Certified Disaster (Beautiful Mess Book 2)

by Preston, Jennifer

  He went back and forth for another second, and then reluctantly his thumb hit the accept button.

  “Hello,” he greeted flatly.

  “Cole, sweetheart, how are you?” His mom’s voice sounded forced and overly cheery.

  “Hi, Mom,” he sighed. “What do you want?”

  “Is that anyway to greet your mother? Who says I have to want something to call?” she replied lightly. He could hear the annoyance in her tone, even though she tried to cover it.

  “Come on, Mom. You don’t ever call just to chat.” He tried to temper his impatience, but he didn’t have much patience to begin with when it came to his mom. She’d pretty much ignored him his whole life. Not to mention what she’d done to his dad. “So what is it? Why are you calling?”

  “I guess that’s fair.” All of the lightness left her voice, and she let out a sigh. “But I really am calling just to talk. You’re dad told me a few weeks ago about school, that you were going to be a starter on the basketball team this year, and I just wanted to call and tell you congratulations. I know you don’t believe me, but I’m really proud of you.”

  Right. If she was so proud, why did it take her a few weeks to call him? But still, this was more of an effort than she’d made for a long time.

  “Um, thanks, I guess,” he managed to reply.

  “Yeah, your dad also told me that you’re dating a girl. He said you two were pretty serious.” Her voice held a note of concern.

  “I’m not getting married anytime soon,” he sighed, “so you don’t have to warn me against it, again. I still remember all your cautionary tales.”

  “I just don’t want to see you make the same mistakes I did. I want you to take things slowly, that’s all. Anyway, how is everything else? How’s school going?”

  “School’s good, Mom. Why don’t you just come right out and tell me why you called. This small talk is nice and all, but I’m actually kind of busy.”

  “Alright,” she sounded disappointed, and Cole hated that he felt bad about that. “I’m calling because Carl and I want to come down and visit you sometime.”

  “What?” Shock and something suspiciously like hope warred for dominance inside him.

  “Your stepdad and I want to come see you. We just want to spend a little time with you. You’re practically a man now, and I want to get to know you again.”

  “Really?” He was skeptical. His mom had never taken an interest in his life before, ever. Why now?

  “Really, honey. I feel terrible that I haven’t been there for you before. I’m trying to make some changes in my life, you know, good changes. And I want to start with you, Cole, if you’ll let me.”

  Cole was dumbstruck. He honestly didn’t know what to say. On the one hand, he knew it was stupid to believe what his mom said, because she would just let him down again. But, there was a small part of him that really wanted to believe her, that jumped at the thought that his mom finally wanted to be a part of his life.

  He debated a moment, then he heard himself say, “Fine, you can come visit. But don’t expect anything from me.”

  “Thanks, baby.” His mom actually sounded excited. “We were thinking about coming in two weeks, if that’s okay? We’ll find a hotel that’s close, and we’ll get to spend some time with you, and meet this girl you’re so serious about.”

  “Yeah, okay.” He wasn’t getting his hopes up. He knew there was a very slim chance she’d actually make it out. “Call me when you get here, and we’ll meet somewhere.”

  “Okay, sounds good. Can’t wait to see you, honey.”

  “Yeah.” Cole hung up, feeling a strange mix of emotions. Anger, apprehension, outrage, and hope rushed through him in varying degrees of intensity, making it impossible for him to pinpoint exactly how he felt about his mom showing up out of the blue like this.

  A new thought struck him, that wiped all of his confusion away. Bri was going to meet his mom. He wondered how she would react to this news. Would she be nervous, scared, angry, confrontational? He knew she wasn’t a big fan of his mom’s; Bri didn’t approve of her for abandoning her family all those years ago. If nothing else, the two of them together, face to face, should be interesting, to say the least.

  A small smile lifted the corner of his mouth, because he was about to find out.

  Chapter 14

  Bri waited apprehensively in the lobby of the restaurant. She didn’t know why she was so nervous, Cole’s mom didn’t deserve that kind of respect. But as she fidgeted with her dress again, she couldn’t stop the butterflies swarming her belly.

