Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 88656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
“No, son. I’m going to bed now to try to get at least a few winks. Y’all had better go to bed soon, too. You’ll sleep in your room where you always sleep, and your mother has made up the guest room for your girlfriend. Kage can sleep on the sofa.”
“She’s my ex-girlfriend.” I set my half-full second drink on the desk. “We’ll go see if Mom needs any help in the kitchen. Goodnight, Dad.”
When Kage and I got back to the kitchen, Jennifer and Layla were tidying up the counters and stacking the empty pizza boxes near the garbage can. “We’ll take out the trash,” I said. “Just leave it.”
Mom sat on a barstool watching. “You know, I could get all of this. But I do appreciate you kids making the effort to make things easier on me. I’m fine, though. I’ve made peace with my decision, and now it’s just a matter of finishing it.”
“You’re not nervous at all?” Jennifer asked.
“A little nervous about the anesthesia,” she admitted with a laugh. “I’m afraid I might tell the doctor all of my secrets. They say that stuff gives you a loose tongue, and you’ll say all kinds of things.”
We all knew she was teasing and that she was probably terrified, but the woman could put on a hell of a front. As calm as she seemed, you’d have thought she was just going in for a checkup.
“Like you have any secrets,” Jennifer scoffed. Then she got that look I hated. The bully big sister look, and I knew something bad was coming. She turned toward me with a smile and said, “Jamie’s the one who’s got secrets.”
“Knock it off, Jen.” I tried to seem as unruffled as I could, but inside I was shaking. Being outed to my entire family and my ex-girlfriend on the eve of my mother’s surgery just seemed too horrific to contemplate.
“Jamie has secrets?” Layla didn’t disguise her jealous curiosity well. “I thought I knew everything there was to know about him.”
And then Kage was pissed. I could sense his short fuse burning beside me without even looking his way. In fact, Layla was damn lucky she was a girl, because it was probably the only thing saving her from getting laid out on my mom’s kitchen floor.
“Oh, I’m sure you do. I’ll bet you two have some secrets of your own that would make Mom blush.”
“Jennifer, you’d better watch yourself,” Mom said. “I may be going into surgery tomorrow, but don’t think I won’t take a strap to you.”
I had to take a time out from the drama to address my mother’s new saying. “Mom, where did you pick up this strapping people business? It’s creeping me out. You never even spanked us.”
“I swatted you on the legs a few times,” she said.
Jennifer rolled her eyes. “Let’s get back to the secrets. For instance, I’d like to know why you’re wearing your Claddagh the right way all of a sudden. You’ve always worn it upside-down. You do know what that means, right?”
“You’re still wearing that thing?” My mom asked. “I guess I just got so used to seeing it on you, I stopped noticing it. But you never believed in that superstition, did you?”
Layla stared hard and my necklace, and I brought my hand up self-consciously, toying with it to cover it up. She knew I took it seriously. I’d told her about it. Planned to turn it around one day for her, but obviously that never happened.
I laughed, an empty sound that I hoped would be enough to fool Layla and my mom. “Do I have it on the wrong way? Guess I just picked it up wrong this morning.” I reached around to the back of my neck and untied it, flipped it over, then tied it back. I couldn’t bring myself to look Kage in the eye.
“Come on, Kage. Let’s go out to the gazebo. I’ll show you where I used to sit with my friends and listen to music on summer nights. It feels great out there.”
We walked out the back door, and it occurred to me too late that my invitation was suspect in itself. There was a perfectly good female sitting in my kitchen— one that I’d been intimate with and who was obviously flirting with me. Yet I’d invited a guy to go on a romantic stroll out to the gazebo. Brilliant.
But there had been no other choice, really. Not only was it what I’d wanted to do, but the alternative might have ended in murder.
“Why did my mom have to invite her here?” I mumbled under my breath to Kage as we crossed the lawn to the gazebo.
“Because she wants you to be with a girl,” Kage said. “They all do. This is an intervention, if you haven’t noticed.”