A tear slid down my cheek listening to my brother’s words. He’d never been that open with me, not that I expected him to. I bit my lip.
“If she’d let me, I’d give her the fucking world.”
“I know, that’s why I’m okay with it.”
I couldn’t believe he was taking this so well. He said he’d known for a while. How long? I didn’t dare ask because I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer.
“How is this going to change us?” I hated admitting that I was scared to lose him, but I was sure he could tell from my voice.
Josh shrugged. “I don’t see what it has to. Just … I don’t want to hear about your relationship with my sister. Like, at all. Unless it’s about an engagement ring. Got it?”
“Got it.”
I couldn't promise an engagement ring was in the future, but I loved the idea of it.
“Not anytime soon,” Josh added, quickly. I snorted, which seemed to ease some of the tension between us. Josh gave me a smile. “If she’s gone off to bed, do you wanna go put Street Fight on, or something?”
“Hell, yes,” I smirked, glad that my friend and I were going to be able to make this work, even if I was in love with his sister. His smile widened as he stood, and we headed for the living room. I paused in front of Fiona’s bedroom. “I um … I’ll be right there.”
“Yea, yea.” Josh waved his hand over his shoulder, not bothering to look at me as I slipped into her bedroom.
She had taken her dress off, but that was it.
“So I talked to your brother.”
“I know.”
Oh. She’d been listening? I guess that made sense. We probably hadn’t been very quiet. I mean, I hadn’t been trying to have a secret conversation with him or anything. And if I were her, I’d have tried to listen in on it.
“I’m glad things went well. I was worried.” She gave a soft laugh.
“I’m going to sit out there with him. Do you want to come with me?”
“No, I think I’ll let you two hang out. I’m just going to lay down and try to relax.”
He closed the distance between us and pulled me into his arms. His lips touched mine softly. “If you need anything, just call, okay?”
“I will,” I promised him as I padded over to the bed and sat down. I watched as he left the room before closing my eyes. My heart raced thinking about tomorrow. My stomach turned, and I thought I might be sick. It will be fine, I promised myself.
I replayed the events of the last time I’d seen my parents.
I stared at two sets of shoes that weren’t mine or Josh’s. I looked up.
“Fee,” my mother jumped off the chair she was sitting on and rushed over to me. She pulled me into a hug.
I stood there frozen. I couldn’t feel Adam’s warm touch. I felt cold. Confused. I pulled away.
“Mom … what are you doing here?”
“What do you mean?” My father asked. “We’re home to see you two. We …” He trailed off. I glanced over at Josh, who looked, above all, like he was trying not to punch something or someone. I caught his eye and tried to give him a reassuring smile. I crossed over to the couch where he was sitting and sat down carefully beside him. He looked over at me and gave a soft smile.
I felt the couch sink down beside me. When I looked over, I felt a wave of relief. It was Adam. I knew I should have wanted it to be my parents, but I wasn’t even sure how to react to the fact that they were here. Why were they here?
It’s been years since they went out of their way to see us.
“So you guys are just passing by, right?”
“What? No. We came home to see you,” my dad said. He glanced over at Adam. I bit my lip. “You must be … Fee’s boyfriend.”
They hadn’t stayed long after that, but Josh and Adam were sure they wanted something—after a quick search online, Adam was sure it had to do with money, or his family. Apparently, we were newsworthy.
I never thought I would be newsworthy, but apparently, I was.
I’d looked it up myself, there were about a dozen posts about us. All using the same three pictures he had taken the day we went to the fair. Now that makes sense. He probably hadn’t wanted pictures like he had insisted. He had probably just wanted to spend time with me, like when he said Josh invited us out to dinner, and then bailed.
A smile touched my lips. He was willing to go through so much effort to spend time with me. It was sweet. Though I wasn’t sure I’d admit that to him; otherwise, he might think it would be okay to lie. My brow furrowed. What am I going to do tomorrow? I asked myself. Sadly, I didn’t have an answer for myself.
I sighed, flopping down on the bed. I had no fucking clue what I was supposed to do tomorrow. Part of me just wanted to cancel it, the other part really wanted to make things work with my parents. I mean, if I could prove to Josh and Adam that they honestly did just want to repair the relationships they had ruined, then we could all … be a family or something. It would be amazing. It would be my childhood dream come true.
85. Chapter Thirty-two
I decided it would be best to go alone. Adam offered to come; Josh had no interest in coming. So I borrowed Adam’s car and headed to the coffee shop my mother suggested.
I pulled in just after the time we agreed to meet. There she was.
Standing outside waiting for me.
I took a deep breath and stepped out of the car. “Hi!” I called, circling around onto the sidewalk.
“Fee! I didn’t see you there, did you …” She glanced past me to the car that I had driven. “That is such a gorgeous car!”
“Thank you. It’s not mine, but I’ll pass the compliment along.” I smiled widely as I padded over to her.
