“Holy fuck,” Judge whispered as we all made moves to rise from our seats.
Once they’d all filed in, Bowie took the lead.
“We’re not here to intrude, Judge. We’re just here to…well, be here. For you.”
“Family,” Mom piped up.
I noted Jamie had made his approach, and Dad was greeting him with a man hug.
“We’ve got our rooms and we can entertain ourselves,” Bowie went on. “Until the service on Wednesday.”
“But if you need anything in the meantime.” Mom was staring hard at Judge.
Something I had not yet noted.
I talked with my mom a lot, about everything, and once Judge and I got together, that was included in our everything.
And from the time I placed a short phone call to her yesterday morning to tell her what was going down, I’d continued sharing.
I suspected, however, that Dad had filled in a few blanks.
And honestly, I was proud I’d kept it together. I was worried and I’d cried in Rix’s arms, but I was pretty pleased with myself that I’d kept a lid on my own emotions that had a schizophrenic range. I’d done this to be available in any way that might come about (like calling the funeral home that morning about his mom’s hair) when Judge needed me.
However, the way Mom was gazing at Judge—giving him that Mom Look that was keen on the scent of an injured cub—how I could tell she was barely holding back, her need was so deep to reach out for him.
And then my gaze skipped to Bowie, who I didn’t think had taken his eyes off Judge from the minute he entered the room.
And I knew it was them, Mom and Bowie, who had arranged this.
For me.
For Judge.
Because…
Family.
That was when I lost it.
I didn’t even know I had until both Judge’s arms had wrapped around my head and my face was in his chest, where I pressed it, sobbing.
“It’s been a lot,” I heard Dru say softly.
The room was quiet for long, torturous, embarrassing moments during which I could not find it in me to get it together before I heard Gage’s voice coming my way.
“You done gone and broke Coco,” he said, then I was out of Judge’s arms and in Gage’s. He rocked me side to side with exaggeration, saying, “Stop being a dork, you big dork.”
“I’m not a dork,” I cried into his neck.
“You’re totally being a dork, and it looks like a frat party in here. But you still totally need more booze,” Gage replied.
Mortifyingly, I let out one of those laugh-cries and pulled my face out of his neck.
“I doubt any frat party has Blanton’s and camembert.”
“It does when I throw it seeing as I’m the son of an outdoors tycoon and stepson of high-falutin’ millionaire Hollywood actress and…whatever I am to your dad, the best tennis player in history.”
“First, please tell me you have not joined a frat,” I demanded.
“As if,” he said. “So I’ll change that to college party.”
“Good,” I returned. “Now did you just say high-falutin’?”
He grinned down at me and asked, “Does it help if I tell you I don’t know what camembert is?”
“It’s cheese.”
He gave me a mock serious look. “Well, I need to know all about that.”
I smiled at him.
This lasted half a second before I was tugged away by Sully, and he did this while he said to his brother, “Don’t hog her. Jesus.”
“You’re just jealous because I got there first and made her stop crying,” Gage retorted.
“Whatever,” Sully muttered, while hugging me hard.
God, I seriously loved my two new little brothers.
“Sullivan,” I greeted.
“Cocoroco,” he replied.
“Aren’t you supposed to be graduating soon?” I asked a question I knew the answer to, because Judge and I had plane tickets to attend those festivities. And these included Sully vowing to take me to Harry’s (a bar just off campus that apparently couldn’t be missed) and threatening to make me ride in a van around the Indianapolis 500 track.
It was going to be Judge and my first trip together as a couple.
Woefully, this one bumped it from the top spot.
“Fortunately, my dad, who pays my tuition, not to mention for other things, like plane tickets to Dallas, thinks it’s crucial I learn priorities.”
That was fortunate indeed.
There were then general greetings which mostly boiled down to hugs all around for Judge and me, some introductions, and then I was left with Sasha and Matt.
It was Matt who did it, towing me to him and pulling in Sasha too.
In our huddle, Sasha met my eyes.
“You okay?” she asked.
“It’s just been…” I used Dru’s words, “a lot.” I hesitated then, “I’ll tell you later.”
That earned me a sunny Sasha Smile that was not fake at all.
And my relief at experiencing it was extreme.
“We’ll be talking about you blowing town with your guy when his mom passes and not fucking calling…either of us,” Matt grumbled.