Page 124 of That Time I Kissed My Beachfront Boss

I wait for my mother to respond, but she’s quiet. Yeah. To be expected. She didn’t want to be special to my dad, either.

“I think I left you a message about her on my birthday,” I say.

“Yes. I remember. A coworker, right?”

“Her name’s Olivia,” I say. “Olivia McCoy. We work together at The Beachfront Inn, and she’s in the hospital now.”

Whoa. That’s probably the weirdest detail I could’ve added.

Come on, Hudson. Get it together. Be normal.

“She was in a car accident,” I continue. “Hit her head pretty hard. She’s been in and out of consciousness for days. But the doctors say she should make a full recovery. Her cousin’s wife is a nurse. Natalie’s there with Liv now. Natalie is her cousin’s wife, by the way. And Liv is Olivia. That’s what I call her sometimes. Liv.”

Well, you’re not doing any better with being normal, man, so you might as well get to it.

“The thing is, watching her lying there in the ICU these past few days … well … I realized … no, I know … I love her. I love Olivia.” I pause to swallow against the truth clogging my throat, and the beat is long enough for my mom to finally say something.

“I’m happy for you, Hudson.”

“You are?”

“Of course.” She lets out a breath loud enough for me to hear. “I may be the worst wife and mother on the planet, but I’m not a monster.”

Debatable. You walked out on me and Dad. I was eight. He’s still a ghost of himself. But okay.

That’s what I think.

What I say is, “I thought you should know. I’m probably going to marry her, if she’ll have me.” I gulp. “I’m not asking her now or anything. We’re just getting to know each other, and we’re not in a rush. But my instincts are telling me she’s the one. Which surprised me, because I honestly thought my instincts for this kind of thing were broken. I thought I couldn’t be anyone’s husband or father because I didn’t know how.”

“You’re going to be a father? Is she pregnant?”

“No, no, nothing like that,” I rush to say. “Like I told you, this is still pretty new, and I’m not sure she even wants kids. Before she met me, she didn’t even want a boyfriend. But I think that might be changing now. For both of us. I hope it is. And I think I’d like to have children with Liv someday. But that’s something we’ll have to decide together.”

“Good.” The word comes out clipped. “It’s a big decision. I didn’t feel like I had a choice.”

Huh.

Does she mean she got pregnant unintentionally, and believed she had to have me? Or did she get pregnant on purpose because she thought women were supposed to have kids, even though she didn’t want them? I almost ask her to elaborate. But neither answer will be helpful to me. So I keep the question buried. That’s a whole other can of worms, and I need to get back to the hospital.

To be with Liv.

“Anyway, I’m only here on this earth because of you,” I say. “And I’m okay. And I know you did your best.”

Even if your best wasn’t close to good enough.

“Well.” She’s silent for a long moment. “I can’t say I expected to hear that from you. Ever.”

“That makes two of us.” I force out a chuckle. “I expected to tell it to your voicemail.”

A small laugh sounds on her end. “You always did have a good sense of humor, Hudson.”

My chest tightens. At least she knows this much about me. She was there for a while. She tried, I guess, even though being my mother was a role she abandoned.

It’s a lot to unpack. And when Olivia’s better, I’ll have a whole lot to talk with her about. I’m just so grateful to love a woman who listens like she does. Who’s honest like she is.

Who hopefully will remember how it felt when we kissed.

“I’ve gotta go now,” I say. “But I’m glad we got to talk, even though I wasn’t prepared. It’s been a while.”

---