I had decided to wear jeans and a tank top. But I did wear my nice pair of flats, which also happened to be the comfiest shoes I owned, and Adam had insisted I wear the bracelet his mother had let me borrow since I had forgotten to give it back last night.
My mother pulled me into a hug. “I’m so glad you decided to come.”
Please don’t make me regret it, I thought.
I hugged my mother back lightly before pulling away. “I hope I didn’t keep you too long.”
“Oh no, not at all. Let’s go in and grab something.” She smiled broadly.
We made our way into the café, and the second I looked at the prices, I almost turned around and walked out. I mean, who pays $12 for a coffee? That’s just stupid. My mother made her way up to the counter and placed her order. I wasn’t paying attention until I heard her mutter, “Oh, my God.”
“What is it?”
“I … I left my wallet in my other purse,” my mother stammered, staring into her oversized purse. She looked up at me, her eyes wide. “I …”
“I can get it.” I shrugged. It wasn’t a big deal, right? I mean, she’d do the same, right?
The bottom of my stomach knotted. I couldn’t tell if I had a bad feeling about this for any reason, or if I was just letting my mind go crazy. Never mind that, I thought as I stepped forward and ordered a small green tea.
How the total came out to almost $40 I had no clue, but I didn’t say anything as I pulled my credit card out.
“I’m so sorry. I’ll make it up to you,” my mother said as I paid, and we headed over to take a seat and wait.
I shrugged, unwilling to admit what was going through my mind. I mean. It was an accident, right? I bit my lip. There really wasn’t any way to find out for sure, but I wanted to have faith in my parents. I wanted to trust them. I wanted to know that my parents actually wanted to see Josh and me again for who we were, not for who I was dating.
“So, how were your travels?” I asked, trying to make conversation.
“Oh … they were … interesting. I mean, it was lots of exciting stuff, and there were so…” she trailed off, her cheeks flushing, and cleared her throat. “I met some really interesting people, that’s all. Anyways, how have you and Josh been?”
Alone.
“We’ve been alright.” I gave a bit of a nod. What did she mean by she met interesting people? I didn’t dare question it, knowing that I probably didn’t want to know the answer after all. “We’ve made things work for us, and that’s all that matters. There were a few years we struggled, and I’m working two jobs to put myself through school next year.” Okay, so one wasn’t a job anymore. But still. I wanted her to feel bad for leaving us.
“But …” My mother trailed off as a waitress brought us over what we had ordered. She had apparently ordered a meal, which was probably why it had been so expensive.
I waited until the girl was gone before I locked eyes on my mother. “But what?”
“Nothing,” she said quickly. I watched as she took a sip of her tea. “I just thought your boyfriend … had mentioned something about helping out.”
I raised an eyebrow. My parents had hardly spoken to Adam. “No. Adam’s not helping me out,” I said flatly. I wanted to make this very clear to her. “I know some people have thought he is, and I know some people seem to think I’m taking advantage of him. It’s true that Adam’s family has done well for themselves, and Adam has as well. He works really hard for his money, and I wouldn’t dream of taking that from him.” I thought about what he had said last night to Josh, but I didn’t voice it. That would be something Adam and I sorted out later on. “I was raised better than to take advantage of others.”
My mother stared at me, her eyes wide behind her teacup. It was a couple seconds before she lowered the teacup onto the table and smiled widely. “I guess we did raise you up well, didn’t we?” Her smile widened further.
That shocked me more than it should have. I stared at her, flabbergasted by what she had just said. She actually thought she had raised me? Her and my father were always traveling. By the time I was 12, my brother was more of a parent to me than either of my real parents.
My fists clenched under the table, but I worked hard to keep my face neutral. I didn’t want her to see through me so quickly. I wanted to get a good read for her.
I cleared my throat. “Anyways, why did you decide to come back to this area?”
“You, of course.”
My mother said it like I should have already figured it out. But why would I think in a million years that I would be her reason for coming back when I had never been her reason to stay?
“Me?”
“Yes. Of course. I mean, we got your email, and we wanted to come home.”
“What email?” I sent her an email at least once a week. I mean, it wasn’t uncommon for me to send them emails. But they never replied.
“The one you sent last weekend.”
Oh. The one about me and Adam.
That didn’t help make her case. I reached for my tea and took a sip, mulling everything over. I wanted to be careful about this. I wanted to take everything in, think about it carefully, and assess the whole situation. I wanted to think about everything going on and everything my mother said before making any choices about where this relationship was going.
My mother cleared her throat. “So you and … Adam was it?”
“Yes.”
“How long have you been together?”
“Not very long.” We’d been over this before, but I didn’t point that out.
“You must care about him a lot. I saw it in the way you looked at him last weekend.” Her eyes sparkled. She took a quick sip. “And he likes you. He must if he let you drive his car.”
I shrugged. He honestly hadn’t cared if I drove it. He even told me to crash it if I wanted to, though I was pretty sure he was joking about that. I hope! I couldn’t help grinning as I thought about him this morning. He had been adorable.
