Oh, for fuck’s sake. That had happened in her house, not in some public arena. Did Deb have her living room bugged at this point? With the speed of gossip transmission in Fool’s Falls, and the ferocity with which it was pursued, it was like Nextdoor meets TMZ. She’d probably find Patience hiding in her hedges with a telephoto lens next.
“Mom?”
“It’s fine.”
“Really?” Kit now sounded amused. “Because you’re doing your Linda-Hamilton-in–Terminator 2 voice.”
“I’m just annoyed,” she replied. “It’s a nothingburger. Aiden’s just a friend.”
Another pause. “Aiden?” Kit asked, sounding amused. “Who’s Aiden?”
“He’s the healer, the leader of our guild. It’s no big deal,” she tacked on with a tone she hoped shut him down.
“And he knows Ms. Deb?”
“His mom goes to her church, or something. One of the ladies at book club hooked us up.” She froze. “Connected us, I mean.”
“Is he the healer guy you were talking about? The one who volunteered to protect you when you first joined the guild?” Now Kit sounded scandalized and a bit sick. “Didn’t you say that he was like eighteen or something?”
“Funny story, that,” she said, rubbing her temple. “It turns out he’s a little older than me, actually.”
He let out a startled laugh. “How’d you find out?”
“I, um . . . went to his house.”
“Jesus, this is a roller coaster,” Kit said, sounding bewildered. “Moving past the inherent dangers involved in going to a stranger’s house . . . Why did you go to his house? You don’t even like to go to the grocery store. And you need to do that to survive.”
“He’d broken his foot, and he needed a hand, and I brought him some soup, and that’s how we met. IRL, I mean.”
“And Ms. Deb thinks you’re dating because . . . you brought him some soup? Why? And what was the wedding thing about?”
“She may’ve gotten the wrong idea because we’ve been hanging out a lot,” she admitted, debating how much to tell him. But she’d tried so hard not to lie to him if she didn’t have to. “And there may have been an incident at his house where she went full hyper-helpful hamster and threw a surprise party for him. In his house. Without his consent.”
Kit sighed. “That does sound like Ms. Deb.”
“So I gave him an out, and helped him escape. He came up to the house and fixed our router, sort of, so that was a thing. Also, we watch movies together, and stuff.” She bit her lip. “He’s actually really nice. You’d like him.”
“Are you dating this guy or not?” Kit asked. “Because it honestly sounds like you’re dating him, and I am confused as hell right now.”
“I’m . . . we’re . . . friends.” She huffed out a breath. “It’s complicated!”
They were both quiet for a second. “Mom, it’s all right if you date,” he said softly. “You know that, right? I don’t want you to be all alone. If you like this guy, I don’t want you to avoid a relationship because you think I’m going to hate it, or something weird. I want you to get out there, and have fun, and . . . I don’t know. Find somebody who’s nice.”
She swallowed hard, her throat suddenly feeling scratchy, her eyes prickling with tears. “It’s not about you.”
“Is it about Dad?” Kit asked. “Because I have to assume that they’re not all like him.”
“No.” She gritted her teeth. “Not exactly. I mean, he influenced me up to this point, but this has some weird specificity that I literally cannot and will not talk about. Anyway, long story short, Aiden and I aren’t dating. He asked me to a wedding, and I said no, and that’s it.”
“Wait—he asked you to a thing . . .”
“To a wedding,” she emphasized.
He ignored her. “。 . . and you said no? Why? Do you not like him?”
“I like him a lot.” The admission leaped out of her mouth, and she felt horrified.
“So why aren’t you going to the wedding with him?”
“Because it’s not like that between us!”
“His choice? Or yours?”
She was quiet.
Kit sighed. “So he’s an asshole?”
“No!” The vehemence of her words startled even her. “No. Not even a little bit. He’s a sweetheart, and I mean that. He just . . . doesn’t feel . . .” She let it trail off.
Kit sighed. “I’m sorry, Mom. I wish I could make this better.”
Her laugh came out tear laced, and she cursed herself silently. Clearing her throat, she reminded him, “I’m the parent here, not you. And don’t worry about it, okay? The shocking thing here, really, is that I made a friend. I’m ahead of the game for a change.”
“You’re still going to hang out with him?”
“Maybe. Eventually. I just need a little time to . . . process.”
There was a commotion, a jumble of people’s voices and laughter on Kit’s end of the line. “I need to go, but call me if you need me, okay?”
She wanted to ask if they were friends of his—how his life was—but she didn’t want to keep him, and she didn’t want him worrying about her further. “I’ll be fine, okay? Talk to you next week.” With that, she hung up.
She felt like she could explode from emotions, like Mentos stuffed into a Diet Coke bottle. She was angry at Deb’s presumption. Embarrassed at needing to explain herself. Upset that she’d inadvertently made Kit sad and concerned. Most of all, she felt that weird, empty, achy feeling in her chest at the thought that she’d somehow fallen heavily in like with Aiden and that there was really no pathway that worked there, not without pressuring him or hurting him or losing his friendship.
She wanted to scream. She wanted to play video games until her mind shut off. But video games made her think of Aiden, and there was no way she was texting him to play when he was what she needed to forget right now.
She swallowed hard. Then she turned on the TV, and called out the big guns.
She played Encanto.
And she wept her damned eyes out until she felt a little better.
CHAPTER 27
CRAPSACCHARINE WORLD
“Thank you all for coming to our rehearsal dinner,” Jason said to the group of family in the hotel’s restaurant. Jason was beaming, as was his lovely bride-to-be. Their respective parents were also beaming. People were eating the food, drinking copious amounts of booze, enjoying themselves, and toasting in preparation for the joyous occasion to come the next day.
It’d be great if this wasn’t such a clusterfuck.
Aiden drank a glass of water, recognizing that it was, technically, only a clusterfuck for him.
“What did you do?” his mother had snapped when he had picked her up to go to Idaho that morning. “I thought you were asking Deb! I told her you should!”
“I changed my mind,” he admitted. “It’s not fair, Mom. She wants to be my girlfriend, and I am just not interested in her that way. At all. It’s a dick move.”