Page 59 of The Exception

“It depends on what it looked like. We were sleeping.” As I stood across from him, I smoothed my clothes as best I could, and raked my fingers through my hair, which had to be a mess.

“What did you do to your hair?” Lucas’s attention shifted like that.

I frowned. “Is it bad?”

“It’s gorgeous, but I leave you alone for a week and I find you with purple hair and in bed with my childhood heroes?” Lucas jabbed me in the arm. “Are you a pod person?”

I lightly smacked his hand away. This playfulness was a good sign. “Stop. No. I’m still me.”

“Are you sure? Becausemymom wouldn’t lie to me about sleeping with Donovan.”

I winced. “Please don’t call him that. It’s not his name.”

“What do you call him? Bad Boy Anaconda?”

Oh, Christ. “Joystick.”

“Oh. My. God.Mom. That’s not any better.” Despite the shock in Lucas’s voice, amusement tugged at the corners of his mouth.

“That’s what I go by.” Joystick’s voice came from behind me.

I glanced back to see he and Eli had joined us, but had stayed closer to the bedroom, as if they weren’t sure it was all right to approach.

“Would you like us to go?” Eli asked.

No. But also, maybe for just a few minutes? But no.

Joystick propelled himself forward on the crutches as if he’d been using them for years, not days. “We could keep hiding in the bedroom, but we can hear the whole conversation anyway, and it feels rude to eavesdrop.”

“No, I don’t want you to go.” Lucas managed to vocalize what I couldn’t. “I want to meet you.Mom, how could you not… You know who they are, right? And you never said anything?”

Introductions, I could do that. “Joystick, Eli, this is my son Lucas. He’s one of your biggest fans.” It hadn’t been too long ago when mentioning that would have killed any mood in the room. Not that there was much to worry about there right now.

“Biggestfan,” Lucas corrected me. “Except my mom, apparently. You were in bed with them.” He looked at me again.

“We were just sleeping.”

“This time,” Joystick said.

I shot him a look, and his smirk implied he wasn’t sorry.

“I can go pick us up some breakfast. I’ll take Austin with me.” Bless Eli.

Apparently it was possible for Lucas to look more incredulous. “We’ll go get breakfast. How long have you known them? What happened to his foot? How did you keep all of this a secret?”

“I’m dating them.” That probably wasn’t the most tactful answer I could’ve come up with, but I was running out of filters.

“Both of them?”

“Yes.” Eli and Joystick answered at the same time.

Okay, so that filled me with lots of warm fuzzies regardless of the situation.

Lucas sank into the nearest chair. “I mean, it’s not winning the lottery, and it’s not why I ever pictured calling either of youDaddy—“

“Lucas.” Warm fuzzies gone. Hello, utter embarrassment.

“What? I was going to say this was still pretty damn epic,” Lucas said. “Oh, by the way, my car died at the edge of town.”

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