Aiden accepted her exuberant hug. “Hey, Maria,” he said. “How’re you doing?”
She winked. “All right,” she said. “How are you? I was so sorry to hear about your father.”
He sighed. Her relationship with his parents had been . . . tense would probably be underselling it, but it was close enough. “Thanks,” he said.
“And you’re still in the Falls?” she asked. “Wow. I don’t know how you do it.”
He shifted his weight from foot to foot, uncomfortable. “It is what it is.”
She looked at Davy. “So, you’re good for next weekend, right?”
“Aren’t I always?” Davy answered, then gave her a quick hug, before hugging his son. “Be good, behave, and I’ll see you next weekend.”
“Bye, Dad!” Bug said cheerfully, then scampered off with his mother.
Aiden climbed back into the truck. Now that Bug was taken care of and he had Davy in an enclosed space, it was time to get down to brass tacks. “Mom’s health is failing,” he said, almost before Davy closed his door.
“What?” Davy’s hand stilled on the ignition key. “The fuck, Aiden? Why didn’t you tell me! What does she have?”
Aiden sighed. “It’s not like that,” he explained. “It’s not like she has . . . just one thing. It’s not like cancer.”
It’s not like Dad.
“Jesus, you scared me,” Davy said with a scowl, starting the car. “Dude, she’s just getting old. It happens to everybody.”
“I know that,” Aiden said, with more bite than he had intended. He took a deep breath to calm himself down. “I worked in hospice, remember? And I was a nurse for the elderly for a few years before that. I’ve been in nursing homes. I know the drill.”
“Mom’s only, what, seventy-six?” Davy said with a shrug. “And she’s healthy. Ish.”
“She’s been falling. A lot,” Aiden emphasized. “She almost gave herself a concussion on the tile in the bathroom. Gave herself a black eye when she fell and hit the kitchen table. And the car . . .”
“Oh, right,” Davy said, with a snap. “That reminds me. She’s been bugging me, so I thought I’d give her a new car for Christmas. I mean, her old car is a piece of junk, always breaking down.”
“It’s not breaking down!” Aiden growled. “I told her that because I was afraid she was going to take out a fucking school bus full of kids!”
Davy sent him a quick, startled side-eye. “Seriously?”
“That’s why I’ve been texting,” Aiden said. “That’s why I’ve been calling. She’s having issues, and we need to deal with them. We can’t wait until the last minute. Remember what a mess it was with Dad?”
Davy rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. “All right.”
“I need you to come to the Falls,” Aiden said. “She’ll listen to you. She likes you better, anyway.”
“Aiden, that’s not fair.”
Aiden shrugged. “I’m not trying to be passive aggressive with that, or anything. It’s certainly not your fault. I’m just stating facts. She will listen to you. And we need to get her to understand that decisions need to be made. All right?”
Davy sighed heavily. “I have a bunch of stuff I need to deal with at the dealerships,” he grumbled. “And I’m opening the new one in Coeur d’Alene. Dammit, I don’t have time for this.”
“Well, it’s got to be soon. She’s getting worse. And you know how she is,” Aiden added. “She doesn’t listen, she’s stubborn as hell, and she thinks I’m full of shit.”
“All right. Tell you what . . . I’ll come back after Jason’s wedding,” Davy finally relented. “Does that work?”
“That’s two months away!” Aiden yelped. “What the hell?”
“Best I can do.” Davy could be stubborn, too, and he saw that this was as much leeway as he was going to get. “You can hold down the fort until then, right?”
Aiden took a deep breath. “Fine.”
“Speaking of. You’re not going to the wedding, are you?”
“Mom is insisting that I do,” Aiden said, rolling his eyes. “What? You think I shouldn’t? Because if you could tell her that, it’d be great.”
“Shit.” Davy winced. “Why does she want you there?”
“She thinks seeing me there, with a date, might smooth things out with all the gossip.” Aiden shook his head. “All these years. You’d think they’d be over it.”
“It’s because they don’t know the details,” Davy said, and to his credit, he sounded genuinely sorry.
“Do you honestly think that would help?” Aiden said, stunned.
“God, no!” Davy snickered, and in that moment, Aiden wanted to throttle him. “No,” Davy continued, more seriously. “Although—hmm. You know, you bringing a date might be a good idea. Let some people think you’ve moved on, that Sheryl’s cool with it, that everybody’s happy, and put the whole thing behind us. Hell, hire some woman if you have to.”
“This isn’t a Julia Roberts movie,” Aiden said, with a small smile.
“Not with that attitude,” Davy replied, grinning back. “So there isn’t anyone you’re even remotely interested in?”
Aiden hated when Davy, or anyone, said shit like that. Like it was his fault. Like there was something wrong with him. He sighed.
“Well, there is a woman who just joined our guild,” he finally said, setting the trap.
“Really? That could be perfect!” Davy seemed genuinely happy. “She’d have something in common with you. Have you met her? What’s she like?”
“She’s a badass. Has two level-hundred characters, fully kitted out.”
“Like I even know what that means,” Davy said. “What’s she like?”
“Funny,” he said, thinking of Bogwitch. He really did like her—what he’d seen, anyway—and was glad she’d joined the guild. “Snarky. She doesn’t take shit, but she isn’t mean if you don’t deserve it. Also super generous.”
“She sounds great. So why don’t you ask her out?”
Aiden finally burst out laughing. “Because I think she’s like eighty. Old enough to be Mom.”
“Oh, fuck off,” Davy said, and Aiden laughed some more. “Hey. Wanna go grab some breakfast? There is a diner I know that is amazing.”
Aiden’s eyes narrowed. “Is it a Sheryl special?” Sheryl had gotten onto a health kick lately, which as a nurse he agreed with—to a point.
“Not a scrap of kale in sight,” Davy said. “And some of the best bacon I’ve ever had, I swear. And pancakes the size of manhole covers.”
“You had me at bacon,” Aiden said. “Let’s go.”
At least he had a time frame, he thought as they drove off. He just had to manage his mother past Jason’s wedding. And get a date. And then his brother would come home, and the three of them would hash it all out.