Page 42 of SCRUMptious

I stopped moving. “Bullshit.”

He stopped as well. When he turned to me, the look on his face was more earnest than I’d ever seen. “I assure you, it’snot.”

When I opened my mouth and nothing came out, he continued. “We stayed legally married for you, but we didn’t love each other.” His eyes darted away again and he shook his head. Almost like he couldn’t believe the words he was about to speak. “Fuck, Stacia might be the only woman I’ve ever loved. And your ma? Well, she’s been in love with the same person for almost 20 years.”

“I don’t believe you. If that’s true, why isn’t she with them now? You’ve been divorced for years.”

He took a few beats to answer, his gaze boring into me. “Who says she’snot?”

The world stopped spinning and all sound fell away as I processed the implication of my father’s statement. Was my mom in love with a woman? My “Aunt Patty” was my mom’s lover?

No, that didn’t make any sense at all. I would have known.

Wouldn’tI?

“What about all those nights she cried herself to sleep when you didn’t comehome?”

He shook his head and looked at me with resignation. “Most of the time she was crying because I’d left so Patty could come over … and then she didn’t. Their relationship was always volatile that way. From what I hear, not much has changed.”

I thought back to my mom’s reason for not being able to come to California for her only child’s fucking wedding. Something about a big party she and Patty were hosting for an up-and-coming painter and how she couldn’t just drop everything to fly out to L.A. because I couldn’t stick to a date. In the background, I’d heard Patty coaching her on what to say as we’d spoken, but I hadn’t thought too much about it. But their conversation, viewed in this context, made a whole lot more sense.

Patty and my mom were lovers. A couple. And Patty was the one who wore the pants in their relationship. My mom had waited decades to be with the woman she loved, and now that they were together, there wasn’t anything that was going to keep them apart. Includingme.

I took a deep breath and then blew it out. “My mom is a lesbian and I’ve had no fucking clue this whole time. If she likes women, how am I even here?” And then his earlier revelation took root and robbed me of breath. I turned on him, eyes flashing. “Am I even yours?”

Without breaking my gaze, he nodded. “You’re mine.” Then he sighed and looked to a sky being painted purple and orange from another spectacular Southern California sunset. “Your mom likes men and women … in that way. She happens to be in love with a woman.” His head dropped forward and he leveled me with a solemn look. “I introduced them. We um … ” He shifted uncomfortably. “We shared Patty, at first.”

Holy fuck. I absolutely did not need to knowthat.

I took a step back, and then another, until I turned and ran back to the house, forgetting all about my injury … and everything else. Including the wedding reception that was currently in full swing.

I bounded up the steps, two at a time, and lunged for the backdoor.

I had to get out of there.

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