Chapter 10
Sloane
“The moms are here.”
I was obviously hallucinating. A beer hangover hallucination. Those were things. Right? They had to be because there was absolutely no fucking way I’d actually just heard those words leave Rhys’s mouth.
You’re being a little too loud for having consumed entirely too many cans of beer last night, dream Rhys.
My alarm hadn’t even gone off yet; there was no way the moms were here.
“Did you hear me?”
Yes, hallucination Rhys. I heard you. I’m choosing to stay cozy in my bed instead of falling for you and your tricks.
I pulled the plush white comforter up to my chin, taking a slow breath to calm the queasiness in my stomach.
Before I could wake up enough to track Rhys’s movements or realize that the entire conversation was real, a pillow was picked up from the other side of the bed and smacked against the side of my head with just enough force to reset my hazy brain. “Get up! The moms are here!”
“Ow, Rhys! Jesus.” I yanked the pillow off my head and lobbed it over at him before the reality of the situation set in.
The moms are here. “Fuck!” I sat up, swaying slightly as my head spun.
“Right now?” I looked over at Rhys, who stood in the doorway to my room, scowling at the pillow I’d thrown, which landed about five feet away from him.
“Yes. Right now,” he replied, looking down at his phone. “I just got back from my run. They must’ve caught the elevator right after me. They’re knocking.”
“Shit!” I shrieked, attempting to dig myself out of the mess of sheets and blankets surrounding me. Once I thought I was clear, I stumbled out of bed, cursing loudly when the flat sheet was still tangled around my ankle. I went down. Hard.
Rhys’s hand slapped over his mouth, muffling a laugh as I picked myself up from the ground.
Thank god I wore clothes to bed last night.
“Fuck off. What are we gonna do?”
He frowned before walking over and grabbing my shoulders, twisting and nudging me towards the bathroom. “You’re gonna brush your teeth before you greet our mothers. I can smell you from the living room.”
I scoffed in protest but padded my way to the ensuite. I knew he was right. My morning breath was terrible.
“I’m gonna go open the door for them, and we’re gonna sell the fuck out of this relationship.”
A part of me wanted to believe in the unwavering confidence in Rhys’s voice, but we hadn’t talked about any of this yet.
We hadn’t gotten a ton of “practice” as a couple, and if our trip to the store was any indicator of how the rest of our PR relationship would go, we were quite literally doomed from the start.
“Rhys—”
I started to turn around, but he gently shoved me toward the bathroom. “For the love of Michelle and Barack, please brush your teeth. No one should be subjected to that this early in the morning.”
I lifted my middle finger towards him as he smiled and pulled the door shut behind him.
Fuck.
FUCK.
We’d been actively avoiding the many, many phone calls from Lisa and my mother, neither of us itching to discuss this matter with our families yet.
He wanted to keep it from the parents. I agreed, but without thinking of what that really meant.
My older sister, Zoey, knew. Rhys’s older brother Ryan knew. But our moms?
How the hell am I going to keep this from my mom?
I groaned, brushed my teeth quickly (said a silent apology to my dentist), then splashed my face with some cold water. My head was pounding, and my stomach was rolling. But I honestly couldn’t tell if it was from the hangover or the nerves.
How am I going to do this?
I threw on my robe, securing the tie, then stepped out of the bathroom and back into my bedroom.
“We’re sorry to… interrupt.” My mother’s voice floated through the apartment, quickly followed by Lisa's snickering.
I slapped a hand against my forehead. I hadn’t even paid enough attention to Rhys when I was quite literally stumbling out of bed. He’d just gotten back from his run.
Rhys, for sure, didn’t have a shirt on when he woke me up, and he was covered in a thin layer of sweat, donning a pair of low-hanging sweatpants.
God dammit.
Not only were we in this fake relationship, but apparently, we were having sex now, too.
Before seven in the morning.
Which brought me back to a very important point.
Why are our moms here before seven in the morning?
I took several deep breaths, straightening my back and pulling the door open, then headed down the hallway and towards the kitchen.
I was a badass lawyer. I’ve made grown men cry. This was nothing.
When I rounded the corner into the kitchen, Lisa and my mom both looked up at me, their lips pressed together in small, excited smiles.
God, this was going to crush them when we “broke up.”
They’d been rooting for us for years.
This was why lines couldn’t blur. My mom and Lisa were too close. Their relationship was too meaningful to risk.
I could do six months with Rhys and then pass it off as if we both figured out we were better off as friends. No hard feelings. No one would take sides. Their decades-long friendship could resume as planned before Rhys had a stripper—
“Sloaney Baloney! Good morning!” My mother smiled widely, her hands clutching a coffee mug a little too tightly.
That nickname was arguably worse than Pipsqueak.
I narrowed my eyes at her and Lisa. “Angela. Lisa. To what do we owe the pleasure? What occasion is so pertinent as to interrupt my sleep?”
My mom rolled her eyes. “You know exactly why we’re here, Sloane.”
Lisa nodded. “You could’ve easily avoided this early morning visit by simply answering the cellphones we paid for up until three years ago.”
“We’ve been busy.”
Lisa blushed, and my mom rolled her lips together to stifle a grin at the unintentional innuendo. “That’s not—I don’t mean—Gah! What do you guys want?”
