Page 71 of The One I Love
“What are we finding out?” Luke continues. “Because this morning has been a little odd for us. It started with Mariah texting me to come pick her up from Uncle Wes’s house.”
“And I had to do that because Betsy was being weird about me asking to leave. She was almost begging me to stay longer. I told her thanks but that I had other plans today and I needed to get home. And since you weren’t responding to my calls or texts, I got a hold of Luke to come get me.”
“So consider us confused that when I pull into the driveway to see Uncle Shane’s truck here. Which isn’t abnormal, but it was strange since it’s ten in the morning.”
“But again, we didn’t think anything of it. That is, until we walked into the kitchen…”
“Oh God,” Amelia says, hiding her head out of embarrassment.
“We’re not going to talk about it,” Luke says. “Mariah and I have decided that it’s best that we just don’t ever bring it up again.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m not done.”
Amelia sighs. “Carry on.”
“In exchange for us never speaking about seeing what we saw on the kitchen floor, we each get one get-out-of-jail-free card to be used at any point in the future. And we get to pick the offense.”
“And we’re talking abigget-out-of-jail-free card,” Mariah adds. “I’m not wasting this on something small like not cleaning my room. We’re talking a makeup haul like you’ve never seen.”
“Deal,” Amelia says quickly. Hell, I was about to say deal too just to be safe. “I’m so sorry. You should have never seen that.”
“Agree,” Luke says. “But that still doesn’t explain the elephant in the room. What did you two not want us to find out?”
I look over to Amelia, whose face is still red. She reaches out for my hand, which I gladly give her. I don’t know if it’s more for the moral support, or a symbolic gesture to the kids. Maybe both. I know it makes me feel better, and I can only hope it’s the same for her.
“We’re together. Dating. Whatever you kids call it these days,” Amelia says.
I stare at Luke and Mariah, waiting to see some type of reaction from them. But these two are made of stone right now.
“How long has this been going on?” Luke asks.
“We’ve been seeing each other for about a month,” I say. Idon’t bother telling them about the wedding or my nearly-twenty-year unrequited love. They don’t need to know that yet.
“Wow,” Mariah says. “But it does make sense. Mom’s been in a much better mood recently.”
I look over to Amelia, whose face is turning red. “I can relate.”
Amelia looks over to me, and we share a smile. “Kids, again I’m sorry. We were going to tell you soon, and I’m not just saying that because we got busted today. We just wanted some time for ourselves as we are figuring this out.”
“Wait, does Betsy know? Is that why I spent the night last night and she was weird today?”
“Yeah,” Amelia says. “But, we didn’t tell her. She figured it out on her own.”
“Who else knows?”
“Just Whitley, Betsy, and Izzy,” Amelia says. “Oh, and Porter. Don’t ask about that one. None of the uncles know. Grandma doesn’t know. Before it got out to anyone else, we wanted to tell you two. I promise.”
Luke and Mariah look to each other and have a silent conversation. This goes on for about a minute, which is kind of scaring me. Luke is always a hard one to read. He has a hell of a poker face. But Mariah? The girl can’t act for anything. And right now, I see a slight smile sneak onto her face before she pushes it back.
I instantly relax, knowing this is all going to be okay.
Amelia cracks. “Say something. Ask questions. Be mad at me. Be mad at Shane. Be happy for us. Something, because I’ve freaked out a lot this morning without coffee, and I can’t sustain this calm facade much longer.”
The two of them nod at each other before turning back to me.
“I do have one question,” Luke says as he turns his attention to me. “Shane, what are your intentions with our mother?”
