“Yes, Mom,” Brody said.
“Yes, ma’am,” my father said.
“All right. You two have fun.”
“Yes. Now get out so I can spend some time with my daughter,” my mother said.
I watched the two of them leave from the window, and my hands began to shake. I was so weary about where Brody went around town nowadays. I watched my father’s car disappear over the horizon before I turned toward my mother, and I saw she had a piping hot cup of coffee for me.
“You saint.”
“You need it,” she said, giggling.
“Water is the one thing that boy hasn’t conquered yet,” I said.
“You didn’t conquer it until you were much older. Almost twelve if I’m not mistaken.”
“Really?”
“Oh, yes. You had an incident in the kiddie pool at one of the public pools around here when you were six. Got in over your head, literally. It scared you for the longest time, and you wouldn’t go near it. I had to wipe you down with wet wipes for weeks before you finally got back in a bathtub.”
“So Brody will be okay then?”
“Your father’s good with kids. Believe it or not, he raised one.”
“Oh, you’re so funny. Whatever will I do?” I asked flatly.
The two of us went outside and sat on the porch. Quiet mornings like this were few and far between in my world, so when I got the chance to enjoy one, I made sure to soak it in. But now that my mind was no longer on Brody, it had drifted to someone else.
And the more I thought about him, the more I felt terrible for lying to my parents about it.
“Mom?”
“Yes, honey?”
“Can I admit something to you?” I asked.
She looked over at me as I turned my body in the wooden rocking chair.
“Of course you can. You can always talk to me,” she said.
“I may have lied to you and Dad a little.”
“About what?”
“Remember that date I had with the guy I met when I went out with Kristi?”
A grin crawled across her face, and I groaned.
“How do you know, Mom?”
“I’m your mother. Are you really questioning this?” she asked.
“Yes, I am. There’s no possible way you could have known.”
“Not at that second, no. But when the gossip about his mother started working its way around the community, I realized he was back in town. I figured you were being so nonchalant about it because you had gone out with Tyler.”
“I’m nonchalant about things.”
“Pfft. You are nonchalant about nothing. You’ve always been uptight and you’ve always been a planner. It’s what makes you such a good businesswoman. But the second you started shrugging your shoulders and brushing it off, your father and I knew something was up.”
“And yet you still let me go?” I asked.
“Let you go? You’re a grown woman with a child and a business. You can do whatever you want. Were we worried? Oh yeah. We didn’t want you to get hurt.”
“Does Dad know it was Tyler?”
“He does. He’s actually the one who mentioned it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Even though Brody was supposed to stay the night with us that night, you came by after the date. Now, I know I wasn’t feeling well, but your father would have gotten him up in the morning just fine. When you came to pick him up, you had this look in your eyes. It was a look we haven’t seen since your younger days with Tyler. He looked at me and wondered what the chances were.”
“I’m sorry for lying to you guys,” I said.
“We understand why you did it. With him being back in town, I can’t imagine how confusing things must be for you right now. Have you seen him since then?”
“I have. I got Kristi to babysit a few nights ago.”
“How did things go?”
Images of his hands all over my body and his cock hovering above my lips flashed in my mind.
“As good as it could, I guess,” I said.
“I’m glad you finally came clean to me, though. Thank you,” my mother said.
“Were you ever going to tell me you knew Tyler was back in town?”
“I wasn’t sure. Your father wanted to mention something, but I didn’t know if it was a good idea. But now that we’re all caught up on the ins and outs of this issue, you know what I’m going to ask next.”
“I know. It’s something Kristi’s been harping on, too.”
“And for good reason. That man is Brody’s father.”
“I don’t know, Mom. I mean, part of me wants to, but part of me really doesn’t,” I said.
“Do you want to talk about the whys of both parts? That always seems to help you.”
“Okay. Sure.”
“Start with why you do,” she said.
“I want to tell him because he’s Brody’s father. That’s an important thing, something Brody has gone without for a long time. And I want to tell him because he has a right to know.”