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“My parents. They never liked my career choice,” he snorts. “When I’m back in town, my mom is constantly trying to get me to meet her, and my dad pretends I don’t exist.”
“You don’t want to meet up with your mom?” I ask, trying to remember a time that Mav has ever mentioned his parents. I immediately feel like an asshole when I realize that I never even asked about them. The only informationhe’s told me voluntarily is that his dad abuses his mom and was upset that Mav didn’t follow in his footsteps and go to law school.
“All that happens when I do is her trying to set me up with one of my dad’s political friend’s daughters. Then we get into a fight about the bruises she’s trying to hide and the help from me she immediately turns down. It’s exhausting.”
I nod, understanding the parent problem better than most. I’ve avoided checking in on my mom since we’ve been home. I need to confront her about the interview she gave, but I’m not sure it would be worth it.
“This isn’t sustainable,” I tell him, gesturing to the mess around us.
He nods but doesn’t move.
“How about you shower, and I’ll pick up?” I offer.
“I’m fine,” he says. I can feel him shutting down again. He’s not as different from his mom as he thinks he is.
“You can either get in the shower or I’m calling Willa.”
His eyes snap to mine at the threat. Willa might be tiny, but the girl is fierce. She’ll get him in the shower and probably make him mop every floor in this house while she watches.
“You wouldn’t.”
I lift my brow and shrug. “Dude, you smell. You need to shower, and I’m willing to call in the calvary if I have to.”
He grumbles something under his breath that sounds a lot likeasshole, but he gets up and heads towards his room anyway.
I spend the next thirty minutes filling trash bags and taking them to the bin in the garage. Eventually, Mav comesand helps me. His hair is wet, and he’s wearing clean clothes. He even put pants on this time.
We work silently next to each other to get his space back to something that won’t be hindering his mental health. He needs help in that department, but just getting him in the shower and cleaning is a pretty big accomplishment for one day. I’ll work on more tomorrow.
I got back to Cal’s to find Belle and her dad in a heated game of Rummy.
“Full house is poker! You can’t put that down!” Belle is yelling while her dad looks happy just to be here. He probably did that on purpose just to get a reaction out of her.
“Can I talk to you?” I ask Cal. He frowns but nods and follows me out to his back deck.
“You better not be keeping secrets from Belle. I got in trouble for it earlier today,” he says, looking slightly scared when mentioning his sister. I found out about the Brad situation while I was at Mav’s. Cal wanted to warn me, at least according to him. I think he just wanted me to come defend him. I’m pretty pissed at him for that too, but right now I have something else on my mind.
“What do you think about moving?”
His brows furrow. “Moving where? I thought you wanted to stay in this area?”
He’s not wrong. Part of the reason we all live in our hometown is that I wanted to stay close to where Ezra was last seen. No one argued with me about it, since I think they all felt similarly.
“I did, but Mav is a mess when we’re here. The new label isn’t going to work us to the bone the way the other one did. We’ll have a lot more time at home, and I just…” I trail off, sighing.
“Yeah, I get it. I checked on him a couple of days ago, and he’s worse than ever.” Cal rubs his chin as he thinks. “Where are you thinking?”
“Well, the label said they rent studio space in Boston for the artists on this coast. What if we moved closer to there? As it is right now, we’re like three to four hours away and that could get annoying.” Cal looks at me and I know he’s thinking the same thing. We want to get Belle away from here too, but if we make that decision for and about her, she’ll refuse.
“Do you think Willa will agree?” he asks. Willa still lives in her parent’s old house. Her dad died a couple of years ago, and she hasn’t wanted to part with it.
“She doesn’t need to sell that house. She can always keep it and get a condo or something. It’s not like she can’t afford it.”
“My dad lives close to Boston now. That could be a good sell for Belle too,” Cal adds. “And Mav?”
“He hates it here. If we tell him we want to move to be closer to the studio —” I pause for a moment to think about it. “Well, I think he’ll be suspicious, but I’m sure he’ll go with it, anyway.”
“So, Willa and Belle.”
