Page 60 of Chasing You

Ridge paled. “This does not sound fun.”

“It’s fuckin’ not,” Adele said. “But it’s life. Gage is leaving for college soon. He’s going to be living on his own, and he won’t be five steps away behind his bedroom door anymore. If he’s in trouble, I won’t be able to be there the second he needs me. And,” Adele added, his voice softer, “he’s moving into the stage of his life where he won’t need me. Not the way he used to.”

“Fuck.”

Adele laughed and slapped his thighs as he stood. “Yep. Fuck. That’s why we have the club. So we can get through all the hard parts, and we still won’t be alone when it’s all over.”

“Even if some of us remain tragically single?”

“I don’t think that’s your fate,” Adele said, smiling at his friend, “but should that happen, the answer is still yes. Even if one of us stays tragically single.”

“How are you so good yet so bad at pep talks?” Ridge asked.

Adele grinned as he walked to his locker to grab his wallet and keys. “It’s a gift. What can I say?”

sixteen

ADELE

“Hooooney, I’m hoooome!”The door swung open, and Adele immediately kicked off his shoes with a groan and shuffled into the living room. “If you were in a naked calendar as the month of September, would you?—”

He stopped immediately when he realized his son was on the couch. Gage’s face was splotchy, and his eyes were puffy and red. He gave a heavy sniff, then said, “Can you please not finish that sentence?” His voice was nasal and thick.

“Sick or crying?”

“Both,” Gage said. He swallowed heavily. “Before you panic, I already went to the clinic and got my throat swabbed. It’s not strep. It’s whatever gross thing that’s going around.” Then he stuck out his bottom lip. “I feel poopy.”

Adele immediately walked over and dropped down next to his son, pulling him close. He rested the side of his mouth over Gage’s forehead and sucked in a breath. “Fever.”

“Mm.”

“Are you crying because you don’t feel good?”

Gage shook his head. “Braedon dumped me.”

“Oh, Gage…” He wasn’t about to pretend to be happy, but God, he hated that kid.

“In front of everyone,” Gage went on. “It was humiliating. I started feeling shitty in ceramics, and I knew he had a free period, so I asked to see the nurse, and when she let me out, I went into the commons. He was there with his friends. You know how his friends have never liked me?”

Adele didn’t know. He couldn’t keep up with Gage’s merry-go-round of a social life, but he wasn’t going to tell him that. He nodded instead and stroked a hand through Gage’s hair. “Yeah, those pile of dickheads.”

Gage snorted, which turned into a cough he hid in his dad’s shirt. Adele’s heart twisted even as he wanted to pull back in slight revulsion. There were moments that his giant, nearly adult son was still so much the little toddler he’d rocked to sleep at night whenever he wasn’t feeling good.

He felt an empty, hollow ache, realizing he wasn’t going to have that ever again. That this was his one and only. At least until Gage had kids, and God only knew when that was going to happen.

“They were all sitting on the window blocks, and I walked up to Braedon and asked if I could lay my head in his lap. He gave me this look of, like, total disgust and told me to stop being such a needy little girl.”

Adele stiffened. “He said that?”

Gage snorted, then coughed again. “Yeah. Can you believe that shit? Rudeanda misogynist.”

Adele didn’t bother reprimanding him for the swearing. “What is wrong with him?”

“What is wrong withmethinking I was going to go offto college with him and be the exception to the statistic and marry my high school boyfriend?” Gage fired back, then started coughing harder.

Adele stroked his fingers through Gage’s hair until the coughing fit calmed down. “What did you tell him?”

“That misogyny wasn’t cute and that there was nothing wrong with a boyfriend needing some comfort when he wasn’t feeling well.” Gage pulled back, and his cheeks were red. Adele had a feeling it wasn’t from his fever. “He had the goddamn nerve to look me in the eye and say that I wasn’t his boyfriend. He looked all nervous and leaned over and told Matthew that he and I were still in a talking stage, and he didn’t want to become official. Can you believe that?”

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