Page 158 of Faithful

“What?”

I hand Kai my phone with the Twitter feed up, sprinkled with all sorts of memes made from the photos of us from yesterday.

They hash-tagged us and gave us a name too while we were asleep.

He looks at the screen, frowns, and makes a sour face, then says, “#Kylan?”

I laugh, mostly just at his expression.

“I don’t want to spend the rest of my time with you reading some creepy online headcanons about us,” he suddenly declares and tosses my phone on the floor.

“Seriously? Careful with that! Don’t you remember I live from paycheck to paycheck now?”

Kai presses me into the mattress and says, “I’ll buy you a new one, baby.”

“About those headcanons. I mean, we already fuck. How much creepier can it get?”

“People could always say I undress you and tie you to a bed for three days.”

“Would you?”

“Tease.”

* * *

Two months later, in light of the scandal the Watson family has been dragged into–again–by yours truly and my antics, Gavin announces his retirement from politics.

EPILOGUE

One Year Later

The living room is already alive and humming with energy when I get a call notifying me there’s another person downstairs waiting to be buzzed in.

Gin’s the only one missing, so I’m positive it’s her.

There’s also my mother. She did get an invite to the party, but she’s still keeping her distance. It’s not as huge a gap as it was last spring right after Kai and I made the headlines with that unplanned public display of our relationship, but she and I are not quite close yet. Not like before.

Deep down I get why my mother is choosing to remain cold. I was once where she is now, on the other side of that bridge, only seeing the things I wanted to see from my vantage point. It took some serious guts to cross that invisible barrier, to step on that bridge, to move forward and actually see things for what they are and not what most people believe them to be.

I guess I regret losing my mother’s affection the most during this battle against my father. Perhaps it’s not completely gone because we do talk on the phone, and we have our weekly lunches. Once, I even brought Kai with me, and the three of us sat there in awkward silence until he offered to share a few memories about my sister from her time in the band.

Obviously, those stories didn’t include any mention of Ava abusing all sorts of substances.

I’ll call her tomorrow, I think to myself as I hit the button on my phone screen that triggers the lock downstairs.

“You okay?” A hand lands on my shoulder.

I lift my gaze.

Leigh’s next to me, blocking the view of the room. “Your mom’s not coming?” she asks quietly, taking a sip of her wine.

I shake my head. “Doubt it.”

“Sorry, Watson.”

“It’s cool.” I tuck the phone into the pocket of my jeans. “She’s not boycotting us or anything. It’s just hard for her.”

“I know. With the divorce and all, I’m sure she’s probably overwhelmed. But I have a feeling, once that’s settled and she has one less thing to worry about, she’ll warm up to your boyfriend.”

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