Page 67 of Fierce-Hyde

Well, not everything.

No way he was sharing the night he had with Tori and how hard it was to bring her back home and leave last night.

But he didn’t push it. That he wanted to go back to her place and maybe spend the night.

They’d had a great day together with minimal negativity in his eyes.

She gave him one hell of a kiss at the door and said she’d talk to him soon.

It was noon and they hadn’t talked once today and he wasn’t going to be the person who reached out first.

“This is the woman who gave you crap about looking at your phone when you tried to apologize for being a jerk the first time,” his mother said. Then she laughed. “I need to meet her.”

“I’m not sure we are there yet,” he said.

“It sounds to me as if you’ve had a bit of a rocky start,” CeeCee said. “How do you feel about it?”

“We’ve both said and done things we regret, but we are past it. It’s all good.”

“Are you sure it’s all good?” his mother asked.

“I think so. We had a good time on Friday and Saturday. We are both being open-minded and we’ll see how it all lands. Can’t do much more than that, right?”

“No,” his mother said. “And she knows about you and your past. Everything with Shana. So no secrets or surprises there.”

“Does she know about Hilary?” CeeCee asked.

“No,” he said. “You shouldn’t even know about Hilary.”

CeeCee was like eight when he was dating Hilary at the end of his senior year. No reason she should know anything that happened.

“CeeCee likes to eavesdrop and has big ears,” his mother said. “She should keep her words to herself like you said about Coop yesterday. He never changes.”

“Nope,” he said. “He doesn’t. Just one more example of my past in front of Tori too.”

“How did she react to it?” CeeCee asked.

“Not bad. I expected worse. So maybe she is being more open-minded. She admitted that knowing what she did about me made her jump and hated herself for it.”

“That’s something you two need to work out,” his mother said. “Why do you think she’s like that? I’d think differently with her job.”

“I would have too,” he said. He’d told them enough already, no reason he couldn’t say more. He trusted them. “She doesn’t have any relationship with her father at all. I don’t think she’s had any positive male relationships. During one of our disagreements, I told her she does a lot of self-sabotage.”

“Hyde,” his mother said. “That’s mean.”’

“I was annoyed,” he said, frowning.

“I’m not sure how you two started dating when it sounds like you’ve done more fighting than most people who have been married for ten years,” CeeCee said.

His shoulders dropped. He wasn’t sure he wanted to hear that. “It’s not the same thing.”

“That’s for your brother to determine,” his mother said to his sister. “But I’m not disagreeing with CeeCee either.”

His sister stuck her tongue out at him. “I’m right.”

“I didn’t say you were right. I said I wasn’t disagreeing,” his mother said. “There is a difference.”

“I’m not sure if there is or not,” he said. “But it’s something Tori and I will work out. She has to be willing.”

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