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“No. I haven’t seen him since we’ve gotten serious, and I’m lucky if I can keep him on the phone for five minutes when we talk.”
“Are you going to tell him before you introduce us? Don’t blindside him, Landon.”
“You think that’s best?” he asks and my eyes widen in shock.
“What! Yes, of course. What are you going to say? Hey, Griffin, here’s my girlfriend, by the way, she’s twenty-one?”
“I didn’t realize you had an issue with our age difference.” He lets go of my feet and immediately I feel guilty for how I phrased it.
“I don’t. I definitely don’t. But I’m not so naïve to think that other people won’t take an issue with it. And forget other people, I’m not so naïve to think that our people will be totally on board.”
He runs a hand through his hair and stares straight ahead, his eyes fixed on the wall, and before I can decide to give him some space I climb into his lap and wrap my arms around his neck as I snuggle into his chest. “Sorry.”
He noticeably relaxes and wraps his arms around me. “Don’t be sorry. I’m just…tense about Griff, that’s all.”
“I get that. And if you’re not ready for me to meet him, I’ll stay away this weekend. I can survive without you for a few days,” I joke.
He tenses below me and pulls my face out of his chest. “I can’t.”
My heart races as a vision of him telling me those three words flash through my brain. Does he love me? Is that where this was heading?
My feelings are getting stronger by the day and it’s getting to the point that being away from him is not only difficult but at times unbearable. He has been this unstoppable force that came barging into my life and my heart and I’m realizing that I can’t deny how deep my feelings are for him.
The thought is scary. How will my family take it? How will his family take it? What if it ruins what little bit of relationship he has with his son? I’d never forgive myself.
“Not going to Zoey’s this weekend?” my mother asks. I’m pulling the chocolate souffle out of the oven that I had decided to make on a whim, when I hear her voice behind me. I tap the top slightly and smile when I note that it’s perfect.
Okay, maybe I’m on a baking binge because I’m nervous about meeting Griffin tomorrow. I had thought it was a good idea for Landon and his son to spend some time together before I showed up, so I wouldn’t be going until the following day.
I turn around after setting it on the counter and look at her. “Why do you say it like that? And why are you looking at me like that?”
“Maybe because I know you. Sono tua madre, bella.” I am your mother, Bella. She shoots me a knowing look, that look all moms have perfected that says: I know you better than you know yourself.
“I don’t know what you’re implying.”
“La mia ragazza è innamorata.” My girl is in love.
“Mama...” I trail off, but there is no lying to my mother or ignoring the physiological reaction that happened from thinking about Landon. I can feel my cheeks heating and without thinking I slide my glasses to the top of my head, a telltale sign that I’m going to start crying.
“Oh, Rena,” she says as she makes her way towards me and envelopes me in her arms just as the first few tears start to fall. I hadn’t meant to start crying, but the intensity of the past few months coupled with what I know will be at best, a rocky few months in the future, causes the tears to form before I can stop them. “What is it, honey? Cosa c’è che non va.” What’s wrong?
I wipe my eyes, knowing that I’m going to have to lie to my mother for perhaps the first time ever. “Nothing, Mama. It’s just been a long semester. I’m just stressed about finals.”
“Uh huh.” She pulls back to look at me and wipes her thumbs under my eyes. I feel like I’m looking into a mirror of the future and it stuns me just how much I look like my mother. Hazel eyes, and hair the color of chestnuts is pulled back into a neat bun. She slides her frames above her head to look at me. “I’m not going to tell you a boy isn’t worth your tears, Serena. Love is hard and sometimes there will be tears. Sometimes there will be hard times.” She tucks a hair behind my ear and gives me a smile. “Does he feel the same?”
“I’m…I’m not sure.” I stammer. “I think so.”
“Then you don’t give up.”
I hadn’t expected this reaction from my mother. “This is a very different philosophy than what you preach to Sky.”
“Skyler is…impetuous. That’s my baby, but she acts quickly and with her whole heart in an instant. You, my first born…” she strokes my cheek, “I see so much of myself in you. You observe everything and absorb it into your soul. You’re cautious and you’ve protected your heart for so long. But I always knew the first man you gave your heart to would be the one.”
My scalp prickles as more tears form. Is Landon the one? Or is my mother projecting her high school sweetheart romance onto me?
“Mom, I don’t know about all that…It’s still so new.”
She smiles and nods once. “Mmmhmm. Well, I would love to meet this boy that has gotten your interest.”
