27. Twenty-Seven
TWENTY-SEVEN
My favorite place to wake up was next to Wylie. She was warm, cuddly, and completely out of it in the morning. She was both hilarious and adorable in those minutes between opening her eyes and finally grunting her way out of bed to take a shower.
Unfortunately for me, I didn’t get a chance to enjoy my favorite moments the next morning because Aggie had somehow let herself into the apartment … and Wylie’s bedroom.
“Oh, cute,” she said as she stood in the doorway and looked between us.
I blinked like an owl as I tried to wrap my head around what was happening. It wasn’t easy. “Aggie?” It was a stupid question because I recognized her with the light filtering through the windows.
“Good morning, Huxley.” She beamed at me. “I didn’t think you would be here this morning.”
I glanced at the clock on the nightstand and rubbed my hand over my cheek. I was in nothing but my boxer shorts, and my girlfriend’s mother was looking at me as if I was an alien on display at the zoo. “Morning.” I nudged Wylie to wake her up, but all she did was let loose a snore.
That was cute too, although maybe not this morning.
“Um …” What was I supposed to say here? I wasn’t in college, and this wasn’t something I had to be ashamed of. Aggie obviously didn’t expect her daughter to be chaste. Still, this was weird. “How are you?” I asked, at a loss for what else I should say.
She smirked. “I’m good. How are you?”
“Great. I’m great.” I looked at Wylie, who reminded me of an angel when she slept. Well, except for the drool. Even that didn’t bother me, though. “Really great.”
“That’s good.” Aggie moved to the side when another figure appeared next to her in the doorway. It was Mick. “He’s great,” she said to her husband.
Mick didn’t look as tickled by the situation as Aggie. “This is weird,” he announced. “Did you knock?” The question was addressed to Aggie, so I didn’t answer.
“I didn’t think I needed to,” Aggie replied. “Last time I heard, Huxley was spending the night at his house.”
“I couldn’t sleep,” I replied, rolling my neck. “I just wanted to see Wylie.”
“That’s cute.” Aggie moved farther into the room and looked around. “We want to get breakfast. Are you up for breakfast?”
“Sure.”
“Okay. Wake Wylie up, get showered — don’t do it together or anything because that’s weird with your girlfriend’s mother in the same apartment — and we’ll leave in 45 minutes.”
I gaped like a fish.
She waved and then turned to leave. Mick lingered in the doorway a beat longer, shaking his head.
“This is such an odd situation,” he lamented.
“What is?” I challenged. “My former stepfather staring into the bedroom I’m sharing with his current stepdaughter?”
“Pretty much.”
“It’s definitely odd,” I confirmed.
He smiled. “I’ll take Aggie for a walk around the square downstairs so it’s not really, really weird.”
“That would be great.”
“I thought you would prefer that.”
FORTY-FIVE MINUTES LATER, WYLIE and I met Mick and Aggie on the sidewalk. We went to the closest diner, which was just around the corner. Aggie’s smile could have put the sun to shame it was so wide.
“So, let’s talk about Eleanor’s arrival,” she said once we’d ordered and had our coffee and juice.
Wylie was still waking up and had only said a few words since I’d rolled her out of bed against her will.
We’d only gotten a few hours’ sleep, so it wasn’t surprising that she was dragging.
“I feel that she and I should have a conversation.”
I covered my mouth with my juice glass as I considered what that might look like. “I’m not sure what I think about that,” I admitted after a few seconds. “Don’t you think that’s just going to get her going?”
“Oh, absolutely.” Aggie bobbed her head. “It’s time we had it out, though. I didn’t think she was capable of holding a grudge for almost 15 years. I thought maybe one year. She’s dedicated, though. I have to give her that.”
I debated what the best response would be and ultimately decided that being truthful was the only way to go. “I have to talk to her first, Aggie. I’m her son. This is my responsibility.”
“It might be your responsibility to talk to her about Wylie, but the rest of it is my responsibility,” she countered.
“And mine,” Mick interjected. “You guys can’t plan to talk to Eleanor without including me.”
He was right, of course. I didn’t like it, but he was absolutely correct. If we were going to clear the air, it would have to include all of us. Before I could respond, however, Wylie took charge.
“Huxley is first, and he gets to set the tone,” she said as she drank her tomato juice. She was the only person in the world I knew who actually liked tomato juice. Not V-8 juice — she hated that — but straight up tomato juice. It was odd and endearing.
“I agree,” Aggie said. “This is Huxley’s show. It involves all of us, though.”
