it would be a little hard for him to reconcile that it wasn’t going to be him, providing for her, but it was happening. Wasn’t that the most important thing?
He’d nearly gotten his head around that idea when they walked through the restaurant and right there, sitting next to an older man with slightly graying auburn hair and gold wire-rimmed glasses, wastheguy.
The guy he’d spotted half a dozen or so times in the gym, with his sandy-blond hair and its strawberry-blond highlights when the light hit it just right, and the velvety brown eyes. And the body that just wouldn’t fucking quit, his cut-out tank exposing all those lean muscled flanks, and abs that made Lane’s mouth water.
Lane had been scrupulous about not fucking around near where he went to school, buttheguy had tempted him to break his self-imposed rule.
