Page 61 of The Marriage Deal
“I love her, Mom.” I’m not even sure the words are a lie anymore. If I’m being honest with myself, I think I fell for her the moment I thought I might lose her. When I thought she was standing over this very cliff as a means to say farewell, goodbye to the world.
Mom sighs, long and heavy. Then she says, “About that vacation…”
“She just moved in, Mom. Let’s give her another week, okay?”
“I want to meet her before the wedding, Briggs,” Mom warns. “You either invite me out there, or I’ll be bunking in that hotel with Nash. Either way, I’m meeting that woman before she takes your last name, do you hear me?”
“Have you been talking to Nash?”
“Well, you weren’t answering my calls.” She gives an indignant little sniff into the line. “I needed proof of life.”
Fucking Nash.
“Did you get your proof of life?”
“I did.”
Knowing Nash, she got a hell of a lot more thanthat. The man chitchats like an old woman at an A&W table over morning coffee with the hottest gossip.
“What else did you get?”
Mom sniffs again. “I’ve been sworn to secrecy.”
“Mom.” It’s my turn to warn.
“Oh, fine.” She huffs. “Nash says she’s lovely. He says that you look at her in a way you’ve never looked at any woman. That she’s funny and sweet and pretty…”
Mom’s words drift off. I fill the space with the truth. “She is all of that and more.”
There’s a pause. My heart is thunder in my chest.
“I need to meet her, Briggs.”
“I’ll arrange it,” I promise.
“Please do.” Mom is back to sounding just a touch incensed. “You know I don’t like being last.”
I laugh and I’m fairly certain Ihearher eyes roll. But I say, “You’re never last.”
Mom harrumphs again. “You’re sweet, but I just want to be involved in your life, Briggs. If Lilah matters to you, she matters to me. I’d like…”
“You’d like what?”
“I’d like to be close to her, too.”
Something around my heart squeezes tight in my chest. I swallow, hoping to ease the burn as I remind myself that what I have with Lilah isn’t real. I have to find a way to protect my mom from falling too hard for the woman who plans to leave.
Lilah stands and a flutter of something I don’tunderstand and don’t have time to analyze moves through me. I want to chase her. I want to hunt her down and convince her to be mine for real.
“Mom, I’ve got to go, okay?”
“I know, I know. Have a great day.”
“You too.”
“I love you, Briggs.”
My voice softens, “Love you too, Mom.”
