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Her eyes widened a fraction. “Like our parents?”
“Yeah. Graham, too, probably.”
She nodded. “I guess we should. I’ll just call mine.”
“You don’t want to stop by and tell them in person?”
She winced. “Not really.”
He wondered if she might say more, and just regarded her for a few moments. Her strained relationship with her parents was hard on her, and for her sake, he wished they could figure things out. They used to be so close. But no one seemed to know how to overcome what happened, and he wasn’t sure they ever would.
“Do you think they’ll be upset?” he finally asked.
“Only surprised, I think. Besides, they have no room to get upset. They’re no strangers to keeping secrets.” She looked down at her lap, then back up at him. “They’ve always loved you.”
She didn’t know, but after their big fight, Noah had promised her dad he’d look after her, especially during those months when they weren’t on speaking terms. Noah’s allegiance was to Mia first. Always. But every day he’d passed her parents in the waiting room of that hospital, Mia having put them on the unapproved visitor list, and the pain and worry etched on their faces had been more than he could bear.
He’d simply stopped in front of them one day and said, “I’ve got her.”
Her mom had started crying, and her dad had hugged him, while Noah stood stiffly with his arms at his sides. That was two years ago, and as far as he knew Mia had only spoken to them a handful of times since.
“Your mom’s gonna be pissed we didn’t have a real wedding,” Mia was saying. “And that she wasn’t invited to the courthouse.” She glanced behind her. “Think I can take the rest of those cinnamon rolls over as a peace offering?”
He straightened. “No. Those are mine.”
“I made two dozen.”
He locked eyes with her. “I don’t like to share.”
Her gaze held his for a beat, and he had no idea if she caught his double meaning. “Fine. But if she starts crying, that’s on you.”
“Of course she’ll cry. It’s my mom. But it’ll be because she’s so happy. I think she was losing hope for me.”
Mia’s face contorted and she put her elbows on the table, dropping her head in her hands. “Noah.”
“What?”
Her words came out muffled. “I’m going to break your mom’s heart.” She lifted her head and let her arms fall across each other on the wood. “When we eventually break up. It’s going to kill her.”
He sighed. “Yeah. It will.”
Mia looked so forlorn he almost laughed.
“Let me worry about that,” he said. “For now, think about how happy you’re about to make her. Isn’t a little temporary happiness better?”
She frowned. “Not always.”
Yeah, true.
Mia twisted around to look at the clock. “My parents will be up by now. I’m just gonna get this over with.”
She picked up her phone and tapped the screen before she put the phone up to her ear.
“Want to put them on speaker?” he asked. “Do it together?”
She looked at the ceiling as if in thought, then shook her head with a little scrunch of her nose. Suddenly her face cleared. “Hey, Dad. Is Mom around, too? I have some news.” She paused. “No, I’m fine. It’s nothing like that.”
Noah knew exactly how her dad felt in that moment. He constantly worried about her health, too.