Rhys chuckled, walking around the counter with a cup of coffee and placing it into my hands. His free hand lightly grazed my hip, his lips pressing softly to my temple before he walked away and resumed whatever he was cooking on the stovetop.
Thankfully, the moms were too busy beaming at each other to notice the way my body stiffened at his touch. I was really going to have to get better at that.
I took a sip of coffee to clear the lump of nerves forming in my throat. “Thanks, babe,” I replied stiffly, inwardly cringing at the horrible delivery.
I saw Rhys’s shoulders shake as he laughed to himself. At least he was the only one who heard the awkwardness.
“Anytime, sweetheart.”
I snorted into my coffee, shaking my head slightly while taking a seat at the counter.
God, Cami was right.
We were two of the worst actors I’d ever seen.
“How long has this been going on? How long have you been living together? How long were you planning on keeping it from us?”
“Christ, Lisa. Can you give me a second to sip my coffee before jumping straight into an interrogation?”
Rhys chuckled again at my response, plating something that smelled amazing—surprising given the nausea that accompanied my hangover.
“No, I will not. I have gone four days without so much as a text message from either of you. I want answers!”
I rolled my eyes, resisting the urge to call her dramatic.
We were adults. Even if we were actually involved, it wasn’t any of their business. This was between Rhys and me. I didn’t owe anyone an explanation.
“Angela. Help me out here!”
I eyed my mother, raising a brow while waiting for her to speak.
She cleared her throat, standing a little taller.
She was trying to intimidate me, which made me want to roll my eyes again.
This tiny woman raised a lawyer. Did she really think standing at her full height of five-foot-one was going to scare me?
“As your mothers, we do feel like we are owed an explanation. Especially if you are… intimate.”
Rhys choked on whatever he was chewing, and my mouth dropped open. “MOM!”
Unfortunately, she pushed through. “Obviously, your relationship has progressed… We would like to know more information.”
I shook my head again. “Okay, well. I love you dearly. I love both of you dearly.” Rhys cleared his throat, raising his eyebrows expectantly.
“I love all three of you dearly,” I amended through clenched teeth, “but our love life and—” I swallowed past the discomfort and pushed on.
“Whether or not we are intimate is none of your business.”
“You’ve been avoiding our calls,” Lisa reminded me, as if I wasn’t already painfully aware of that.
“Because, Ma. We weren’t telling anyone. It’s new. We’ve enjoyed keeping it to ourselves because we knew it was going to be like this.” He lifted a hand, gesturing vaguely towards the moms. “It’s been nice having something for just the two of us. Even if it was temporary.”
God, even I’m swooning.
Rhys was so much better at this shit than I was. “Exactly,” I added in weakly, taking another sip of coffee.
He smiled softly, passing over a perfectly plated omelet.
“Thank you,” I mumbled, grateful to have something to shove into my mouth. If I was chewing, I couldn’t talk.
“So… how long has this been going on?”
We shrugged at the same time, Rhys rolling his eyes at how quickly I shoved another forkful into my mouth.
“Officially, around a week.”
I nodded in agreement, chewing slowly.
“And how long were you planning on keeping it from us?” my mother chimed in, resting her hip against the kitchen counter and crossing her arms.
I rolled my eyes at her again. “Mother, stop acting like a child. We’re almost thirty years old. We don’t have to tell anyone anything. Not until we’re ready. Clearly, we weren’t ready.”
“We’re mad at you two.” Both my mom and Lisa spoke up at the same time, making Rhys laugh.
I shrugged, shoveling another bite into my mouth.
“I’m mad at you two,” I responded with a mouthful of food, earning a scowl from the two of them.
“I’m extremely hungover, and you woke me up before my alarm.
My anger is warranted. Yours is a crock of shit.
We were planning on telling everyone this weekend.
” I was lying… But they didn’t know that.
Neither Rhys nor I had a set plan for telling our families, but we would do it eventually. Probably.
“Well, sweetheart, we’ve been—” My mom exchanged a meaningful glance with Lisa before looking back at me.
“We’ve been waiting for this for a long time.
You and Rhys… We’ve always known. There’s no one out there better suited for him.
Or for you. We’re happy for you guys! We just—we weren’t sure why you felt the need to keep it from us. That’s all.”
Guilt gnawed at my chest, my hand coming up instinctively to rub at my sternum like the heartburn I was feeling was from this omelet sitting in front of me and not the fact that I was lying to two of the people I loved most in this world.
Rhys walked around the island with a small smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes, resting a hand on my shoulder. “You’ve got a big day. Go get dressed, I’ll clean up.”
I nodded, taking one final bite of breakfast before standing up.
“Look. I love you both. Thank you for being so understanding and accepting. We’ve just been working through this at our own pace.
It’s very new. But you’re right. Rhys is it.
We just wanted to have some time before everyone knew, and it wasn’t ours alone anymore.
Rhys is constantly in the spotlight. We just wanted to enjoy our privacy.
” I hugged my mom, then Lisa. “I need to shower, but I love you guys.”
Rhys offered a wink when I walked back, but something was off. His eyes were sad, lacking their normal vibrance and mischief. But now wasn’t the time to ask.
He was right. I did need to get ready. Not that I had a particularly busy day; my schedule was pretty clear. But I had to work, and he wouldn’t tell me anything while the moms were there.
Especially when the next words out of Lisa’s mouth were, “Let’s discuss the drugs next.