Page 24 of Lead Me A Stray

“Your name?” she asks wryly.

“The way you say it when you come.”

“Well, you earned it,”—her eyelids flutter shut as a smile plays on her lips—“and I bet you’ll earn the next one too.”

Ma’am, yes, ma’am.

On Wednesday morning,I pull my truck into the driveway of my childhood home, nostalgia hitting me like it does every time I do this. For as long as I can remember, the middle of the week has always been reserved for family breakfast. Pop said that it gave him a break when things were hard, and a way to celebrate when everything was going well.

My sister and I lived for it growing up, knowing that Pop was gonna join us before school and Mama would go all out—even let Rory and me pick flowers from the garden for the table.

It’s a tradition I can definitely get behind, the thought of Mama’s sausage gravy already making my mouth water. Rory isusually here but with her bein’ sick, I know I won’t have to lie and pretend that I didn’t leave Piper naked in her bed to be here.

But more than that, I’m looking forward to the day Piper comes with me—not as my sister’s best friend but as my girlfriend.

Stepping down from the truck, I take in the house and smile. The brick is newly painted a sage green, and the porch has a new coat of white. Pop had hemmed and hawed but Mama won out like we knew she would because there’s nothing that man won’t do to make her happy.

Sometimes it just takes a while.

Pulling open the screen door, I step inside the light-blue kitchen, this room seemingly untouched since I was a kid and my favorite room in the house. Bacon sizzles on the stove as I kiss my mother on the cheek before grabbing a cup and filling it with coffee.

“Were you with a girl last night?” Mama asks, staring at me as I stand frozen with my cup halfway to my mouth.

“What?”

“You’re smilin’ and that usually means you spent the nightelsewhere.” She pauses like I’m not on the verge of heart palpitations before I’ve had adequate caffeine. “Although, there’s something different about that smile.” She points the spatula at me as my father walks into the room, not bothering to hide his amusement.

“Leave the boy alone, Vera.”

“I willnot.” She harumphs, turning the spatula on him. “I just need him to confirm what I already know.”

My fist beats against my chest as I try to clear the sip of coffee that I managed to choke on while wishing the floor would swallow me up. She smiles sweetly at me, and it takes everything in me not to look at my father because that will be a dead giveaway.

But how could she possibly know?

“What do youthinkyou know?”

“That you’re seein’ Piper.”

It’s been a handful of days and I’m already tired of trying—and failing—to keep this under wraps.

“Mama,” I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose while I try to find a way to salvage this morning without pissing off my girl.

Because this isnotthe way I lose her.

“I knew it,”she gloats, the declaration filled with conviction and a smug satisfaction that only a mother can pull off at being right.

I should have stayed in bed.

With Piper.

Who I’ll now have to break the news to that both my parents know about us, while also begging them not totell Rory.

Dammit.

“Listen to me, Mama,please.”Her expression falls a little as I rub the back of my neck with my palm and let sincerity bleed into my gaze. “Piper asked that we keep it between us. I’m tryin’ to gain her trust and show her that while admittedly I was a little wild,”—my mother rolls her eyes—“I just want her. So please, don’t say anything. Not to Piper or your friends or anyone in town andespeciallynot to Rory.”

“Why not?”