  What if Lynette didn’t like her?

  For some reason, Bri had this overwhelming desire to gain Lynette’s approval, despite the fact that she was already pretty sure she didn’t even like Lynette. She had this deep rooted fear that if Lynette didn’t like her, she and Cole were through. After all, how long did a girl last when she didn’t get mom’s approval? Even though Cole and his mom weren’t close at all, Bri was still afraid that Lynette would be able to influence her and Cole’s relationship. And that thought scared her more than anything.

  “Stop,” Cole gently stilled her wringing hands. He smiled down at her fondly. “I don’t remember you getting this worked up about meeting my dad. What’s going on?”

  “I don’t know,” she admitted honestly. “I just have this huge fear that your mom will hate me, and even though I shouldn’t care what she thinks, I really want her to like me.”

  Cole laughed. “You’re right, you shouldn’t care what she thinks. I don’t. She hasn’t been around enough to deserve a say in what I do or who I’m with. So please, stop worrying. Besides, I know for a fact that she’ll love you.”

  “How do you know that?” she asked anxiously.

  “Because I love you,” he replied simply. “If she cares about me at all, she’ll see how happy you make me. She’ll see how much we love each other, and that will be enough for her. And if it’s not, then screw her.”

  “Really?” she asked.

  “Really.”

  “Thank you.” She stood on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his jaw. “Sorry, I’m being ridiculous.”

  “You’re never ridiculous,” he smiled, and captured her lips.

  A pointed throat clearing caused Bri to freeze. Pulling away from Cole, she looked over, and sure enough, Cole’s mom and stepdad were watching them with raised eyebrows. She felt her face flush with embarrassment.

  Great. What a perfect first impression she’d just made, making out in the middle of a restaurant. Lynette probably thought she was a total slut.

  “Mom, Carl,” Cole greeted his parents coolly.

  Cole’s mom was tall, with brown hair and brown eyes. She had probably been pretty once, but the planes of her face had been hardened and weathered, either from smoking, too much sun, or life beating her down. Maybe all three. Now, she just looked bitter. Her tight fitting blue dress didn’t do her figure any favors either.

  Cole’s stepdad didn’t look much better. What was left of his light brown hair was balding, and he had a substantial beer belly that his khakis couldn’t quite contain. He was wearing an obscene amount of gold jewelry with his poorly fitted dress shirt, and coupled with his perpetual scowl, he looked like a wannabe mobster.

  “Hi, honey,” Lynette gave Cole a pointed look before she stepped in and hugged him lightly. She obviously wasn’t amused at catching her son with his tongue down some girl’s throat. Bri groaned inwardly. This night was already off to a bad start.

  Cole returned his mom’s hug awkwardly, seeming relieved when she finally stepped away.

  “Mom, this is Ambria.” He wrapped his arm around Bri’s waist and pulled her into his side. “Bri this is my mom, Lynette, and my stepdad, Carl Gunderson.”

  “Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Gunderson.” Bri reached out and shook both of their hands. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  Lynette regarded her with a cool smile, but didn’t bother with a response. Neither did Carl, who’s attent
ion had already been drawn to the football game on the TV over the bar. Not sure what to do or what to say, they all stood awkwardly for a moment, and a palpable tension descending on the group.

  Luckily, the hostess came to show them to their table, breaking the awkward silence. After everyone was settled and drinks were ordered, Lynette turned to Bri. Bri couldn’t tell if Lynette’s smile was patronizing or predatory, but it was definitely calculating.

  “So, Bri is it? Tell me a little about yourself. You’ll have to forgive me, but I know nothing about you. Cole hasn’t talked about you much.”

  “Oh,” Bri couldn’t keep the surprise out of her voice. Glancing over at Cole, he was glaring at his mom across the table, but Lynette was oblivious. Ignoring Lynette’s thinly veiled jab, Bri figured she may as well make nice and play along. At least for now.

  “Well, I grew up in Phoenix, and lived in Dallas for a few years before moving to Santa Monica a couple years ago. And now I’m here, going to school. I want to be an editor, so I’m majoring in English and I’m also minoring in Dance. I’m a dancer, and I’m on the dance team at Duke.”

