The wrong key.
The wrong piece to a puzzle.
I was destined to settle and that sucked.
Chapter Thirty
The worst part about late flights? When they were canceled for mechanical issues, it meant a night in the airport or, in my case, a trip home only to wake up five hours later and drive back to the airport for an early flight.
I didn’t even bother pulling my suitcase out of the back of my Forester. Not for five hours. Rose’s car was parked in the driveway, and as I made my way around the side of the house, the glow of the globe lights illuminated the walkway for me. They were probably having a party since I was supposed to be out of town for the weekend. I prepared myself for some new girl Rose found to fix up with Fisher.
It didn’t matter. I knew I would give them a quick flight update and go straight to bed.
No obsessing over the real adults having fun without me.
No stressing over a new girl (a new woman) for Fisher.
To my surprise and relief, there wasn’t a party on the screened-in porch, just a couple of empty plates and wine glasses. I toed off my shoes just inside of the door and set my bag on my bed. I knew Rory wasn’t asleep because she wouldn’t have left the lights on.
I knocked several quick times on her bedroom door before opening it. “My flight got canceled so—”
She wasn’t in her bedroom, but the lights were on.
They were upstairs with Fisher. I wasn’t sure I wanted or needed to go upstairs. I’d had enough Fisher time for the night. As I started to shut her bedroom door, I heard a noise. It was coming from her bathroom, so I made my way through her bedroom to her bathroom. The door was cracked open, so I eased it open, hearing the water running in the shower.
It took me too long to make sense of what I was seeing in that moment—too much time letting the vision make a permeant stain on my memory. I knew I would never be able to forget. It would play in my mind on an endless loop for … maybe the rest of my life.
It just didn’t make sense.
Rory was in the shower, her back against the far wall, her eyes closed, mouth open. One hand pressed to the wall to steady herself. Her other hand was tangled in Rose’s hair. Rose was on her knees with one of Rory’s legs hooked over her shoulder. Rose was … well, she was fingering my mom while simultaneously giving her oral sex.
I blinked again and again. I couldn’t stop blinking. I couldn’t move. Despite the crushing feeling of complete devastation, my world turning upside down …
I. Couldn’t. Turn. Away.
Had it been literally anyone else, I would have turned and ran, feeling horrified for the predictable reason like, it’s embarrassing to accidentally walk in on two people having sex.
Then it happened. Those eyes … the ones that shot me a final glance before leaving the courtroom … they opened and landed on me.
Contrite and apologetic.
Like cells dividing at a rapid pace, forming something from nothing, ten thousand pieces of a puzzle putting themselves together … I saw it.
All of it.
It wasn’t a coincidence that Rose was in Colorado. They’d been friends for years.
Friends.
That was why my dad was so quick to divorce Rory after she went to prison. So many things I never fully understood. They all started to come together.
“Reese!” Rory called just as I tore my gaze away from the nightmare in the shower and ran out of the house. As soon as I reached the driveway, Fisher pulled in on his motorcycle.
“Did you know?” I yelled.
He drove past me, parking his motorcycle in the garage.
I charged after him. “Did you know?” My hands balled at my sides.
Fisher pulled off his helmet. “What are you doing here?” He climbed off his bike and carried his helmet to the cabinet.
“Did. You. KNOW?”
“Jesus, Reese.” He turned, unzipping his jacket. “What the hell is going on?”
“Did you know that my mom is a lesbian? Gay. Homosexual. Are you understanding me now?” I shook my head over and over again, running my hands through my hair.
It wasn’t real. It wasn’t true.
I didn’t deserve that, not after everything I’d been through. What was God doing? He wasn’t supposed to give me more than I could handle. That was way more than I could handle.
Fisher slowed his movements, easing his arms out of his jacket and returning it to the cabinet next to his helmet. Fisher wasn’t tense like me. He wasn’t stunned, frozen in place.
No bugged-out eyes.
No jaw dropping to the ground.
Not a single sign that I was presenting him with new information.
“Did I know your mom and Rose are together? Yes.”