Page 23 of George’s Big Day

“Talk to me.”

“I just… I have no idea why my mother even invited me,” he said, and I could tell his psychiatrist brain was fixated on getting to the answer.

“I have a guess.”

“You do?” He straightened up and leaned back so he could see my face.

“I do. And I think you do too.” I tipped my head and smiled at him.

“Yes.”

“Tell me.”

After a moment he said, “Maybe she was worried because she hasn’t seen me in so long.”

I nodded.

“And perhaps frightened of her welcome.”

“Go on.”

“I mean, from speaking to Thomasin for that short amount of time, there will be no happy homecoming on that front.”

“Not in the near future, no.” There was no sugarcoating the fact that Thomasin was still, even more than Kurt, very angry.

“But with me, being the oldest, having more memories of her, perhaps she thought that’s the better place to start.”

“Makes sense.”

“She’s probably thinking that I can pave the road between her and Sin.”

I shrugged.

“But then why⁠—”

“Imagine if you will⁠—”

“Oh God,” he groaned but couldn’t suppress a grin.

“Wait now,” I said seriously, with a glare. “I’m thinking like you right now.”

“And I’m here for that, so go ahead.”

“So let’s say her husband is coming for a business trip, and she thinks, yeah, I could go along, and when we’re there, I could invite Kurt out to dinner with us. I’ll pick a fancy place where I’m sure he won’t make a scene, and if he’s hateful⁠—”

“I’m never hateful.”

“If he’s been waiting to give it to me with both barrels, then I can make it through that if I have my family around me.”

His brows furrowed.

“I honestly don’t think you were an afterthought,” I told him, giving his mother the benefit of the doubt. “Why invite you at all if that was the case?”

“True.”

“I think all this, her husband, her kids, even the business, is a safety net.”

Sharp exhale from him. “Then why not excuse herself and come talk to me now that she knows I’m harmless?”