Page 18 of Lyrical

Fuck. Him.

I slipped inside, closing the door in his face a hell of a lot softer than I wanted to. I headed directly for the bathroom. Yeah, I needed to get my shit together, but for a different reason. I had to repair all those broken blood vessels before I faced anyone, especially Daniel.

Deeeeeeep breath. How dare Mike try to say that Daniel wasn’t fine with me seeing Chase. He wasn’t in the room when I introduced them. He didn’t see how easily it’d gone. He didn’t see them shaking hands and talking civilly to each other. He didn’t see shit.

Daniel was perfectly fine with Chase.

Right?

Iheard the door creak open and leaped up from my office chair. It was nearly noon and I’d already been up for six hours, first shoveling my driveway and front steps, then starting on my allotted calls to the FAs on my list. Fortunately, I wasn’t in the middle of one now.

“Daniel?”

“Morning, Mom.”

I came into one end of the kitchen as he was slogging into the other. He stretched his arms up, then rubbed his face.

“Feeling better?”

“Yeah, I just need a few more minutes to wake up.”

He opened the cabinet and pulled out a glass, filling it from the water cooler. I hadn’t stayed at my mom’s for more than an hour after he’d left, but when I got home he was already in his room with the door shut, Mike’s old Chevy in the driveway. It was already decided that he’d use Mike’s car to get around until he got his own again. He’d sold his right before leaving overseas.

“You didn’t stay out too long last night,” I said.

He chugged the water before getting a refill. “I was just too wiped out, so I dropped Dad off and came right home. I’m seeing him today instead.”

“You drove by yourself when you were that tired?”

“It wasn’t that bad. I kept the windows rolled down the whole time.”

Fucking ex.And I’m the irresponsible one? He shouldn’t have let him drive.

He put his glass in the dishwasher and stretched again. “I’m just gonna go jump in the shower.”

“Wait a sec. I was thinking about having a small get-together this weekend. Kinda like a coming home party, but hopefully you’ll be more awake for this one.” I smiled. “Will you be around?”

He rubbed his jaw. “Yeah, that’ll work. I have my interview with Lydell & Barnes Friday, and then I planned to meet up with Jason. He’s at Northwestern. But I’ll be back later that night.”

“Great.” He turned to leave. “Wait.” He paused, swiveling around. “Um, I just wanted to ask you something real quick.” I leaned back on the counter, wishing for a glass of wine. No, a bottle of tequila. “I know you were a little out of it yesterday, and you seemed okay with it, but how do you really feel about me seeing Chase? I realize you haven’t gotten a chance to get to know him yet, but now that it’s just the two of us here, you can be open with me and—”

He held up his hand. “Mom, it’s okay. It’s fine.”

“Really? I want you to be honest. Because you know….” I stopped before bringing up the age thing because I wasn’t talking to a blind man.

“I am being honest. If you’re happy, I’m fine with it.”

“Oh, okay. Great.” I gave him a hug. “That’s all, then. I won’t keep you any longer from your shower.”

He trudged off down the hall, and I was left shaking my head. Why couldn’t I just accept that things were going well and leave it at that? Was there something frickin’ wrong with easy?

My phone pinged and I returned to my office, grabbing it off the desk.

Is it safe for me to stop over?

Why wouldn’t it be?I texted Perry back.

I wasn’t sure if you’d be having a nooner with Chase. I know you need to get creative with your time now.

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