Page 30 of Level Up

Meeting the mom. What could possibly go wrong with that?

Chapter Twelve

Ryan

Holy shit, holy shit. I was meeting Jay’s mom.

This was a code-parental-red. We’d only just hooked up yesterday, and I was now already meeting one of the most important people in his life. And I didn’t even have my hair done.

He looked like her though. They had the same kind eyes with the cutest noses in the world. Same smiles too. It was nice to see. I felt like I was discovering another piece of Jay. She stood in the middle of a yard that looked pulled right out of one of those watercolor-illustrated storybooks.

“Well, it’s great to meet you, Ryan.”

“And same to you, Ms. Cruz. You have a beautiful backyard.”

“Oh, thank you. And call me Mariela.” She swept the camera around her garden-filled yard. There were all kinds of roses and orchids and flowers I didn’t even know the name of. There was also a stunning painting on an easel.

“Whoa, that’s even more beautiful,” I said, leaning in to appreciate it.

“My mom’s a big artist. Has her paintings in galleries all over Europe.”

“No way!”

The camera went back to Mariela’s smiling face. “I sure do. Maybe you two can take a ‘roommate’ trip one day to Paris. I have my newest piece over there.”

“Oh, I’d love that,” I said.

“I wouldn’t,” Jay deadpanned, smiling. “Talk to you later, Mom. Love you.”

“Love you too, hijo.”

Jay locked his phone and set it back down on his desk. He leaned back on his chair. “Welp, that’s my mom.” He had his hands behind his head, eyes up at the popcorn ceiling.

“I see where you get all your talent from,” I said.

“Yeah, my dad was really talented, too.”

I dropped my bag with my change of clothes and sat down on my bed. “Tell me some more about him.”

He did. He told me all about his dad, all about what a hero he was. How he loved to make silly dad jokes, and he cooked a mean lasagna.

And then it got to the day he died. A cloud crossed Jay’s expression, dark and stormy.

I forgot all about rowing practice. Fuck that. Nothing else mattered more than being here with Jay in this moment.

“He was a marine biologist,” Jay began. “It’s where I got my ecologist spirit from. He loved what he did. He’d go on different assignments throughout the year, working on different research papers and trying to get new grants for other research projects. He’d take me with him sometimes. I got to see beluga whales being geotagged, got to watch a blood sample get taken from a mako shark, got to see a rehabilitated sea turtle get rereleased back into the ocean.

“I was supposed to be with my dad the day he drowned.”

“Jay…” I stood and went to his side, squatting down so that I was at his level. I grabbed his hand in mine as he continued.

“We were supposed to be out to check up on a pod of bottlenose dolphins. The weather was clear. Not a single raindrop was on the radar. I had to stay home that day since I woke up with a really bad sore throat.

“I was sitting in the living room when I heard the first clap of thunder.” Jay sucked in a deep, shaky breath.

I sat in silence, my heart already clenched in an iron-cold grip. The fist got tighter and tighter as Jay continued.

“It was a freak storm that was pretty much hurricane force. And it was just my dad that day, out on a tiny little boat. The waves… I still have nightmares about how bad they must have been. Or my dad yelling. Trying to hold on while the ocean tried to rip him apart. He never came home that day.” He started to cry, the sound of it tearing me apart at a cellular level. I put my arms around him and took him into a tight hug, letting him let it all out onto my shoulder.

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