Until December (Until Her/Him #8)(55)

“Babe, she was nice to you outside, probably because she was caught off guard by seeing you with us.” Nice? That was her being nice? Yikes. “Just promise to stick this out with me and the boys. She’s never around for very long.”

I tip my head back, forcing him to move his head, and frown up at him. “Do you think she’s going to scare me off?”

“I think she’ll try,” he replies gently, setting down his beer so he can capture my face with both his hands. “In her mind, me and the boys belong to her.”

“I’m a Mayson, Gareth Black. I know I’m not adventurous or very outgoing, but I’m still a Mayson.” His brows draw together, and I lift my hand to rub away the lines etched between them. “Family, love, devotion, and determination are what I grew up seeing all around me. I know what’s important. I know why it’s important. And I understand that sometimes, even when it’s scary, you have to do everything within your power to protect it. I love you.” I say and watch as his pupils dilate on the word love. “I’m not worried about me, or even you. I’m worried about what her being here will mean for the boys. Neither of them knows how to deal with her presence. Mitchell is angry with her, probably because he loves her and wishes that she loved him enough to stick around, and Max is torn, because he likes me and feels like he’s betraying his mom by feeling that way.”

“Seems you know my boys,” he says tenderly.

I melt farther against him and slide my hands up to rest against his chest. “They’re just like you. All you have to do is read between the lines to know what they’re thinking or feeling.” I tip my head to the side and ask, “She’s picking Max up from school tomorrow?”

“Yeah.” He leans back against the counter, keeping hold of my waist with one hand while using the other to pick his beer back up and take a swig.

“What about Mitchell?”

“I’ll talk to him and see if he’s down with her picking him up. If not then I can still have Mom grab him after practice, so you won’t have to deal with Beth.”

“What do you mean?”

“She’s staying at one of the local hotels, so after she gets Max, she’ll come back here with him.”

“Oh.” I chew the inside of my cheek, not sure how I feel about her being here in the house that has started to feel like a second home to me.

“I don’t like it any more than you do, baby, but I don’t want Max hanging out in a hotel room every day after school for however long she’s here for.”

“I get it.” And I do get it logically. It’s the illogic part of my brain, the part that contains irrational emotions like jealousy, that doesn’t like it much at all.

“It won’t be for very long.”

“Are you trying to convince me or yourself?” I ask, only half joking.

“Probably both of us,” he admits.

I smile and lean up on my tiptoes, touching my mouth to his. “Like you always say, it will be okay.”

“Yeah.” He squeezes my hip. “How much work do you have to do tonight?”

“Not much, I just have a few tests to grade, and they shouldn’t take me more than an hour.”

“I’ll finish up dinner while you get started on them,” he says, and I start to laugh. “What’s funny?”

“Dinner’s done—well, mostly anyway. The meatloaf has to finish cooking, and I need to mix up some ketchup and Worcestershire sauce to go on it before it comes out. But besides that, we should be able to eat in about fifteen minutes.”

He raises a brow. “How long was I outside?”

“Not long.”

“Long enough for you to make an entire meal.”

“Max mixed the meatloaf. I just put it in a pan and placed it in the oven. The corn was already clean, and the potatoes just had to be steamed in the microwave. I didn’t perform a miracle.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” he says quietly, dipping his face closer to mine. “You’re giving us normal. You’re giving us exactly what you said you grew up seeing.”

“It’s just dinner, Gareth,” I say, feeling a little off balance by his words and tone.

“Baby, you could have gotten pissed about Beth being here, but you didn’t. You came in and started dinner, gave Max something to do when he sought you out, and sat on the couch with your Kindle like it was just another night. You don’t even realize that the roots you’ve planted have become something to cling to in a storm, a safe place to go to when the winds start to pick up.”

“I—”

“You can add that to the list of reasons I love you,” he says, and tears burn the back of my throat.

“Please don’t make me cry,” I croak.

“I never want that. I just want you to understand what you mean to the boys and me.”

I nod and close my eyes while resting my forehead against his chest. When his arms wrap around me, I wonder if he’s right—if maybe, just maybe, I’m stronger than I think I am.





Thirteen


Gareth

THE MOMENT I pull up in front of my mom’s house, Mitchell walks out carrying his gym bag over his shoulder, and Mom pokes her head out but doesn’t move past the doorway like she normally would. She’s pissed Beth’s in town spending time with Max, she doesn’t think I should allow her time alone with him, and even though I don’t like it much either, I know it’s something Max needs and wants. So I have to put my personal feelings aside for my boy’s happiness.