“I’m staying at West’s,” I say, combating fun. Mother’s look turns severe.

“Sure,” she says gravely. “We have to speak about him, particularly.”

“Mother, look—”

“No, Raleigh, you look,” she says sharply. Twenty-four years of coaching has me shutting up instantly. “I owe you an apology.”

I blink. And blink once more.

“Excuse me?”

“I mentioned, I owe you an apology.” She sighs closely. “I overreacted that day. I’m sorry. I by no means suspected… You must know your father and I’d by no means shut you out. By no means.”

“Then why?”

Mother bites her lip. “Possibly I’m older than I believed. You shocked me that day, Raleigh, and that’s the reality. I by no means suspected you felt that approach for different males.”

That makes me chuckle somewhat. “For what it’s price, neither did I. Not till I met him.”

Mother nods. “I get that. I’m sorry, too, that your younger man needed to take care of that. I reacted poorly, and household issues should be personal. It wasn’t his fault.”

“West is household, Mother,” I say quietly. She appears me within the eye.

“Is he?” she asks.

I swallow onerous. “I really like him.”

Mother takes a shaky breath.

“And the lady you talked about,” she says.

“Callahan,” I say. “Callie for brief.”

“The place does she fall in all this?”

I chew the within of my cheek onerous, irritated by the moisture constructing in my eyes yet again.

“I really like her, too, Mother.”

Mother nods slowly. “I suspected as a lot. Oh, my boy.” She pulls me in and hugs me once more tightly. I don’t trouble attempting to disguise my sniffling this time. After we pull again, Mother palms me the tissue pack, making me chuckle.

“Come on,” she says. “I feel this requires a drink.”

“I can’t imagine she requested you for those who had been being secure,” snorts Callie a few hours later. We’re sipping espresso in her again workplace at Hale Home. I’ve by no means been right here earlier than, and I wasn’t able to go stare on the partitions of the condo till West will get residence tonight, so I picked up espresso and muffins and Googled the deal with. Callie appeared shocked and delighted to see me, and it occurred to me that possibly that’s all pleased relationships are: doing good issues for one another, particularly after they least anticipate it, till the top of time.

It’s a pleasant thought, anyway.

“Yeah, that was not my best second,” I say, rolling my eyes. “Worse even than the time Dad discovered my porn stash.”

Callie’s eyes go large, her mouth dropping into an ideal O. Probably not the neatest factor for me to say.

“Oh, no,” she says, once I look away and begin digging by means of the bag for extra pastries. “Oh, no, you don’t get to drop that bomb and simply depart it there. What occurred?”

“Nothing,” I say, exasperated at myself. Probably this is the reason I haven’t had an precise relationship till now. “Simply, I got here residence from diving follow in the future—”

“Have I ever instructed you ways sizzling I discover the concept of you in a tiny bathing swimsuit?”

I pelt her with a sugared blueberry. “You wish to hear the story or not?”

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