  “How nice.” Lynette didn’t look impressed. “So, where did you two meet?” She looked back and forth between Bri and Cole.

  “High school. Bri moved to town our senior year,” Cole jumped in, saving Bri from having to answer. “We were friends for a few months, started dating, and the rest is history.” Cole smiled down at her, but Bri saw Lynette’s face fall.

  “You two met in high school? How… nice.” But from the expression on Lynette’s face, Bri could tell she thought it was anything but nice. “And then you went off to college together. How wonderful,” she finished, sarcasm dripping from her tone.

  “Mom,” Cole warned, giving her a pointed look. “Don’t.”

  “Don’t what?” Lynette replied, her eyebrows creasing in feigned confusion.

  “I know what you’re thinking, and you can stop it right now. This isn’t anything like you and dad, so don’t start.”

  Bri gave Cole a questioning glance. She had no idea what was going on, or what they were talking about. Cole reached over and took her hand, squeezing it reassuringly, but his attention remained focused on his mom.

  “Don’t be silly. I wasn’t going to start anything,” Lynette huffed. “I think it’s wonderful, young love and all that. Really, it’s very sweet. It just doesn’t have a great track record of working out, and I think you need to take that into consideration.”

  “Mom!” Cole said sharply.

  Bri felt the color drain out of her face as she realized what Cole’s mom was saying. Lynette didn’t expect her and Cole to last, and she obviously disapproved of their relationship. All hope of getting Lynette’s approval vanished, and Bri’s heart sank.

  “Okay, okay, I won’t say anything more about it.” Lynette held her hands up in surrender. “So Cole, what have you been up to lately?” She turned the conversation to Cole and kept it there, all but shutting Bri out.

  Not having much opportunity to participate in the conversation, Bri sat through the meal and watched the interactions at the table around her. Carl, she noticed didn’t say much, except to insert his opinion about something, which he expected everyone to agree with. He was a gruff man, and Bri couldn’t tell if he was generally annoyed at everything around him, or just apathetic. Lynette seemed like she was trying too hard. She was overly excited, and a little too anxious to gain Cole’s trust. Watching her, Bri got the distinct impression that Lynette had some sort of ulterior motive.

  Lynette mostly ignored Bri all night, except to throw her a disapproving glance or a calculating glare. It was obvious Bri hadn’t dazzled her, and even though Cole had told her not to worry about it, Bri was a little hurt that Lynette didn’t like her.

  Cole was the most interesting to watch. He’d started out cool and distant, but as Lynette peppered him with questions about every aspect of his life, he slowly warmed up. Every time Lynette would praise or compliment him, which she did a lot, Cole would beam. Bri could tell that all this attention from his mom made him feel good, made him feel special. She knew he’d probably been craving this kind of attention all his life. She just worried that it wasn’t as altruistic as Lynette insisted. But, not wanting to dampen Cole’s happiness, she kept her reservations to herself. Instead, she smiled and laughed along as he and his mom shared stories and memories.

  Bri had to admit, she loved getting a glimpse of Cole as a little boy. She could still see traces of the eager, mischievous kid they talked about. Cole’s desire to please people was definitely still there, and Bri saw it peek through a few times as he tried to impress his parents. Her heart broke a little for him then. It made her sad that he felt he needed to earn his mother’s love, something that should’ve been given to him freely and unconditionally. He deserved so much more than that. But Lynette looked happy, so Cole was happy. Carl just looked bored.

  After dinner, Lynette and Carl headed back to their hotel, and Bri let Cole drive them home.

  “So, did you survive?” he grinned at her.

  “Yeah, did you?”

  He nodded. “It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. What do you think of my mom? Still worried she won’t like you?” He winked at her.

  “She seems nice,” Bri replied noncommittally. The truth was that Bri didn’t know what to think about Cole’s mom. Carl she definitely didn’t like, but the man made no effort to be liked. Lynette made a lot of effort to be liked, at least by Cole, but that sent up red flags in Bri’s head. Something about her made it hard to like the woman. “And she definitely doesn’t like me.”

