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51. She Endured His Mother

GWEN

I dragged myself off Catalina's sofa. Stretching in a yawn, I hobbled into the kitchen on feet that hadn't gotten the memo that it was time to wake up.

Cat flashed me a smile from her spot at the dining table. Her arm was snug around Noah's tummy, holding him safe as he bopped up and down, smacking the open book with his chubby hand. 'Are You a Cow?' was apparently a must-read—or maybe it was the animal noises Cat imitated as she pointed to each page that excited Noah so much. Her duck impression wasn't great, but the frog was on point.

Noah's belly laugh was drowned out by a frantic call.

"Gwen!"

I shuffled back to the hallway. Was Toby back already? I must have napped longer than I'd thought. Sleepless nights were catching up with me.

I stuck my head around the corner. "Hey," I said, "what's going on?"

Toby barreled toward me, snagging an arm around my waist and shoving me outside. We shot past the pool to the pergola. His hand pointed to a chair in an unspoken command to sit down. Hoo-kay. The meeting with his mother obviously went...well.

Knees a little wobbly, I sank down to the seat, and he dropped to his knees in front of me. Normally, I would've laughed that his being on bended knee was an unexpected proposal, but the air crackled with too much nervous energy for jokes.

"You weren't gone long," I said. "Did you talk to your mother?"

"No." He blew out a slow breath. "Kayleigh was there."

I barked a laugh. Of course she was.

Toby reached for my hand, brought it to his lips, and pecked a kiss on my knuckles. "Gwen... I don't want you to freak out."

I leveled a dubious look at him. "Literally everyone freaks out when you tell them not to freak out."

My worst-case scenario was that Toby took one look at Kayleigh's big doe eyes and decided our little family wasn't worth all this hassle. The flicker of doubt was enough to kick my pulse up a notch.

Don't get ahead of yourself.

I took a deep breath.

Trust him.

I breathed out.

Toby squeezed my hand. "I'm going to hit you with this straight," he said. "Okay?"

I frowned at him, waiting. And then, a rush of words spewed out of him so fast my head spun. He didn't even pause to take a breath. The verbal vomit started something like...

"AndwhenIknockedonthedooritwasKayleighandnotmymotherandIjustcompletelyfreakedoutandbasicallyfelldownthestairsandthenstartedjoggingdownthestreettogetthehellawayfromher..."

Yeah.

Like that.

Toby's story ended with Kayleigh screaming after him as he ran across the street, dodging curious stares from a couple walking their dog. I leaned back in the chair, head tilted, tracking the fairy lights strung along the beams of Cat's pergola, my thoughts not nearly as neat and tidy.

"Say something," Toby begged, squeezing my hand.

I opened my mouth but snapped it shut again. Jumbled emotions had sent my whole world off-kilter. I was confused—not sure what to think or how to feel. Panic pulled tight across my chest as memories of that night six years ago floated to the surface. Then there was anger, disgust, and an almost crushing sadness to know Ian had done horrible things to someone else, too.