TWENTY FIVE
Bastien
I drive Vera back to the city, and it’s hard to let her go even though it will be close to midnight by the time I drive back to Mosswood. I’m really growing to hate the days from Monday to Friday when I don’t have her in my arms, in my bed.
She breaks away from my heated kiss with a sigh. “You have work in the morning.”
I haul her back again, growling my next words against my mark on her neck. “I’ll call in sick.”
“No you won’t.” She pushes against my shoulders. “I know you won’t do that. You love your work.”
“I don’t love that you’re not there with me.”
“Mmm, me neither.”
Eventually I let her slide down the hood of the truck and go to fetch her bag from the trunk.
She stretches up for one more kiss. “I’ll see you on Friday.”
“Soon as I can get here,” I tell her.
I sit in the truck and watch her building until I see the light come on in her room.
The last ten miles I have to wind down the window and let the cool air blow in my face just to keep my eyes open, and by the time I pull into my street I’m ready to collapse into bed.
I am not expecting there to be a vehicle parked in my drive. The huge black Ford Raptor takes up so much space I have to park my beat-up old Tacoma on the street.
As I stop the engine, the door of the Raptor opens, and a familiar figure steps out. He’s looking balder and a little shorter than I remember, but my father still cuts a formidable figure. A moment later my mother gets out of the passenger side, doubling my surprise. “Bas! We were just about to give up on you and get a hotel for the night!”
“Mom? Dad?” I’m still pinching myself at seeing them together. After spending half my childhood wishing they’d get back together, it feels suspiciously like a dream. “What are you doing here?”
“Aww, hun, we’re getting re-married and we wanted you to be the first to know.” Mom opens her arms, and I step into the hug still in a daze. What is happening here?
Dad claps me on the back. “We thought we’d surprise you. Isn’t this great? Have you been out?”
“Ah, yeah. Um, do you want to come in?”
“Course we do. We thought we’d stay a few nights. See what you’ve done with the old place. That’s alright isn’t it, love?” Mom gives me another squeeze and I’m so stunned I can’t find any words to say.
I lead my parents in through the front door.
Thankfully I bought a bed for the spare room, mostly in case Riley ever wants to crash here. There’s not much to do to set them up for the night.
Mom walks around, looking the place over, commenting on everything that’s different, and I’m too tired to really take it in. Eventually I brush them off and stagger to the bathroom to brush my teeth and get into bed. This is not how I was expecting tonight to end.
I should be happy. I always wished they’d make more effort. I can’t help being suspicious, though, that this unprompted trip is not really about me at all, but maybe I’m being unfair.
They certainly seem to have changed, and if they’ve reconciled, maybe they’ve both been doing a little soul searching.
The last thing I do before I close my eyes is send Vera a message to say goodnight. I don’t send anything through the mate bond since I can feel that she’s already asleep and don’t want to wake her. It’s harder at this distance anyway. She’ll wake to my text in the morning, and hopefully it’ll put a smile on her face.
I wake to the sound of an argument from the kitchen, rubbing my eyes and taking a minute to process what on Earth is happening.
“I told you to set the price lower. You’ll never get an offer at that price.”
“It’s worth one point two at least. Why would I settle for less?”
“It’s like you’re not even serious about this.” Mom’s voice has that shrill tone she only gets when she’s been arguing with Dadfor a while about the same thing. A moment later, the sound of hurried footsteps thud down the hall and the front door slams.
