Page 74 of HEA: Happily Ever After

But maybe… maybe… I could show him, if he gave me the chance.

I ran my hands up and down his bare back, trying to hold back a massive sigh of relief at my temporary stay of execution.

“I won’t get the wrong idea,” I said, practicing the same careful truth-telling I’d used at Abby’s party the day before. “Trust me, I know exactly where I stand with you, Oscar.”

He didn’t speak for a moment. “It’s not because I don’t care about you. I hope you know that.”

I let out a soft huff. “I know.”

“I care about you a lot. A lot.”

I bit my lip to keep from smiling. “I know that too.”

Oscar was quiet again for several minutes. He ran a lazy fingertip in patterns across my shoulder. Finally, he said, “So, you finally got to meet the Flower Family.”

“Mmhm.”

Silence fell again. I waited for him to reveal his thoughts.

“Crazy, right? Chaotic and loud. Eccentric, really.”

I moved a hand up into his hair and scratched his scalp lightly. “I liked them very much, and it’s clear they adore you.”

“They’re genuinely grateful for everything I’ve done to help them, getting Birch’s career off the ground and introducing him to my mother,” Oscar corrected, his fingers still gentle on my skin. “They adore my mom.”

I snorted and put a hand on his chest, pushing him back so I could see his eyes. “How could you possibly be that smart and so fucking wrong?”

His eyes widened comically. “Wrong? No. Did you not see the way they were with her? They call her Mom, and?—”

“Not about that.” I shifted until my back was against the headboard. “Oscar, are you grateful to Arco Steel?”

He looked confused for a moment. “What do you know about Arco Steel?”

“I may have… read an article or two about you at one point in our friendship.” I cleared my throat and waved this away. What was a casual bit of internet stalking among friends? “Irrelevant. The point is, I know they were one of your early investors. They helped your company get to the next level, right?”

“Well… yes, but?—”

“Do you invite the shareholders to Sunday brunch, Oscar? Do you tell them to stop by for Thanksgiving? Do you spend as much time as possible at the CEO’s Vermont estate because it makes you feel close to him and because you hope he might be around so you can see him for an hour or two? Does Frank call the company president Uncle? And if he did, would the president buy enough cookies to send his entire Girl Scout troop to Puerto Vallarta?” I shook my head. “Those people love you, Oscar. And you love them. You can call them stepsiblings until the cows come home, but it won’t change who they are to you… or who you are to them.”

Just like calling us “fake” boyfriends wouldn’t make the way I felt about him any less real.

Oscar’s nose twitched, and he looked away. After a moment, he excused himself and left the room.

I exhaled sharply. I’d pushed too hard. Great job, Linzee. You can’t even keep a fake boyfriend around for more than ten minutes.

Oscar came back holding Frank in his hands. “Sorry. I, uh… I realized I hadn’t told Frank we were home.” He climbed back onto the bed and sat even closer to me than before. He set Frank in his lap so I could reach out and stroke him. “It’s definitely not that I needed an emotional support hedgehog for the conversation we’re about to have.”

“No, of course,” I agreed solemnly, while on the inside, I was rejoicing at the very idea that we were going to have a conversation. “I’d never think that.”

His lips twitched, and he darted a quick glance at my eyes before focusing on Frank again. “Right. So, you know my dad left,” he began. “But what you don’t know, because it’s too embarrassing to admit, is that he left because he was embarrassed by me. I was different. Sarcastic and opinionated, but not in the way he liked. I cared about fashion and music, money and opportunity. He wanted a son who cared about working with his hands and enjoying a good football game on the weekend. Someone who fit in… when all I did was stand out.” He held up a hand. “And before you tell me I couldn’t possibly have been the reason he left, I assure you I was. You can ask my mom. She couldn’t hide it, even though she wanted to. He made her choose between him and me. She picked me.”

I leaned closer until our arms were pressed together from elbow to shoulder. “Smart woman. She got you out of the deal, and then she got Birch too.”

Oscar nodded slowly. “Birch is so much better for her. He worships the ground she walks on. That was never the case with my dad. But here’s the thing. I don’t want to fuck it up for her again. And if I try to horn in on what she has with Birch and the Flower Family…” He shrugged.

I didn’t roll my eyes, but part of me wanted to. Instead, I remembered this was a little boy’s fear talking. A little boy who’d been judged and found lacking by the man who was supposed to put him above all others.

And even if things didn’t work out for Oscar and me by New Year’s, I needed him to know there were other people in the world who loved him too.

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