28. Twenty-Eight #2
“Yes, well … I’m still mad at him. He should have told me that he was back in touch with Aggie and Mick.”
“It just happened yesterday.”
“He still should have told me. I should have been here for his conversation with Mick.”
“I’m pretty sure he didn’t want to have that conversation with Mick. He was sort of forced into it.”
“That sounds like Mick.” Eleanor scowled. “I hate that he did the one thing I couldn’t and told Huxley the truth. I wanted to do that. I just … didn’t know how.”
“Well, it’s done now.” I said it in a chipper voice and earned a glare from Eleanor. “You have to get over it,” I added in a lower voice. “If you don’t, then Huxley will always feel guilt when we’re together, and that’s not what I want for him. I don’t think it’s what you want for him either.”
“I want you and Huxley to be happy,” she said. “I’ve always wanted that. Gawd, the kids you’ll have. They’ll be gorgeous.” She clutched her hands in front of her heart. “I’m going to be the best grandmother in the world.”
“I’m pretty sure my mom is going to be in competition with you for that title,” I said. “Plus, we’re not ready for kids. We just said, ‘I love you.’ There’s other stuff to figure out.”
“Oh, you’ll be fine.” She waved her hand again, as if swatting at a pesky bee. “Do not worry about that. It’s obvious you two absolutely adore one another.”
“Yeah, it’s kind of fun.” My grin was back, and I didn’t care how hard she glared at me. “We want to be one big happy family. That means you’re going to have to get over your feelings regarding Mom and Mick.”
“And what if I can’t?”
“You can,” a male voice said from behind us, and I almost jolted out of my skin. When I whipped my head around, I found Mick and Mom standing together.
Eleanor gave him a dirty sidelong look. “I’m not sure I’m ready to talk to you yet.”
“You are,” Mom countered as she moved around the bench. “This conversation is long overdue.”
I sat in the middle of them and clutched my hands together on my lap, suddenly frightened. “Um … maybe this conversation should wait until tomorrow or something,” I suggested. “You know, just until cooler heads prevail or something.”
Mom gave me a look I remembered well from my childhood. “Your part in this particular conversation is done, Wylie. Your friends are up having dinner. You should go join them. Huxley is getting worried.”
“Why didn’t he come down here?” I asked, honestly curious.
“Because we told him not to,” Mick replied. “He was on his way, but we stopped him. This is between us.”
“The adults,” Mom added.
“Technically, I’m an adult,” I reminded her. She just pinned me with another look that had me scampering to my feet. “Or I could go upstairs and eat.”
“That sounds like a lovely idea,” Mom agreed in her “just get out of here, Wylie” voice.
“What about you guys, though?” I was afraid to leave them alone.
“Oh, don’t worry about us,” Mom said. “Once we’ve finished with our conversation, then we’re going to have dinner — the three of us — and we’ll join your reader event when we’re finished.”
She sounded so sure of herself, I didn’t dare argue with her. When I looked at Eleanor, at the grim set of her jaw, I knew Mom wasn’t going to get her way without a fight.
“It’s fine,” Eleanor said. “Go up and have dinner with your friends. Tell Huxley my luggage was delivered to his house, and I will be spending the night there. We have some things to talk about.”
I pressed my lips together and nodded. “Okay, then.” I made a beeline for the restaurant door. “Good luck,” I called over my back.
Nobody responded. They were too focused on one another.
AN HOUR LATER, WE’D FINISHED dinner. Huxley had acted calm and cool when I first returned, but I could tell he was nervous. Thirty minutes later, when my mother, Mick, and his mother were seated at a table not far from ours, he finally allowed himself to relax.
It was like watching a television show I never thought would get rebooted.
The atmosphere at their table started out tense, but 10 minutes in, they were laughing and having a grand time.
I had no idea what they were talking about — old times maybe — but they were laughing so hard that Mom and Eleanor kept wiping away tears.
I slipped my hand into Huxley’s when it was time to head over to the reader event. We were both fixated on the table, dumbstruck that things had worked out the way they had. I was still waiting for it to blow up.
“I can’t believe it was this easy,” I admitted.
He used his free hand to tuck a strand of hair behind one of my ears. “It doesn’t feel easy to me. This part, this is easy.” He held up our joined hands. “The other stuff, that was hard.”
“Do you think it will be easy going forward?” I was honestly curious.
He glanced at me, then over at our mothers, then back at me. “I don’t think it matters if it’s going to be easy or hard. It just matters that we’ll be together. It will be like a grand adventure.”
“We’ll boldly go where nobody has gone before,” I added enthusiastically.
He gave me a look. “That was the corniest thing I’ve ever heard.”
I shrugged. “I know. I’m a total geek that way.”
He broke out in a wide grin. “I guess it’s good that I love my geek.”
Everything inside of me went warm as a feeling of comfort settled over me. This was what I’d always wanted. “Yeah, that’s my favorite adventure of all.”