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“No. I didn’t want to be left alone with your mother, I don’t want to be driving this stupid-ass truck, and I didn’t want to come home and immediately be consumed with worry about you. The best thing you can do is leave me alone.”
What the fuck? Fine, I’ll leave her alone, though I don’t understand what the big deal is. When we get home, she walks Otis and then says she’s taking a shower. Mom pulls me into the kitchen to feed me the dinner she cooked.
“What’s wrong with her?” I ask.
Mom cuts her eyes over at me. She’s sitting at the table with me while I eat. “I didn’t raise a dummy, did I?”
“No, but what does that have to do with Deanna?”
Mom rests her hand over one of mine. “Son, she was more concerned about you than I was.” That’s interesting because Deanna made it sound like Mom was more worried with the whole ‘she’s about to call hospitals’ comment. “I thought the poor girl was going to have a panic attack when she came home and I told her you had left without a word as to where and hadn’t come home yet.”
“Yeah, but I was fine.”
Mom rolls her eyes. “Brayden, she was worried. Truly worried, and that seemed to scare her as much as being worried about you. She reminds me of you in a way.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Being scared of a relationship and to care for someone for whatever reason. She realized she cares for you a lot and doesn’t know what to do with that. You’re the idiot who hasn’t realized how much you care about her yet.”
I frown. “I know I care about Deanna.”
“Okay,” she says, but she doesn’t sound like she believes me. “Does she know it? You really worried her, Brayden, even though you didn’t mean to. I don’t know what her story is, but I bet you do. You might want to apologize and be sweet to her.”
I tuck that information away. “Does this mean you like her?”
“So far, yes, and I’m guessing by the fact that you’ve asked me twice today that she may just be the one to stick around long-term in your life.” She stands and pats my shoulder. “Don’t screw it up, Brayden.” She kisses the top of my head and heads upstairs for bed. She didn’t have to say so because anytime I get a kiss on the head, that means she’s about to turn in for the night.
I leave my dirty plate on the table because it’s not like it can’t wait until morning to be washed and head upstairs. I’m still tired. Otis lies curled up at the end of the bed when I walk into my room. Deanna sits on the edge, facing away from me, and brushes her hair. First, I get myself ready for bed. She’s underneath the covers when I return and climb in.
“Want to watch a movie?” I ask.
“No.”
“Plain old TV then?”
“No.”
“We can if you want.” I don’t even know why I’m trying at this point.
“It’s only going to bother you, so no; it’s fine.”
Oh. That’s why she doesn’t want to watch something? “Well, come here, darlin’.” She sighs, but she scoots over until I can wrap my arms around her. “I’m sorry for causing you to worry. I wanted to get out of the house, so I decided to go see Bree. After a while, I got a bad headache, so I laid down and fell asleep. Raelynn woke me up because it was so late. I didn’t think I would fall asleep or I would’ve turned my phone on vibrate.”
“I guess I forgive you,” she mumbles, her lips brushing against my collarbone.
I pinch her ass. “You guess?”
Her lips move into a smile. “Yep.” She lifts her head. “Are you really okay?”
“Yeah. I’ll take it extra easy tomorrow.”
“You better.” Deanna leans forward to kiss me softly just once. “I like your momma.”
I laugh. “You can’t kiss me and then talk about my mom, Deanna. Why do you like her?”
“She’s nice. She was really calm, even though we were both concerned over where you might be. She trusts you a lot more than I do, I guess. While we were waiting for you to call us, she made me eat and tell her more about myself. I just hope I didn’t say too much. Like, I told her about my parents and she asked how I came to own the shop, so I told her about that. She probably thinks you should dump me because I’m this wild child. Anytime a guy came into conve
rsation, I always said he was a boyfriend even if he wasn’t. It was like she dosed dinner with truth serum or something and it was all I could do to tell her nearly everything.” She tucks her head under my chin. “I’m sure she’s not impressed.”
