Page 29 of A Lesson for Laurel

“You’re quick on your feet. You can figure this out.”

“I’m not sure how.”

“It seems to me you’ve got two options. One, don’t tell her and let it play out. Maybe things fizzle and you leave soon and move on and I come back home and when she finds out the truth, you’re long gone and I get my shot.”

“Asshole,” he said.

His cousin still hadn’t stopped laughing. “Or you tell her the truth. Say that you didn’t think to say it beforehand. That shejust assumed you were the owner of the business. As you said, it’s two dates. You’re not the type to talk much on the first one.”

“No,” he said. “I didn’t. Nothing more than the work we were doing. She even mentioned I didn’t talk much.”

“There you go. On the second date you were getting to know each other and once she said what she had, you were afraid she was going to make a scene in public.”

“That would only cause her to make a scene if I said that,” he said. Though what Abe was saying so far did have merit.

“You’re better at phrasing things than me. It’s that smooth-talking lawyer in you.”

“Now you’re being the dick,” he said.

“And anyone listening to you talk right now wouldn’t even think you were an attorney, so remember that,” Abe said seriously.

“You’ve got a point.”

“You’ve got a fancy career and put on the professional business attire and persona when you’re working. When you’re not, you’re what she is looking for. If she is going to judge you completely on your career and how you might dress for it when you go into the office, then she doesn’t sound much different than Rachelle.”

“Not even close,” he said.

“Doesn’t sound it to me. Rachelle was all for your career and not what you were like outside of it. So their likes are reversed, but it’s still someone that isn’t accepting of the whole you.”

“You’re right,” he said.

“Wow. Mom!” Abe yelled. “Easton just told me I was right.”

“Jerk,” he said. “Now she is going to want to know what is going on.”

“Yep,” Abe said. “She’s rolling this way. She wants to talk to you.”

He ground his teeth. “Hi, Aunt Carrie.”

“What’s going on, Easton?”

He could lie but didn’t want to do that to the woman who was more of a mother to him than anyone else ever had been.

He filled her in but kept some details and swear words out of it. “I’m not sure what to do.”

“Believe it or not, Abe isn’t one hundred percent right.”

“I know he’s not,” he argued. “Can you tell him that?”

“I will,” Aunt Carrie said. “But he is right in that she might be someone who can’t accept the whole you. You’re more than your career and Rachelle couldn’t accept that. Laurel is seeing the real you and that is what she needs to be reminded of. What you do in an office in your house behind a computer isn’t what she has in her mind as an attorney. Though I find it very judgmental and hate that, it seems she has reason to be that way.”

“She admitted it was wrong of her to say what she had when I called her out on it, but said she was raw.”

“Then there is hope if she acknowledges that she knows it is wrong. The longer you wait to tell her, the harder and worse it will be. You’ll figure out what to say, but my advice is, that date number three has to be the truth. If you don’t do it then, then she has every right to be pissed off.”

“I thought the same thing,” he said.

“How long do you think you’re going to wait before you talk to her?” Aunt Carrie asked.

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