“You know her differently than I do,” I interjected. “How do you think she’ll react when I tell her about my relationship with Wylie?”
Aggie sipped her coffee, and the way her eyebrows moved toward one another, I knew she was thinking hard. “She’s going to call you disloyal,” she started.
My heart sank. I’d known it myself, but it wasn’t something I wanted to hear.
“She’ll get over that quickly, though,” Aggie added. “She loved Wylie. Eleanor thought she was hilarious, and we used to talk about what a good match the two of you would make if you ever got over your ‘Wylie is a geek’ stage.”
I frowned. I didn’t like being reminded of that. “I never thought Wylie was a geek,” I started.
Three sets of eyes landed on me, and all of them were dubious.” Fine,” I grunted. “I thought she was a geek. The thing is, I’ve had a lot of time to think since Wylie and I started spending time together. I think I liked her even back then.”
“Of course you did,” Aggie said on a laugh. “It was obvious. You couldn’t see it, though, and the plan was to wait until Wylie finally grew into her looks. We figured you would melt down the first time she showed up with a boyfriend. Unfortunately, we never got that far.”
It was annoying to think they’d been chatting about this stuff without me knowing. I hated it. “You could have told me.”
“Oh, really?” Aggie made a face. “And how would you have reacted if we told you what we believed?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “I’m sure I would have been open to hearing it, eventually.”
They all snorted in unison.
“Fine.” I held up my hands in supplication. “I would have been a jerk.”
“It’s honestly better that you and Wylie found each other on your own,” Aggie said. “Eleanor is not going to have a problem with Wylie. Wylie’s association with Mick and me is another problem entirely.”
“Everybody needs to make up,” Wylie said. “It’s the only way this is going to work.” She looked angsty, so I ran my hand over her back.
“We’re going to figure it out,” I promised her. “My mother is not going to ruin this.”
“She’s going to try,” Mick said. “We just can’t let her get a foothold in her self-righteousness.”
“She’s coming tomorrow, right?” Aggie prodded. “That’s what you said when we were walking here.”
“Yes.” I bobbed my head. “Her flight gets in at around noon. She’s going to take a car to my house. I plan on telling her about Wylie then and telling her what I learned from you guys regarding Mick.”
“I wish I could be there for that part,” Mick said. “It’s time we hashed things out.”
“I don’t see how that would work unless you’re willing to hide in a closet until I’ve had my conversation with her,” I said ruefully. “The second she sees you, she’s going to go on the attack.”
“Huxley is right,” Aggie said. “He has to be first. We’ll figure out a way to set up a meeting between all of us after Eleanor has had her first freakout.”
“What if she leaves, though?” Wylie asked. “What if she won’t even consider talking to you guys?”
“We’re not going to give her a choice. One way or another, Eleanor is going to talk to us. We’re not letting her slip away. Not this time.”
WE SPENT THE DAY TOGETHER. ALL four of us. When Lucy was finished with her shift, which happened to be a morning shift for a change, she brought Hayley over for lunch.
I assumed that Wylie and I would go to the reader event just the two of us, like normal, but Aggie insisted on being part of it.
“It will be fun,” she said as we walked to The Grove Savannah, which was another rooftop restaurant. “I love interacting with readers.”
Wylie gave her mother some serious side eye. “You just want everybody to get excited because the great Agnes Quincy is participating.”
“I like being adored, Wylie. There’s no harm in it.”
Thankfully, the hostess had no problem moving us to a bigger table for dinner. Once introductions were made, Bree got right to the heart of matters.
“So, you’re not angry about your daughter fornicating with your sworn enemy’s only son?” she asked as she sipped her cocktail.
Aggie gave her an amused look. “Not in the least. I’ve always loved Huxley.”
“Don’t say he was like a son again,” Wylie warned, causing me to grin.
I took the opportunity to scan the rooftop. They had a section closed off for the event, which would start in an hour, and it was a nice night. It was the calm before the storm essentially, with my mother being the storm.
My attention was drawn to the elevator doors as they opened — the restaurant was busy but not overflowing with people — and when a woman exited the elevator, I was convinced I was seeing things.
I blinked. Nope, it was the same woman. Then I blinked again. Nope, still the same woman.
Eleanor Ambrose had arrived, and she was a full day early.
“Oh, my …” My mouth fell open, and I lost the ability to speak or reason.
Wylie followed my gaze, and genuine horror washed over her lovely features as reality set in. “No way.”
Aggie turned to look, and she was grim as she locked gazes with my mother. “She did always like making an entrance.”