Page 118 of Learning Curve

“Yes, you can,” Maria says, tears in her eyes now too. “You’re family, Helen.”

“Yes, Helen.” Wendy stands up from her chair and walks over to my mom. “You’re family. We love you.”

Wendy and my mother hug, and everyone in the room is a mixture of tears, smiles, and outright surprise. Even Travis and Jack have slack jaws and wide eyes, little salty tear trails on their cheeks.

Remy just bought my mother a house. An entire fucking house. Because he wants to help us.

“Thank you so much,” my mom says through her tears, and she walks over to Remy and Maria to wrap them up in her arms. “You have no idea what this means to me. To us. I just don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.”

“You being a part of our family is payment enough,” Wendy says, and fresh tears trail down my mom’s cheeks. Willow is crying now too. I’m speechless.

I never dreamed it could be like this.

The door bursts open, and Roman, Ryder, and Hawk are the first ones to run inside with stacks of pizza boxes in their arms.

“Dinner is served!” Hawk shouts at the top of his lungs. But when he sees that the room is filled with people hugging and crying, his feet to skid to a stop. “What the eff?”

Roman and Ryder nearly barrel into him, and their reaction is the peak of confusion. “Um, what the hell is going on?” Roman questions, and Ryder’s brow furrows.

“Mom?”

“We’re just happy, sweetheart,” Daisy says, and Ryder’s brow only furrows deeper.

“Happy?” he questions. “This looks like a scene out of a fucking funeral.”

“Roman!” Daisy chastises through her tears.

“What? What’d I say?”

My brother Flynn heads over to his twin teenage sons, and he doesn’t hesitate to corral them away from the dining room and into the kitchen. Hawk follows along voluntarily with a piece of pizza hanging out of his mouth.

Things may look and sound normal to someone else, but to me, my universe is rattled.

My mom and siblings are safe. My father can no longer hurt us anymore. My family, my support system, has tripled in size.

I’m not only worthy of love; I’m capable of giving it.

And one day, Scottie will be ready to receive it. Maybe I need to wait a little less patiently.

Scottie

I stop in the middle of a sentence of Anna Karenina and pause my TV, listening again to see if my ears are playing tricks on me. It’s well after midnight on a Wednesday night, and I swear I just heard a knock on my door.

Another three more knocks, these harder than the first, I set my book down beside me on my bed and wrap my robe around my body nervously. A few seconds pass before my phone pings with a text message.

Finn: It’s me.

My heart jumps to my throat, worry and curiosity swirling manically as I try to figure out what he’s doing here at this time of night. Two more messages populate on the screen.

Finn: I know it’s late, but I really need to talk to you.

Finn: Please, Scottie.

My lungs feel heavy as I labor over simple breaths. I haven’t seen or talked directly to Finn since Christmas Day—which is my fault, I know. But after talking to Kayla and Julia last week, the depths of my guilt over that decision are more vast and expansive than ever before. He’s been single-handedly keeping me alive, and all I’ve done is ignore him.

I slowly climb off my bed, heading for my door, anxiety and excitement and the fear of the unknown rolling through my veins.

Finn’s face is as handsome as I’ve ever seen it. His jaw is firm and his eyes are intense, but just as Julia suggested, there’s a peace about him that immediately puts me at ease.

---