Page 113 of Enchanting the CEO

"We agreed that we’re not seeing other people. That’s serious, don’t you think?"

"That's a committed relationship in my book," Maddox said.

"You know what? Those drinks sound good," I said. The plan was to drop off my half brothers at Maddox's. "Can we go to your place?"

Maddox hesitated. "Yes, but Mom is visiting again."

I nodded carefully. "That's great because I actually wanted to apologize to her."

There was another pause, and then Nick asked. "What for, man?"

"Last time I was not myself."

"She actually praised you for being so polite."

Fucking hell, what had she expected?

"I didn't like how I handled that," I said.

“Don’t worry about it,” Maddox replied.

My brothers pitched in with relationship advice and prodded me with questions all the way to Maddox's home. But I didn't have any answers.

That was the problem. They were focused on what was said or not between Diane and me, but they were missing the obvious. What if she just preferred to move out? What if she simply didn't want to live with me, and that was all there was to it? I didn't like being at a loss. All my life I knew exactly what I wanted to do next, and I went ahead and did it.

Maybe I should call the rest of the family. Since my brothers were all in relationships, they would for sure have better input than these three bozos.

Once we arrived at Maddox's place, we all got out at the same time. "How come you're still living here?" I asked. "You've been talking about moving forever."

"Because this dude keeps failing me." He jerked his thumb at Leo.

"You’re my most annoying client. It's impossible to please him."

Maddox rolled his eyes. "I just know what I want."

"Why don't you build a house?" I suggested.

"I'm not getting into that," Maddox said. "No way in hell."

"See?" Leo said. "That's basically his reply to anything I come up with. It's infuriating."

I laughed, trying to put myself in Leo's shoes. Yeah, that would be annoying.

Once inside the house, Helen called out. "You boys came back early."

She stopped in the living room, and her smile dimmed when she saw me. "Gabe, hi. Nice to see you again."

"Mom, Gabe's got some personal issues he's dealing with, so we brought him here to get drunk," Maddox explained.

"I won't stand in your way, then," she said.

"I’m not intending to get drunk," I corrected. "Just a shot or something to clear my mind."

Helen frowned. "You plan to drive when you leave here?"

Leo laughed. "Mom, cut that out."

The experience was bizarre. My mom would have asked me the exact same thing.

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