Page 19 of Space Crush
Sighing, Evan grabs his phone from the back of his jeans. “Fine.” After a few taps, he slides it back in his pocket.
Then he stands there. Silent.
I glance at Rose.
She shrugs.
Another few seconds pass before I lose patience. “Well?”
“Just a minute.” At whatever look I give him, he’s quick to add, “Please.”
I think of the dead curious cat, but I wait.
As do Rose and Sharon.
A minute later, a woman enters the store, wearing black ankle jeans, a front-tucked, silk button-down blouse, and oversized Chanel sunglasses.
Sharon opens her mouth, probably to welcome her into the shop, but remains silent when Evan, moving closer to the woman, kisses her cheek.
“Kaley.” He ushers the woman toward me. “This is my stepmother, Kathy.”
What. The. Hell.
“Hello, Kaley.” The woman, Kathy, removes her sunglasses, tucking them into the small handbag on her wrist. “I was so happy when Evan asked me to come meet you.” She smiles warmly, a smile that seems far too smooth and youthful for a woman who—I calculate roughly—should be in her seventies. “Sorry about Evan.” She rolls her eyes as if Evan’s behavior is a long-standing problem, but the smile on her face speaks of how much she cares.
Seemingly as confused as I am, Rose speaks up. “I would’ve said sister, not mother.”
Kathy tucks her ash blond bob behind her ear. “Evan and I do have more of a sibling relationship than mother and son.” She shrugs, the movement elegant. “I was twenty-six when I married his father, who was forty-one at the time.”
“I was twelve,” Evan adds.
“Oh.” Overwhelmed by this information, I can see how Evan might not have had time to share it with me that night. “But”—I stare at the floor, trying to sort through everything—“what about the notifications?”
“Ah, well…” Kathy’s smile shifts to one of embarrassment. “My stepson can be abitoverprotective.”
Evan shrugs but doesn’t disagree.
“At my birthday lunch last week, I told Evan I wanted to try dating again.” She glances at Rose and Sharon. “My husband passed away two years ago.”
They nod sympathetically.
Kathy, looking charmingly awkward, turns back to me. “And I happened to mention downloading a dating app and…” She releases a deep sigh, eyes cutting to Evan.
“So what?” Rose asks Evan. “You decided to download the app yourself and pimp her out?”
Evan chokes on his next breath.
“No, not quite.” Kathy smiles as she pats her stepson’s back. “To make Evan feel better about me creating a dating profile, I gave him my login information to check it over. That way he could see that I wasn’t giving the—” She looks at Evan with a question in her eyes.
Recovered from his choking fit but still looking uncomfortable, Evan clears his throat. “Creepers.”
“Yes.” Kathy’s lips press together as if trying to contain a smile. “That I wasn’t giving the ‘creepers’ too much information.” She coughs lightly. “And I also agreed that he could check in every once in a while so he’d know if I agreed to any dates.” Her slim shoulders lift and fall. “That way he wouldn’t have to suffer through asking me about my dating lifeand”—she rolls her eyes at Evan—“he’d be less inclined to install a GPS tracker on my phone.”
Rose sputters. “You were going to tag your mom?”
He shrugs, looking not the least bit guilty. “Can’t be too careful.”
While Rose, Sharon, and Kathy all share looks of contemplation, incredulity, and resigned amusement, my thoughts go to my mom. I wonder if I could’ve been more like Evan is now when I was growing up, that maybe if my mom had had someone looking out for her, she wouldn’t have ended up dating loser after loser until she finally gave up on love altogether.
