"I want to love you again, but I don't know how. Maybe I'm not like the moon. The moon is pure, an incandescent light in the midst of bitter darkness.
I have never been that forgiving."
WARNING: This is Book Three. If you have not read "affluenza"...
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"IT'S AMAZING TO meet you, Miss Adams. Really," Robyn gushes, leaning forward and sipping her cup of coffee quickly before speaking again.
My mother smiles the way she always does, in a sad sort of way, as she faces the rest of my friends. "No, truly, the pleasure is all mine. I had no clue Braylen had so many wonderful friends."
Devin cocks his head to the side. "To be fair, we didn't like each other for ten years...the little runt grew on me."
I snort, watching as my mother cracks another sad smile. "I think it's the other way around, actually."
Hunter blows on his hot chocolate—we'd made the executive decision that he was far too energetic to be doped up on coffee today—and eyes my mother. "So...rehab. That had to be fun, right?"
"Oh my god," Nox mutters, pinching the bridge of his nose.
My mother blushes but keeps her face neutral. "Not exactly, no. But I did meet a lot of great women. We keep in touch to this day. They're great friends, but nowhere near as special as you all are to my son. I'm so happy he has you."
Robyn shakes her head. "No, we're the ones happy to have him. Braylen is amazing. He's been my best friend for fourteen years and he hasn't gotten sick of me yet. That's amazing."
"I concur," Devin adds, and Robyn nudges him in his stomach.
After accidentally spilling the beans to Devin about my mother being back, it felt time to come clean to everyone. Robyn and Nox knew, obviously, but it was time to bring Hunter out of the loop and finally allow everyone to formally meet her. Though, there was one person I hadn't had the courage yet to invite.
Things with Roman and I had been good. It's been a week since our backyard campout and we both had been increasingly busy—him with Verdant and me with the restaurant, not to mention my writing pursuits. Still, we called every day and even were set to have a date later tonight.
An actual date with Roman. I wracked my brain for days, trying to deduce if this had ever happened before, officially, and came back blank. Between the casual hookups all summer, him moving away, and the big, bad breakup, we'd simply never had time. I was a little nervous.
I was also nervous to finally introduce Roman to my mom. We'd never really done the whole 'parents' thing either—we'd never had to. Our family lives were both dysfunctional, with him having lost his mother at 15 and his asshole of a dad, and me never knowing my father and being separated from my mother. There never really felt like much to introduce him to and vice versa. But now...now I did have something. And that was scary.
"You okay?" Nox asks, nudging my shoulder. I realized I'd checked out of the conversation entirely and blushed. "It's going fine," he whispers. "Relax."
