He shoved the Hacky Sack into his pocket and grabbed three clean plates from the dishwasher to set the table.
“Mom says they are,” Honor spoke up, stirring the fettuccini in the pot as it boiled.
Austin looked up at me.“You’re dating our principal?”
I choked on air.“Uh …”
“She said it won’t be weird if they break up.That she won’t break his heart, and they’re taking it slow,” Honor went on, her tone a little bored.Then she glanced at her brother.“I mean, look at how well it’s worked out for Aunt Gabrielle and Maverick, and Aunt Raina and Jagger, and Aunt Danica and Tom.Maybe this is Mom’s chance at finding love and happiness.”
My heart swelled at how much I loved my daughter and the level of maturity and understanding she was demonstrating at this moment.My son, however, still held an expression of reservation and concern.
The timer for the pasta went, so I shut off the burner and strained the water over the sink.Honor set the chicken, raw veg, and Alfredo sauce on the table after Austin finished setting it.
We sat down and dug in.
My son’s eyes burned on me like two green lasers.I glanced up at him.“Say it.”
“Say what?”he murmured, reaching for a carrot stick and snapping it in half between his teeth.
“Whatever is on your mind.You keep looking at me like you want to pop my head off, or carve answers out of my brain with a melon baller.So ask.I was planning to bring this up with you tonight anyway.Your sister just beat me to the punch.”
“Fine,” my son exhaled.“He’s young.”
“So?”Honor and I said at the same time.
“Maverick is younger than Aunt Gabrielle, and they make it work.They’re both adults.”Honor gave her brother a dirty look.“Don’t be a jerk.”
“I’m not being a jerk,” he protested.“All I’m saying is, Principal Paul is young.Do you know how old he is?”
I nodded.“I do.”
“And how old is he?”
“That’s up to him to disclose.”
Austin scoffed and shook his head.“Something weird happened, didn’t it?He’s either not Mabel’s real dad, or he had her super young.Like younger than Damon.And that’s messed up.”
Shit.
I wasn’t expectingthisconversation to take place.
My kids both sat across from me with patient, slightly uneasy expressions in their identical green eyes.
I exhaled slowly through my nose, set my utensils down, and bunched my napkin in my lap.“Fine.Mabel is his biological daughter.She is thirteen.He is twenty-six.”
My kids immediately did the math, and their mouths dropped open.
“He had a kid atthirteen!”Honor exclaimed.“Is that even possible?”
“It happened, didn’t it?”Austin grumbled to his sister.
She shot him a dirty look.
“Lennox was sexually abused by his stepmother when he was a child.She got pregnant with Mabel.Mabel was born in prison, since his stepmother went to prison for abusing Lennox.Lennox got custody of Mabel and raised her with the foster family that took him in.”
“Does Mabel know this?”Honor asked, her eyes still nearly as wide as her dinner plate.
“Of course she does,” I replied.“But you two should not be letting on that you know.That istheirstory to tell.Not ours.You both know our family has its own secrets and stories, and while we didn’t really have much of a choice when some of them came out, we don’t have to let the gossips of the island do the same thing to Lennox and Mabel.They don’t deserve that.”
