Page 83 of True Honey
“How is that fine?” Drew hissed. “We’re barely dating, we’re definitely only fake engaged and your mother wants to plan arealwedding.” She turned off the water, reaching for a towel and I grabbed it for her holding it out as she stepped from the shower. “Not to mention I work tonight at Hillys.”
“I told you to quit that job,” I scowled, a little offended that she hadn’t.
“And I didn’t,” she said quietly.
“Call in sick. Just for today. It will be fine.” I put on my best, charming smile. Kissing the corner of her mouth and then her damp jaw just to feel the way she relaxed against the contact. “You’re so beautiful and smart, and I owe you my life.” I praised, just hoping to wear her down a little more as I wrapped the towel around her.
When she opened her mouth to protest I grabbed her face, kissing her lips one more time before backing out of the bathroom before she could yell at me some more.
“She has a son?” My mothers voice was laced with vicious confusion, I knew the tone well. The last time I had heard it was when I broke my leg sneaking out of the house with Arlo at the age of sixteen to go to a Green Day concert on a school night. Mom had a school agenda in her hand with August’s ID and name on it from the highschool.
“Yeah,” I said, trying to act like I wasn’t scared of my mother at that moment. “No, you can’t meet him, he’s at school and you are suffocating.”
“Excuse me?” Her glare was hot and burned my skin the longer she stared at me.
I was being too short with her, too angry. It wasn’t my intention to offend her, and it didn’t happen often but I had made her feel like she wasn’t good enough. I could see it all over her face and I felt like a massive piece of shit for doing so.
I am not my father.
I opened my mouth to apologize but Drew came out of her room with her hair pulled back in a neat bun and wearing some of the clothes we got her for situations like this. She smiled at my mother and played nervously with the ring on her finger.
“It’s nice to see you,” she said, “it’s very nice of you to invite me for lunch. Silas says you want to discuss wedding plans?”
“Among other things,” my mother’s scowl was threatening and it only made me more nervous for what the afternoon held.
COURTNEY
“For two please,” Sylwia said to the young girl at the hostess desk. She led us back through the busier part of the restaurant to a small table against the window. She ordered us both a coffee and water, setting her bag down and settling into the chair.
I had never met a woman so intimidating, and it didn’t even make sense why I was so nervous. Everything that Silas and I were doing was a lie. Other than sleeping together. But that could only sell the story…right?
“Are you nervous?” She asked me as if she could read my mind. I kept forgetting that she had been a mother for nearly twice as long and all her instincts were sharp. She was going to be harder to get around with lies.
“A little,” I went with honesty.
“Silas makes me seem like a monster, but I’m not. I raised him after all,” she said in a voice that was a little softer than before. “Do you like coffee?” She asked as the waitress returned and I nodded.
“You raised him to be very kind,” I said once we were alone again. I filled the rest of my coffee cup with cream and brought it to my lips.
“I did my best,” Sylwia smiled at me and I felt that worry in the base of my chest like an explosion gone off. It was all we could ever do when it came to raising children. Our best.
“It’s hard raising a son who refuses to take care of himself,” she added after a moment of contemplation. “He’s always been like that, finding little projects to keep his hands and mind busy, I have no idea where he got the notion that if he stops he’ll die. It’s exhausting to watch him pull apart at the seams for everyone else.”
“That is very much the Silas I have come to love,” I smiled, spitting out the word to cover our lie but unlike before it felt like sandpaper against my skin.
She studied me for a moment with a soft expression on her face, “Arlo was a project you know,” she said, stirring her coffee and I only noticed then she was drinking it black.
I didn’t know Arlo extremely well, he was quiet and always watching everyone. He gave off the aura that he didn’t want to be approached most of the time. But I did know that he and Silas had been best friends since the beginning. Inseparable, was the word Silas had once used to describe them.
“Seymour was somewhat of a mentor to his father, Arthur, when he was playing at Harbor. From what I hear that man had more talent than any player of his time. I married Charles after Sawyer was born, we had Silas a few weeks before Nicholas came. I had unknowingly married into the baseball version of the Brady bunch. Their mother and I never really got along, but she was a very strong woman for all it was worth. And in the end I got four extra sons out of the deal, she noted with care, pausing briefly to order us a few appetizers.
“Sounds like taking on projects is a family affair,” I said, and she smiled at me with a tiny shrug of defeat. Her and Silas were more alike than either of them cared to admit.
“Arlo…” Sylwia sighed. “Silas was barely walking but the day that baby was born he had one sole purpose in life. Keep Arlo at his side.”
“Even that young?” I couldn’t stop the gentle bubble of laughter that spurred from my chest.
“Arlo didn’t have a choice, Silas never gave him one.” Her face softened as she recalled the two. “On paper Silas was an only child but that became untrue the day Arlo was born. They’re brothers in every sense of the world. Given his necessity to stay close to Arlo, his decision to work with the Hornets didn’t surprise me. He was a player when the Codys came to us. He came home that night and talked about Cael for the entire dinner and I knew right there he had found another brother.”
