Role Playing(93)

There was a way he said Dana’s name, a fondness, that she immediately clued into. “Girlfriend?” she asked.

He blushed. Kit looked like a tomato by this point. “Yeah,” he said.

“How long?”

“Um . . . maybe two months?”

“Two months?” She looked at him, aghast. “Dude.”

“I didn’t mean to keep it a secret from you,” he said. “But you were all gung ho about doing whatever you could to make sure I was getting the full social experience of school, while at the same time you were burying yourself in this tomb of a house. I swear to God, if you could hook yourself into the internet like they do in The Matrix, you would have.”

“Damn it, Kit . . .”

“And I know you said you were fine,” he continued earnestly. “But I worry, Mom.”

She huffed out a breath. What to say, in the face of that? “I don’t want you to worry,” she said softly. “But even if you did . . . I’m the parent. Your father was right on that front.”

He scowled. “I definitely didn’t mean for Dad to give you shit. I shouldn’t have told him, but . . . I don’t know. It was nice to talk to him again. For him to listen.”

She deflated. Yeah, she could see that.

“Still, I shouldn’t have let him in the house.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you were talking to him, at least?”

Kit bit the corner of his lip. “Because I know how much you hate him.”

She closed her eyes, sighing. It was fair. “I have been angry with him for a long time,” she said. “Mostly because of how he treated you. He was hard on you when he was here, or he ignored you. Then he just ghosted you. I don’t care how he treated me, but goddamn it, he’ll treat you like shit over my dead body. I let him get away with too much for too long—”

“And this is why I didn’t tell you.” Kit looked mournful.

She took a deep breath, quelling the anger that had, indeed, welled as she started talking. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t want you to feel like you can’t talk to me.”

He nodded. “You didn’t tell me everything either,” he pointed out. “How long have you been seeing the guy?”

“Who, Aiden?”

“Yeah. Healer guy.” He grinned. “Pancake guy. Good pancakes, by the way.”

She shrugged. “I didn’t have a chance to eat any yet.”

“He spent the night, I assume?” Kit looked a cross between amused and grossed out.

“I don’t see that it’s your business,” she countered, “and we’re not done talking about you yet.”

Kit looked resigned. “In between all the pranks, we all managed to dig up the regulations and got proof of what the RA was doing that broke them. He’s getting written up and won’t be an RA next semester.”

“Who’s ‘we’?”

Kit looked at the ceiling, as if mentally counting. “My roommate. Dana and her roomie, Naomi. Jesse and his boyfriend, Ty. Kirk from down the hall. And some of my friends from the library.” He paused. “I got a job at the library, by the way.”

“You got a job?” She was torn between being proud of him and distraught that she knew none of this. “Do you have time for that? Do you not have enough money?”

“I’m doing fine,” he reassured her, with the easy confidence of an eighteen-year-old. “And it’s an awesome job. I now know how to research anything, and I’ve met a lot of cool people.”

She finally grinned. Then she startled when tears began to pour down her cheeks.

This was what she had wanted. Her son was independent, and brilliant, and no longer alone. And happy.

“Oh, God! Mom!” Kit quickly engulfed her in a hug. Even though he’d towered over her for several years now, she still felt a sharp pang as he cuddled her like she was a child. When had her baby gotten big enough to cuddle her completely? “What’s wrong? I’m sorry! I should’ve told you everything. I just wanted you to not be alone.”

“I know,” she said. Well, sniffled. “But first: don’t do that. Don’t try to manipulate me just because you’re concerned.”

“Only okay when you do it, huh?”

“I didn’t lie, my dude,” she added sharply, and to his credit, Kit looked sheepish. “You could’ve told me you were doing all that stuff and then insisted that I do the same. You didn’t have to lie, or use guilt. I hope to Christ I didn’t teach you that.”

The fear that she’d done exactly that made her sick to her stomach. She would’ve fucked up fairly significantly if that was the case. That would prove Trev right.

“No, this is my fault.” He looked so miserable, she hugged him. “I’m sorry, Mom. I just wanted you to feel better, you know?”

“I know. But I also want to make sure you know this wasn’t okay.”

“I get it. I won’t do it again.”

“Damned right you won’t,” she muttered, then sighed.

“Sooooo . . . The guy?”

She huffed out a little laugh. “Aiden and I got together recently,” she said. “Like, a day ago recent. But we’ve been good friends for months, and I value that. Nobody’s rushing anything.”