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That’s one of the things I love the most about Bree. She can be serious when she needs to be but as soon as the moment passes, she’s back to her spitfire, crazy ass self.
“And you better call me, too,” She calls after me through the open window as I turn to walk away.
“You know I will.” I throw a half wave before jogging up to the front door and pushing my way inside.
The moment the lock latches behind me, I press my back to the door and let out a slow breath, fighting back the tears that once again threaten to spill.
“Tess.” I hear my mom’s voice seconds before she appears in the living room, concern taking over her face the second she sees me. “What happened? What’s wrong?”
That’s all it takes before I fall apart into a blubbering mess.
Mom jumps into action, quickly pulling me into her side and leading me to the couch. I should’ve known that one look at my mother and I would fall apart. She’s always been the one person I can’t hide my emotions from.
I spend the next half hour telling her everything that happened. By the time I’m done I expect her to tell me she doesn’t want me seeing Sebastian anymore, so what she says instead has my jaw almost hitting the floor.
“Sounds like Dylan got what was coming to him.”
“Mom!” I can’t hide the shock from my voice.
“What? You don’t agree?” She smiles, tucking my hair over my shoulder.
“I mean, I do. Obviously. But aren’t you supposed to say something like— violence is never the answer, or nothing was ever solved from fighting or some other parental nonsense.”
“Would it matter if I did?” She pulls me close, resting her head against mine. “Bottom line, Sebastian was protecting my baby. And that will never be frowned upon in my book,” she says, turning her face to kiss my temple.
“So you’re not going to make me stop seeing him?” I question, turning to look at her.
“Make you stop seeing him?” She gawks. “I’d be more likely to award him with some kind of medal.”
This pulls the first smile from me since I walked through the front door.
“Now stop procrastinating and invite that boy over for dinner. I think after today I should at least get to meet him already,” she adds, bumping her shoulder against mine.
“You’re a pretty perfect mom, you know that?”
“It’s easy when you have a pretty perfect daughter.” She smiles, abruptly standing from the couch. “Now go, text that boy and find out if everything is okay, and I’m gonna go order us some Chinese food before I have to get ready for work.”
“Hey, Mom,” I call just as she reaches the foyer, “thank you.”
She offers nothing more than a nod and a warm smile, but it does so much to calm the earthquake inside of me.
It’s not lost on me how lucky I am to have her. The thought once again brings Sebastian to the forefront of my mind. The way his father spoke to him— the clearly dysfunctional dynamic of their relationship—it makes me sad to think that this is what he deals with on a daily basis.
My mom has never spoken to me the way his father did today. And while I don’t remember much about my own father, I can’t see him being the type of man who would do that either, otherwise, my mom never would’ve married him.
I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have my mom to fall back on, which in turn makes me wonder—who does Sebastian have?
