Page 61 of What's Left of Us

She looks up from what she’s doing. “Yes. Now her whole family is coming here. I asked if they had plans, they didn’t, so I invited them. Behave yourself while they’re here and try to filter your humor. Some people don’t get it the way we do.”

Since when has she cared about my dark sense of humor being a bother to people? “Is there another reason you invited them?”

“Like what?”

I don’t answer.

She sighs, putting her hands on her hips. “I’m being neighborly. It’s important to have a good rapport with the people you live by. Plus, isn’t it nice to be able to hang out with people your own age?”

People my own age.I knew it. “You’re trying to set something up between me and their daughter.”

“I am not!”

“Mom.”

“Lincoln.” She meets my eyes, but I can see right through the facade. “Okay, fine.MaybeI think it would be nice if you met Opal. She’s very pretty. And she’s in school to be a teacher, so she’ll have a stable job when she graduates.”

Unbelievable. “I don’t need you to set me up with anyone, Ma. Least of all, the neighbor’s daughter. I can find my own dates.”

“Well, you’ve been doing a terrible job so far,” she comments nonchalantly, getting back to cooking.

“Most parents would encourage their kids not to rush into relationships right after getting out of serious ones,” I point out.

She harrumphs. “Well, most parents wouldn’t have to watch their child keep going back to the old relationship even after the divorce is final.” Looking up, she meets my eyes, knowing I have no room to argue. “I thought a little push might be good for you.”

“So you thought getting me to date the neighbor’s kid was a good idea?”

“Why would it be a bad one?”

I steal another pepperoni roll and ignore her disapproving stare. “I don’t have the best track record with women, for one.”

“You were in a relationship for almost ten years, sweetie,” she answers softly. “And you’ve been out of it for a while now. Don’t you think it’s time to put yourself back out there? I’m not saying you have to marry this girl, but talking to her won’t hurt.”

There is no way Dad or Hannah were in on this because they would have talked some sense into her long before now. “You do realize this could go very badly if I do something to upset Opal, right? Then you have to live next door to her disgruntled parents, and Dad and Mr. Coleman will have a lot more to be irritated over than grass clippings or whatever the hell started their argument years ago.”

She smiles. “Don’t upset her then. Problem solved.”

I roll my eyes, wondering if she thinks it’s really that simple. “Does Hannah know about this?”

“She knows her friend is coming.”

I’m going to assume that’s a no. “She won’t be okay with you trying to set me up with her friend.”

She waves it off nonchalantly. “That’s no business of hers anyway. Plus, she used to have crushes on your friends all the time when she was in high school.”

The difference is they never went out with her because of our age difference. Opal may be older than Hannah, but that doesn’t change how I feel about Mom’s scheme.

“Mom, I really don’t want to go out with Opal,” I tell her in a last-ditch effort to stop whatever fantasy is happening in her head.

She frowns. “Then who do you want to go out with? Because I’ve got to be honest with you, honey. Sometimes, I worry about you. The last thing any of us want is to see you stuck on somebody from the past.”

But that’s the problem, isn’t it?

Because Georgia isn’t the past at all.

Opening that file from Conklin reminded me that she’s still a big part of my life. So is her father and all of the lowlife assholes he’s used his connections on to try taking me down.

He may have gotten Conklin out of the picture, but I was going to make sure he didn’t take anybody else down with him.

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