Page 58 of All for Love

Once upon a time, she’d been my first call when I had boy troubles. She would’ve been the first to know about this strange blanket of heavy darkness that felt like it was zip-tied around my neck and about to suffocate me.

Not talking to her about it didn’t sit right at all, but I was terrified that once I started opening up about it all, the truth about me and Kody would come out. All too aware of how much harm that truth would cause, I couldn’t be so selfish as to even take a step in that direction.

This was one burden I would have to shoulder alone, and it was the absolute least I could do for the woman who had sacrificed so much for me. As much as I wished I could’ve gotten her opinion and her wisdom on this mess I’d caused, it was time to suck it up.

Smiling as I took a sip of my water, I swallowed and looked up at her again. “The Christmas party is coming up next weekend. Are you excited? Is there anything I can do to help?”

Mom brightened up immediately, the shadows that had been clinging to her eyes vanishing in a blink as she grinned and sat up a little straight. “I can’t wait. The house is already fully decorated. There’s a wine list I think is way too extravagant but I’ll be damned if I don’t try them all while we’ve got them, and the menu looks incredible.”

“Let me know if you want any help sampling the wines. I’m more than happy to take an afternoon off to work our way through an extravagant wine list.”

Mom chuckled. “You and I should set up a wine-tasting sometime, but unfortunately, these wines are only being delivered the day before the party. There’s no way it’s a good idea to sample them all when we’ll be having such a big day the very next day, but let’s see how much is left over. Perhaps we can organize a leftover wine-tasting with crackers and cheese. That could be fun. We’ll invite the guys. It’ll be a bonding opportunity.”

I kept my forced smile pasted on my lips and nodded. “Yeah. Sure. Let’s see how it goes.”

Thankfully, Mom didn’t seem to realize I wasn’t as excited about that idea as she was. Too caught up in all the excitement of the party, she nodded her agreement and then made her eyes big at me. “All my family and friends are going to be completely blown away by the caliber of this event. On the one hand, I’m really excited for their reactions, but on the other, I know they’d have been happy with box wine and pizza.”

I laughed. “Well, you married a literal billionaire. I doubt Mr. Wagner likes box wine and pizza.”

Disbelief shone from her eyes as she shook her head. “I still can’t believe it, but I did. I fell head over heels in love with and ended up marrying a billionaire. It’s crazy.”

“You can say that again.” I finished off the last of my food and then put the cap on my bottle of water so I could take it with us.

Once Mom was done with her meal, we disposed of the containers, stacked our trays, and went to join the chaos in the corridors. Since it would only be getting more and more chaotic as each day passed from now on, I was glad we were here today, but it was already super busy.

We browsed store after store, checking names off our respective lists as the afternoon wore on. As I watched her pick up a gorgeous cashmere sweater for her new husband, envy blossomed in my stomach like a poisonous flower in bloom.

I hated feeling jealous of my own mother, but I couldn’t help it. I wished that I had the money to buy something nice for Kody. Not that I should want to get him anything at all.

And yet, there it was. The taboo reason for the way I was feeling. I missed my stepbrother, just not in any way that I should.