Page 143 of Never In My Wildest Dreams

“After security blocked us, I came back the next day.” Pain flickered in Jaime’s eyes. “I snuck in, but when I got to your floor, your parents were sitting there. Jesus, Booker. Your mom was falling apart. She didn’t know if you were going to live. She told me to get out.” His voice broke. “She said, ‘If he dies, you’ll have to live with that.’”

“My mom said that?” That wasn’t like her at all. In fact, when she’d been with him, she was calm, positive. Encouraging.

“You think I’m making it up?” Jaime scraped his hands through his hair. “You think I don’t hear those words in my head every night before I fall asleep?”

“Since we couldn’t see you in the hospital, we went to your house, but you’d moved,” Declan said. “About six months later, we called your mom to find out where you’d gone. We asked if we could visit you. Figured she’d have calmed down by then.”

“What did she say?” What had his mom done?

“She told us you didn’t want anything to do with us.” The color washed out of Jaime’s features, and the starkness in his eyes drove home the truth in his story. “And I didn’t blame you. How could I?”

“When I asked her, she said you guys had moved on,” he said. “You guys wanted to have fun, and I couldn’t keep up anymore.”

“Fun?” Jaime practically shouted. “You think we hadfunafter you nearly died?”

“Cole was so wrecked, he gave up the NHL and went to Canada to play in the Juniors,” Declan said. “I played in college until my grandfather got sick. Jaime?—”

“Was a total fuckup,” Jaime said. “It wasn’t until I got my one-night stand pregnant that I finally got my shit together. None of us talked to each other until Kurt’s funeral. And even after that, it took a while for me and Cole to reconnect.”

He knew they weren’t lying, but to hear they hadn’t kept their friendship this entire time…well, he had to readjust the story he’d concocted, and it was going to take a moment.

“Did you really think we’d dump you in the ER, and then fuck off?” Jaime asked. “Go back to hanging out and forget about you?”

His mouth opened. Then, shut. Finally, he jammed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “Yes.”

“I can’t believe you thought so low of me,” Jaime said. “Was I that much of a selfish prick?”

“No.” It actually sounded pretty lame now that they were airing it out.

“Then, what did you think?” Declan asked.

“I just told you. Out of sight, out of mind.”

Jaime went wide-eyed. “So, that’s what my friendship meant to you? Cool. Awesome.” He snatched his beer bottle, took a slug, and headed outside. “I’d rather get a fuckin’ mud mask than listen to this shit.”

That left him alone with Declan. “Tonight, when he’s in bed and thinking about this conversation, it’s going to hit him.”

“What is?”

“How we lost thirteen years.” Regret pinched Declan’s features. “He thought you never forgave him for ruining your life. You thought we stayed friends and forgot all about you. And all it would’ve taken was a simple conversation.”

Booker stood on his balcony overlooking the “hole,” as locals referred to a valley out here. The slant of the sun sent rays filtering through the pine trees that sloped down the hill. The air smelled of freshly mown grass and propane from the grill.

Laughter and conversation floated from the back of the house where the wedding guests gathered for drinks and dinner.

But he couldn’t get Declan’s words out of his head.

All it would’ve taken was a simple conversation.

Had his mom really done that? If so, she not only withheld the truth about his dad, but she’d flat-out lied about his friends. At a critical time in his life, she’d manipulated the story to her advantage.

For years now, he’d kept his distance from her. And Lorelei was right. It was because he’d never gotten to talk to his dad about the adoption papers. His parents had stolen one of the most significant conversations of his life from him.

And now, it turns out, his mom had ripped him from his friends—afterhe’d asked about them.

Fuck it.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and called her.

---