Page 57 of Shattered Dreams

“What is it, Amelia?” I ask, leaning against the car door. “Hmmm? You have that look.”

“What look?” she asks, her lips turning into a sly grin.

I narrow my gaze at her. “Out with it.”

She sighs. “Nothing, I just wanted to tell you that you should bring Dre and Rylee with you. To the pumpkin patch.” She clears her throat. “I mean, I’m bringing Sean.”

I blink as I try to process her words.

“Sean’s your boyfriend, so I assumed he’d go,” I say as she bites her lip, her eyes glistening with amusement.

“Right,” she says, looking at me like what she’s saying is obvious, but I don’t get it.

“I thought this was a family thing,” I say carefully.

Not that Dre and Rylee aren’t family, because they are…. But Amelia doesn’t know that yet.

At least, she shouldn’t.

“It is,” she says again, with a shrug. “I mean, Dre’s kind of sort of family, too, right? You two have been best friends for a long time.” There’s a lilt to her voice that makes me slightly uneasy, though I can’t understand why.

“Yeah, I guess.”

Amelia looks behind her at the porch, before looking at me once more, a bit more seriously.

“But… I think we both know that you and Dre are… closer than that these days,” she says carefully, and my blood chills.

“What?”

She smirks at me. “It’s okay, you know. You’re allowed to be with whoever you want to be with.”

My stomach flips, tying itself into a hundred knots, and my limbs are frozen. I can’t move. I can’t breathe.

I could just tell her no, she’s got the wrong idea. Or tell her she’s crazy. Hell, I could write it all off as a misunderstanding, and make no mistake, I want to. I want to climb into my Jeep and high-tail it away from this conversation, but I find myself doing the opposite. Because she needs to know, anyway.

My voice is small. Smaller than it should be.

“Even… if it’s a guy?” I croak out, terrified of her knowing gaze. I’ve never felt so on the spot in my life.

Amelia smiles at me genuinely.

“As long as they are good to Maddox, and you’re happy, Paul,” she says sweetly. “And I think you are… So, yeah, we’re good.”

A strange sort of relief blooms in my chest, and my shoulders ease up.

“Maddox loves spending time with both of you. And Dre’s parents, too,” she says softly. “They’re welcome to come, too.”

I meet her knowing gaze, my throat tight, my heart beating so loud I think it’s echoing off the mountains somewhere.

“Besides,” she says. “I think Maddox would like having everyone he cares about there to celebrate with him.”

Her words make me feel a warmth I didn’t imagine I’d ever feel again. Tears threaten to pool in my eyes, but I try my hardest to resist them.

“Okay,” I say carefully. “I’ll, uh… pass the invitation on.”

And with that, my ex-wife leaves me in her driveway to process the reality of what just happened, and what it means.

When I get back home, Dre is camped out on the couch, sans Rylee. I take a minute to appreciate the sight; his long arms stretched behind the cushions, drawing attention to his biceps. Judging by the dampness of his hair and lack of shirt, he’s likely just showered.