I woke up to him and Josh making breakfast and joking with each other. It had been so good to see.
“You are happy with him, right?”
“Yes,” I said quickly. I was happy with and was happy being Adam’s girlfriend. I was happy with the two men in my life. I was happy that I was finally feeling like my life was falling into place.
My heart stopped for a fraction of a second.
I hadn’t thought about it very much. I hadn’t thought about any of it. I hadn’t realized how happy I was already.
“I’m glad we can be a family again.” My mom gave a broad smile, and my heart skipped a beat. “And we can all go traveling now that you have …” She trailed off, reaching for her teacup.
Have what? I raised an eyebrow but didn’t say a word. So many red flags, I thought. I hated seeing all of them. I hated seeing them.
I took a sip of my tea as we fell silent.
86. Chapter Thirty-three
The coffee didn’t last long, thankfully. My mother asked a couple other questions, but it didn’t seem like she was really interested. I tried not to think like that, but I couldn't help it. I hated the fact that I felt like my own mother was just trying to use me.
“That looks like such an expensive car!” she said as we headed to our own cars. “It’s so beautiful.”
I shrugged. It probably was expensive. I didn’t care. I slid into the driver's seat and gunned the engine, managing to slip away from my mother without a hug. I pulled away from the parking spot and made my way back to my apartment as I mulled everything over.
It was still a lot to consider. I had a whole bunch of stuff to think about and wasn’t even sure I remembered the entire conversation.
I parked in the parking lot and stepped out of the car, heading for the apartment as I clicked the lock button on the keys.
“How did it go?” Josh’s head shot up the second I entered the house. He looked like he had been pacing.
“It … it was okay.” I had no clue what I was supposed to tell him. I mean, it wasn’t bad. It had been alright but … I sighed. “I don’t know, honestly.”
Adam sat on the counter beside the stove. “We have pizza in the oven. Come talk.”
I padded over towards him and let him pull me into his arms. At first, it felt kinda awkward knowing that my brother was watching us, but that feeling went away as I sighed.
“I just don’t know what to think,” I admitted.
“About her?” Josh asked.
“About them. I mean, she said they came here to see us, to be a family again, and then she turns around and talks about Adam and how much money he must have. I don’t want to think my parents are those kind of people, but I’m not sure what to think. I mean, who’s to say that they aren’t? I hardly know them. I don’t even remember the last time they were home for more than a month at a time, and since we moved out …”
“They haven’t been back.”
I nodded
Adam held me tightly. I sighed again.
“So, what did she do?”
“Nothing. She just … said a lot of odd stuff.” Small things like me paying for myself to go traveling; like Adam paying for me to do stuff. Suggesting that I had more than enough money. I wasn’t going to tell Josh everything; otherwise, he would never forgive our parents. She’s not like that.
Mom said we ...
My phone buzzed, and I glanced down to see it was a text from her.
With a deep breath, I looked at it, and my heart did a backflip.
“What?” Josh asked.
“It’s Mom … asking to borrow a little money.”
I felt my heart sink into the pit of my stomach. I couldn’t believe it. I had been trying to deny it, but reading this text … how was I supposed to keep telling myself that she only wanted to have a relationship.
“She what?” Josh sounded like he was about to blow his lid. He stared at me.
“Yea,” I muttered, typing out a reply.
“You’re not actually going to give her money, are you?” he snapped.
I looked at my brother, my brows furrowing. “Of course I’m not. I’m not that stupid, thank you.”
His cheeks flushed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that, you know—”
“Yea, I know th
at.” I cut him off. Adam held me tightly, pulling me closer to him.
I closed my eyes, thankful to have him holding me, and felt tears sting the corner of my eyes. This sucked. I wanted so badly for everything to work out with them, and I wanted so badly for them to show me they wanted a relationship with us. I wanted to prove Josh wrong when he said they would never want us in their life.
I replied, telling my mother I couldn’t afford to lend out money, and that I had to save what I had in my bank.
My heart raced, waiting for her reply. It didn’t come.
After an hour and a half, I was beginning to think that it wasn’t going to come, and I was okay with that. If my mother had only been interested in money, then I never wanted to hear from her again. I’ll never reply to one of her texts or emails, I thought, anger boiling inside me. I couldn’t believe she would do this to me. To us.
Josh hadn’t said a word about them since I told him about that text, but it wasn’t hard to tell he was upset by it. He looked like he wanted to hit something, but I was sure he was sad; he was just reacting with anger like he normally did when it came to our parents. I couldn’t blame him.
If I had just trusted Adam and Josh in the first place, none of this would have happened. I would be fine. We would be fine. I wouldn’t be upset right now, and we would all be living our normal lives. But I would have always wondered.
I knew that was true, and I knew that I would have beat myself up. I sighed, leaning against Adam. We’d long since had our dinner, and the boys had been playing video games. They wanted me to try, but I failed so bad that they quickly let me give up on it. Thankfully.
Interview with a Billionaire: Billionaire Romance Box Set Page 57
