Page 117 of Autumn on My Mind

“Let’s go,” Dom says, letting go of me and taking my hand instead. “Now. Let’s go, all right?” But when he tugs on my arm, it’s not toward the car—it’s toward the door of the restaurant.

I balk. “Now?”

“Yeah,” he says with a nod, swiping the rain out of his face with his free hand. “Now. Unless—” He eyes me. “Did you want to wait?”

“No,” I say, my voice breathless. “No. Let’s go now.” I pause, looking down at my clothes and then at Dom.

We’ve been standing in the rain, and you can tell.

“Will they let us back in?” I say.

His shoulders lift into a careless shrug. “We can see.” Then he gives me another tug. “Come on.”

Although it is accompanied by quite a bit of disapproving side-eye, the man at the host’s stand does let us go back in the restaurant. We don’t go to our table, however. Maybe high on our reconciliation, we make the rather bold choice of going to our parents’ instead.

There are only two chairs, and they are obviously occupied. So we stand, holding hands, staring down at our parents.

Daryl’s expression is tired and grim, I notice, and Alvina looks a little worse for wear. Both of them blink like they don’t trust their eyes when we appear, and then they look confused. When their gazes travel down to our interlocked fingers, their brows furrow even more.

“We’re dating,” Dominic says bluntly. His hand tightens in mine. “Reese and I. We’re dating.”

Just like that—we’re dating. My cheeks heat as I watch our parents’ faces, but I find myself speaking to Dom.

“You didn’t technically ask me out,” I point out, and he frowns.

“It felt implied.”

“Still,” I say. “You should ask, shouldn’t you?”

His lips twitch. “Darling Reese,” he says, the words exaggerated. “Dearest Reese. Holder of my hand. Please date me.”

I nod, grinning, and then look back at our parents.

My smile falls away at Alvina’s appearance; I think she might actually be trembling, and her penciled brows are lifted in shock. Her nose is a little red, and she looks utterly scandalized.

“We’re together,” I confirm. My voice is shaking and small, but the words are clear. I force myself to say them again, louder this time. “We’re together.”

“We dated in college,” Dom says with a nod. “And we’re dating now.”

Interestingly, Daryl doesn’t seem surprised. He just looks thoughtful as his eyes jump back and forth between us.

“You dated in college?” Alvina says.

“Yes,” Dom says. He pauses, straightening up, and then goes on in a hoarse voice, “I was her TA.” He swallows. “I changed her grade without her knowledge so she could keep her financial aid.”

This is clearly a surprise, but Dom doesn’t respond to his father’s wide eyes. He just keeps talking.

“I turned myself in and got expelled. As I should have,” he adds bitterly. “I told them Reese had nothing to do with it, but⁠—”

“Yes, I did,” I cut in. “I dated you. I knew I shouldn’t have, and I dated you anyway.” It’s hard to maneuver my tongue around these admissions, but I look at Dom and push the truth out. “We were wrong. Both of us.” Then I turn to Alvina. “I withdrew in place of being expelled, but it amounted to the same thing.”

“You never told me that,” my mother says, aghast.

“You never asked.” It’s brutal, blunt honesty—all I have to offer her now. “You never cared. I told you I wasn’t going to college anymore, and you said I would have more free time.”

“Either way,” Dom says, his voice steel. “We shouldn’t have dated then, but it can’t be changed. We’re dating now.” He glances between our parents with a meaningful expression. “Do what you will with that.”

In the silence that follows this pronouncement, I look more closely at Daryl and Alvina. They’re not sitting particularly close, I notice, and neither of them looked very happy before they saw us.