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“Hey.”
“You’re smiling,” he comments. “And your legs don’t look broken.” His hand runs up my leg, resting on the curve of my hip.
“We only went down the mountain once,” I confess. “But I survived.”
“Once? What time did you get back?”
I glance at my laptop. “About an hour ago.”
“You were gone for a while, then.”
“We went to a restaurant afterward.”
“Really?”
“Uh-huh. Your mom atefries.”
Caleb chuckles. “Wow.”
“Also…she told me some stuff. About her and your dad.”
Up until this exact second, I hadn’t decided whether to tell Caleb about what his mom mentioned to me.
“What stuff?”
I pull in a deep breath. “She told me he cheated on her. With my mom.”
I’m expecting shock. Disgust. Anger. Not for him to calmly blink and say, “I know.”
“What? How?”
“I broke into the safe in his office once, sophomore year of high school. I was bored and we’d just had an argument. There was an old receipt in there for some fancy jewelry. And the delivery address was your family’s farm. Pretty easy to do the math. I knew what their relationship was—is—like. I’d be surprised if there haven’t been other women, honestly.”
“So you knew that was why your mom disliked me so much?”
“I figured that was part of it,” he replies. “But don’t let her use this as some get-out-of-jail-free card, Len. You’re not responsible for what your mom got involved in. It should never have mattered in the first place.”
“Your mom thinks you don’t know.”
“She’s always wanted to pretend like we’re this perfect family. I knew it would hurt her, knowing I knew. So I’ve never said anything about it.”
“Were you ever going to tell me?” I ask.
“Probably not.”
“Why not?”
“It has nothing to do with us, Lennon.”
“We’re talking about our parents! It’s weird. Gross.”
“We’re totally on the same page there. But what does it change? Do you love me less?”
“Of course not.”
“Do you know what I’d say to your mom if I ever got to meet her when she was still alive?”
“Stop gambling at the track so your daughter and your father don’t end up broke?”
