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“Mom.”
“We’re adults, Andrew. If you can fall in love with two people at once, you’ll survive hearing me use the word ‘lover.’”
She’s got a point, but my face isn’t getting any less pink.
“Of course, quite an assumption for me to make,” she says, pulling her hand back.
“What do you mean?”
“Are you in love with them? With both of them?” All hint of a smile disappears, leaving her face more serious than I’ve seen in a long time. I answer her as openly and honestly as I can.
“I am,” I say. “I didn’t know it was possible to love anybody this much. Let alone two people.” I’m twenty-nine years old. I will not cry in front of my mother, goddamn it. Then her eyes well up and she makes a liar out of me.
“I know, baby,” she says, moving next to me and pulling me into a hug. She holds me tightly for a long moment, long enough to allow me to pull my soggy ass back together. When she pulls back with a delicate sniffle, she smiles.
“It’s not going to be easy, you know,” she says, smoothing her coat over her lap.
“We know.”
“And as for the rest of your family…” She purses her lips. “I think your father just needs some time. He’ll come around. The rest of them, I’m not so sure.”
I nod. That’s about what I expected.
“I think they’ll come around too, except perhaps your grandfather,” she says. “It’ll take some getting used to.”
“We’re not going anywhere,” says Bailey quietly. I turn to look at her, standing in the door, holding hands with Cooper. I didn’t hear the bedroom door or their steps coming up the hall, so I have no idea how long they’ve been standing there. Hopefully not long enough to have seen me crying all over my mother.
“Hello, Bailey dear,” says my mother with a smile.
“I mean it, Mrs. Hicks,” she says. “He’s not doing this alone.”
“Not anymore,” says Cooper.
“Mr. Lawson, it’s nice to see you again.” Mom stands up and circles the couch, embracing Bailey and leaning in to kiss Cooper on the cheek. He blushes adorably.
“Call me Cooper, ma’am.”
“Then you call me Sandra,” she says. She lays a hand on each of their cheeks. “And I hope one day maybe you’ll both be comfortable calling me ‘Mom.’”
Bailey bursts into tears at that, her quiet composure gone as she wraps my mom into a bearhug. Cooper looks a little lost, but pleased.
Despite my lovers’ best efforts, Mom can’t be persuaded to stay any longer. She hugs us each in turn once more and promises to call soon.
“I won’t be stopping by unannounced anymore,” she tells me as I walk her to the door. Pretty sure I turn a visible shade of green, because she laughs as she waves goodbye.
“Right,” I say, turning around and resting my back against the door. “So that was unexpected.”
“And weird,” says Cooper.
“Not that weird,” says Bailey, elbowing him. She grabs their coats from the hall tree, tossing Cooper’s at him and pulling her own on. “Drew’s mom is amazeballs.”
“You could have downplayed it,” says Cooper, looking at me.
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“You could have told her it wasn’t serious,” he says, shrugging into his coat. “Given her something easy to tell the family so you don’t have to be excommunicated anymore. We don’t—”
“Yes,” I say firmly. “We do. We are.” I take both their hands in mine. “Do you need me to spell it out for you?” I thought we’d covered this in the last week, in between the lovemaking and the talking and all the stupid goddamned crying. Does he think I cry for just anybody?
