Page 104 of Forever Yours

Okay.What could I say to that? Seemed like Mom and Brad shared similar crappy parenting skills.

April continued to merrily talk as I tried to wrap my brain around this new family dynamic I was being thrust into.

“Justin is a third year at CU. What about you?”

The elevator stopped, and the doors slowly slid open. Car exhaust smacked us in the face as soon as we got out.

“Freshman. Just started.”

She walked me to a white Mercedes EQE electric and popped the trunk.

“I was going to ask if you knew him, but probably not. Be grateful.”

Once I placed my stuff inside, she closed the trunk and leaned a hip against the back.

“Are you hungry? We can stop off at a fast-food place on the way, or you can eat at the house.”

It was nearing nine at night, and I was famished.

“As long as you have stuff to make a sandwich in the fridge, I’m good.”

Her smile was full of the two dimples that popped in her cheeks. “I make the best hoagies. Hop in. It’s only a twenty-minute drive.”

She did something that made the handles in the doors emerge like robotic magic. After sitting in the uncomfortable seats of the airplane, I sighed as soon as my butt hit soft leather.

“Feel free to play around with the controls, but don’t ask me what they do,” she said, starting the soundless motor.

The interior lit up with the bright light of computer screens.

“I wouldn’t know where to start.”

I looked at the huge display on the center dash. The one behind the steering wheel was ugly as hell and distracting. It would drive me nuts to have that in front of me while I drove.

The car looked and felt expensive. Something Fallon would buy just to say he did right before he got rid of it for something else.

April carefully navigated the parking garage to the exit at a slow speed.

“This car is one of Dad’s hegraciouslylet me borrow. I have no clue what most of that does,” she said, gesturing at the dashboard. “I can lock and unlock it and make it go forward and backward. That’s it.”

She turned onto Aviation Avenue, then got on the interstate.

My phone rang. Julien. Shit. I forgot to call him back once I got my luggage.

“I need to take this,” I told April.

“Are you still at baggage claim?”

Leaning back in the seat, I rested my head and looked out the passenger-side window. A mixture of pines, palmettos, and live oaks draped in Spanish moss blurred with the tall highway light posts as we drove.

“Got my bag and am in a car now with April.”

“Who’s April?”

“My soon-to-be stepsister.”

“What?”

Julien was as confused as I was. I knew nothing about the months between when Mom moved to Baton Rouge to now. I knew nothing about Brad or his daughter or anything else, for that matter. It really hit home at that moment how little I knew about Mom because she shut me out. As soon as I said, “I’m gay,” I didn’t exist anymore. And I wasn’t going to hide who I was.

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