Page 126 of Betting on You

My stomach hurt.

And what if they’d already decided how our lives would look now?

“Thanks for getting me,” I said, unbuckling and opening my door. “God, you don’t know how badly I don’t want to go inside.”

“I get that,” she said, giving me an empathetic smile. “Good luck.”

“Thanks.” I went into the building, climbed the stairs as slowly as humanly possible, and took a deep breath before going into the apartment. I closed the door quietly behind me and said, “Mom?”

I dropped my bag in the entryway and slid off my shoes.

“Bay?” My mom’s voice sounded like she was in her room.

“Yeah.”

She came out of her bedroom—alone, thank God—and gave me a questioning look. I could read in her eyes that she didn’t know if I was mad or sad or normal. She said, “Hey.”

“I’m so sorry I left,” I said, overwhelmed with guilt as I looked at her face. That was the only proposal she was going to get from Scott, and I felt bad that I’d taken something from that. “I hope it didn’t ruin your night.”

“It’s okay,” she said, grabbing my hand and pulling me toward the couch. “How’s Charlie?”

I tried swallowing, but it felt like there was a rock in my throat. “You know—typical Charlie.”

“Can we talk about the engagement?” she asked, so sweet that it made me sad. Sad for adding stress to her happily ever after, and sad for me, for what I was about to lose.

I nodded, but couldn’t manage more than that.

She looked disappointed by my silence, and then she asked, “So do you not like Scott?”

I pictured Scott, teasing Charlie about PDA in Colorado, and I realized that I actuallydidlike him, just not his place in my world. Ididn’t know if she’d get it. I said, “It’s not that I don’t like him; it’s that I don’t want what he brings to our lives.”

She tilted her head. “What do you mean?”

I took a deep breath and went for honesty.

“I mean that I don’t want to move. Like, I’m sure you’ll want to move into his house if you marry him, but I don’t want to move into a strange house. I don’t want to live with him, and I definitely don’t want to live with his kid, who is a total stranger. How will that ever feel normal, moving my things and myself into someone else’s life?”

I hated that I was getting emotional again.

“It’s a nice house,” she said, reaching out and running a hand over my hair. “With an extra room that’s supercute. And it’s downstairs, next to a finished living room and wet bar that no one uses, so it’ll be like your own apartment.”

My stomach hurt—literally—at the confirmation that we would be moving in with him. My vision got blurry, and I wished I could just turn off my emotions.

“Bailey,” she said patiently. “I know change is hard, but I wouldn’t agree to this if I didn’t think it would be good for you.”

I sighed and said, “I know.”

Even though I didn’t mean it. I knew she had my best interests at heart, but I also knew she was an optimist who lived by the motto ofIt will all work out.

“I know in my heart this will be wonderful, Bay,” she said, still petting my hair like she used to when I was little. “Just give it a chance, okay?”

“Okay,” I said, nodding.

Looked like it was going to happen, whether I liked it or not.

I tried calling Charlie after my mom and I had a long talk, telling myself that it’s what I would’ve done if we hadn’t made out.

But he didn’t answer. I got his voicemail for the first time since I’d met him.

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