Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 93713 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 469(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93713 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 469(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
“And food. Your boss is in charge of picking up some dinner to bring to the hotel, and your cowboy friend—”
“I have a cowboy friend?” Avery was many things, but cowboy wasn’t one of them, and Duncan was a smooth operator.
“Cole? He didn’t give me a last name. He came by when you were asleep. But he kindly offered to drive you and me to the hotel after the nurses discharge you.” My mother kept her voice neutral, almost bored, but the speed of her chatter gave her away. “It was a lovely chat. Very nice…cowboy.”
“He might be single.” I grinned at her. Cole was likely older than Mom, but not by so much as to matter if she’d suddenly developed a taste for belt buckles and cowboy hats.
“La, la, la,” she pretended to sing. “I can’t hear you over the distance between DC and Denver.”
“Besides, it sounds like you might already have a DC prospect.”
“A friend, Malik.” Still in her elegant black dress and shawl, she waved her hand. “I have friends. Don’t be spicing up the group chat with rumors.”
“Aren’t I already blowing up the chat? The scandal of the day?” I made myself laugh, keeping it light, but in actuality, my back tightened. I hated to create problems for my mom.
“Well, everyone was very worried—”
“That’s not what I mean.” I gave her a stern look. Her talent for wiggling out of uncomfortable topics was almost as good as mine. “Is Avery going to be an issue?”
“That is not for you to worry about, my dearest.” Leaning forward, she gave me a fast kiss on the forehead, which was not as reassuring as she probably intended. “I will handle it.”
“Mama…”
“If anyone has an issue, they can come to me.” She sat straighter in the chair, with perfect regal posture. There it was. Her spine of steel, the one that carried her away from an abusive marriage, through a nasty custody battle, into graduate school and single parenthood. I might be over thirty, but she was still my mama bear. “Not that I anticipate too much upheaval. It’s a different world these days. And, as I told the aunties, you are my son, my only child, and there is nothing that could change that.”
Oh, damn. I hadn’t expected quite that much emphatic support, and two rogue tears escaped down my cheeks before I could stop them. “Thank you. Between you and the meds, I’m a mess.”
“Yes, well, you’re my mess.” She patted my hand. “And if they want an invite to the wedding…”
“What? Whoa! Whoa!” I tried to sit up, but my ribs put up a fierce protest. “Ow. Ow. Warn a guy.”
“Calm down, darling. Don’t pull something. I’m not saying now.” She shoved me back into place against the mattress before adjusting the bed incline for me. “But Professor Patel, in sociology, her son had the most beautiful wedding to his husband, a blend of Hindi and American traditions. I went, you know. Made his mother so proud.”
“I’ve barely got Avery okay with dating.” I groaned. This I should have expected as well as the full-throated support. I shook a finger at her. “No scaring him with wedding talk.”
“He does seem rather skittish. Endearingly jumpy. I think he’s afraid of me.”
“You are rather intimidating,” I teased, happy to get onto a lighter, less tear-filled subject. “Have you talked to him about getting a degree yet?”
“Hush. I’m not that bad.” She gave an arch look, but I did an exaggerated fake cough because we both knew better. “Well, maybe sometimes. Only out of love, darling. Only out of love.”
“I’m not going to graduate school. Or law school.” I wasn’t ever going to get a better opening, and we were well past the point when I should have put my foot down over her future plans for me. “I’m going to stay with A-List. And I need you to respect that.”
Her red lips thinned to a narrow pink line. She inhaled and exhaled through her nose. Five seconds. Then ten. Another exhale, and then she nodded sharply. “All right.”
“That easy?”
“You’re a grown man, Malik. I worry because I’m your mother, and, of course, I would like to see you in a safer job. But I can stop pushing. Besides, you have an Avery to take care of.” She offered a slightly crooked smile, but there was fondness there as well.
“Avery can take care of himself,” I felt honor-bound to point out. “And he does a pretty good job taking care of me too.”
“Of course. I meant more that you have someone you want to build a life together with. As much as I’d love you back on the East Coast, I understand you wanting to stay in LA, make this new relationship work, make decisions together. Not with your mother.”
“I’ll always want my mother’s advice.” I took her hand and squeezed it. “But yes, I need to go it my own a bit more. And I do want a future with Avery. This is the real deal for me, and I want it to work out.”