  “What? Why would you think that?” Cole looked over at her in confusion.

  “Come on,” she gave him an incredulous look. “You didn’t notice it? She kept glaring at me all through dinner. And she obviously doesn’t approve of our relationship. What’s up with that, anyway?”

  “Oh, that,” he sighed. “Well, she and my dad met and got married really young. Like, right out of high school young. And then they had me not too long after. You’re already aware of how well she took that. She hadn’t been happy for a long time, even before she left us. My mom didn’t want me to make the same mistakes she did, so as I got older she pounded it into my head not to settle down too soon, not to get too serious about a girl while I was still too young to know any better. She’d tell me to wait until I had enough life experience to know for sure what I wanted, to wait until after college to start thinking about any kind of serious commitment.”

  “Seriously?” Bri couldn’t believe it. “She really did that to you?” Suddenly, Cole’s commitment issues made total sense.

  “She just wanted to make sure I had a chance to grow up and experience things before falling into marriage and a family.”

  Bri just shook her head. “Still, what kind of parent dumps their issues onto their kid like that? What’s so wrong with wanting marriage and a family, anyway?”

  “There is nothing wrong with that,” he reassured her. “And even though she practically sermonized it, doesn’t mean that she’s right, or that I agree with her.” He glanced at her meaningfully. “And it doesn’t mean that she has any say in what I choose to do with my life. Like I’ve said before, she was barely even a parent. She’s been absent practically my whole life. What does she know?”

  “Exactly,” Bri agreed, relaxing a little. “Everyone is different, and our situations are definitely different.”

  “Right,” Cole nodded, grabbing her hand. “So, no more worrying about what my mom thinks.”

  “Right. We live our lives our way. And if she doesn’t like it, screw her.” Bri smiled at him.

  “Good to know we’re on the same page.” He smiled back at her, and Bri felt lighter than she had all evening.

  The next day Cole gave his parents a tour of the campus. They ended at his dorm, and Bri was surprised when they walked in to find Jordan still at home. He was rarely home, especially on the weekends.
Cole introduced everyone, and Lynette turned to Jordan eagerly.

  “It’s so nice to meet you, Jordan. I remember watching you on TV last year. You are really good. Are you thinking about going pro?”

  “Of course!” Jordan grinned. “I’m just not sure when. It’ll really depend on how this season goes.”

  “What do you mean?” Lynette asked. “You haven’t decided if you want to join the draft next summer?”

  “No, not yet. I want to enter the draft in the best position possible, to get the most money possible. If the team has a bad year, it might be better to wait another year, and hope for better results. If I want to go top ten in the draft, which I most definitely do, we’ll need to have a high national ranking, win the ACC championship, and hopefully the NCAA title. I’m willing to give it a year or two to achieve that. Like I said, I want to be in the best position possible going into the draft, and I’m trying to pad my resume as much as possible.”

  “Interesting,” Lynette smiled at Jordan appraisingly. “I hadn’t considered that before. What about you, Cole? Are you planning on going pro?”

  Lynette’s question seemed innocent enough, but Bri snapped to attention.

  “Yeah, I mean, I’d like to,” Cole shrugged. “But I’m going to finish school first, so it’ll be a few years before I do.”

  Bri didn’t think Cole noticed, but she saw Lynette’s smile falter ever so slightly, and a hint of disappointment clouded her eyes.

  Jordan laughed and nudged Lynette. “My man Cole, here, has it all wrong, Mrs. G. You don’t play basketball at Duke for a degree. You come here to make it big in the NBA. Poor boy is all kinds of confused.”

  “We’ll have to set him straight, you and I,” Lynette laughed back. She tried to sound like she was joking, but there was a serious, determined gleam in her eyes. “So, are you dating anyone, Jordan?” she asked.

  Blushing, Jordan smiled. “Not seriously. I like to keep my options open.”

  “I couldn’t agree more.” Lynette beamed like she’d found a long lost friend. “Young people like you shouldn’t settle down and get serious. There’s too much you haven’t experienced yet, so much life you haven’t had a chance to live.”