Page 74 of Trust and Obey

“Oh, a mother always knows.” She smiled whimsically at me. I just gave her a blank look and she elaborated. “Lauren has been calling, honey.”

I sighed and ran a hand down my face. “Has it been bad?”

“A divorce rarely brings out the best in people.” She patted my arm and then steered me to my own couch. That was my mother all over. She was a take charge kind of woman, and I half expected her to offer to serve me tea or lemonade from my own kitchen. Instead, she sat next to me and looked me over, her blue eyes concerned. “How are you doing, Deacon? Really.”

I took a bracing breath. “The worst of the divorce is almost over. From what my lawyer has told me, we’re just waiting on the judge’s signature on the settlement.”

She nodded, but she didn’t look relieved. “I saw the news.”

From the heat in my cheeks, I knew I had to be flushing furiously. Had my mother seen my sex tape? “Oh.” Was all I could find to say.

“Of course,” she added gaily, “I don’t think it made nearly the splash that Lauren had hoped for. No offense, dear, but a businessman having a boyfriend is not exactly headline news.”

Strangely enough, some of my embarrassment fled. My mother wasn’t talking about the sex tape. She was talking about Kendall. Despite how it ended, I couldn’t find it in myself to be ashamed of my time with him.

No, not ashamed. Just hurt.

I swallowed, nodding. My throat was too dry to speak.

“Were you really involved with Stephen’s son?”

Stephen’s son. The familiar phrasing caught my attention. I glanced at her. “You knew him? Kendall?”

“Well, of course I did,” she said. “I would often have lunch with Alice while the men talked business. Kendall was such a dear, sweet boy. I considered Alice to be a friend, too.”

I leaned back, shocked. “How can you say that? What kind of friend steals their livelihood from the other?”

My mother regarded me with sad eyes. “Deacon… Alice and Stephen’s relationship wasn’t a usual one. In some ways, she was the perfect spouse for a previous generation. Her interest lay in making sure her home was neat and clean and raising her son and went no further. She was… kind. Very kind. When the news broke, she tried to reach out to me, and as far as I could tell, her apologies were sincere.” My mother paused. “She didn’t stand with her husband during the trial or the sentencing.”

I shook my head. My mother had always been a kind, empathetic woman. “It doesn’t matter. They all but ruined us. How could I be with Kendall, knowing what he and his family did—”

“Deacon!” she sounded shocked and disapproving. “You do realize that Kendall was only a teenager—a very young teenager—at the time. He and his mother were just as much victims as we were.”

If my mother had somehow whipped a sledgehammer out of her clutch and whacked me upside the head, I couldn’t have been more stunned. “How could you, of all people, say that? You know what that family did to us—what they did to Dad…”

True pain flashed into her eyes, and I felt awful for bringing up Dad’s suicide. Then she reached over and grabbed my hand. There was fierce strength in her fingers. “I will never forgive what Stephen Langston did,” she said. “He not only destroyed our family, but the futures of all the workers who depended on your father’s company. His actions also shattered his family.”

It was only then that I remembered—or really, let myself remember—the few things Kendall had told me about his past. That he was no longer close to his parents. That he had been on his own for a long time. That he had lived on the island since he was a legal adult.

“He was hiding out,” I whispered as the realization struck me.

Mom raised an eyebrow. “What was that, dear?”

I turned to her, stunned. “Just something that Kendall told me. I think he’s been on that island this entire time, since the trial, under an assumed name.”

She nodded sadly. “I would not be surprised. You do remember the media circus before, during, and after the trial? It makes your little sex tape a blip of news in comparison.”

“Mother!” I said, shocked and flushing in embarrassment again. I had hoped that piece of news had snuck past her.

She patted my hand. “You may want to thank Lauren when this is all over with. The news pundits don’t know what to make of rumors of a man who simultaneously has a sex tape with a woman released as well as an affair with a man. It’s as if they don’t realize that bisexuality exists.”

I ducked my head and groaned. I appreciated her support, but this was not a conversation I wanted to have with my mother, not now anyways.

She only patted my hand again. “Tell me how Kendall is doing.”

“He… he’s good,” I said, mentally adding: Or he was, until I walked out of his life. “We were good together. The week I spent with him… It was better than any of the times I spent with Lauren.” I made myself meet her gaze. Her expression was sympathetic. “He tried to explain, but I didn’t let him. I think I really screwed up,” I admitted.

“Well,” she said, “I suppose you know what you have to do.”

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