Page 111 of Empty Net

“That’s my cue,” he says, helping my mother from her spot on the couch. “Come on, BonBon. Let’s get you to bed.”

“That’s a lovely idea.” She holds her arms out.

I look to Lilah. “That’sourcue.”

She laughs as we stand, my mother wrapping Lilah into her arms first.

“I can’t wait to hang out with you again tomorrow,” my mother tells her sincerely.

“You’ll have to tell me more about Arthur’s treehouse adventures.”

“You bet, sweetheart.” My mother pats her cheek before moving to me, that familiar perfume of hers that I swear she’s been wearing all my life tickling my nose. “Thank you for bringing us here.”

“Any time, Mama.”

“I like her, Arthur,” she says quietly so only I can hear. “She’s a keeper.”

She is a keeper, and that’s exactly what I want to do. I want to keep her, want to make her mine for real. And with our engagement party so close, I’m losing the chance to make it happen.

My parents retire to my room, and Lilah and I take turns getting ready in the hall bathroom before slipping beneath the sheets of the temporary bed I’ve set up in my spare bedroom. Lilah rests her head on my chest like she’s done so many nights before, and I hold her close, hoping she can’t hear my heart beating wildly, which always seems to be the case these days.

“Your parents are wonderful, Fox,” she says into the dark room, and there’s no denying the emotion packed behind each of those words.

“They are, aren’t they?”

She nods, then sighs. “I’m…I’m sorry this can’t be real for them.”

I’m sorry, too.

But I don’t say that. I can’t bring myself to do it.

So, I press my lips to her forehead. “Good night, sugar.”

“Night, Arthur.”

Lilah falls asleep first, while I stay awake late into the night, unable to stop thinking of how I’m going to tell her the truth about how I feel.

CHAPTER 20

LILAH

“Does your mother even know you? I mean, she could have at least had this at The Sinclair.”

I laugh at Auden, who stands beside me. We take in the party before us, which is stuffed to the gills with her friends and very few people I actually know and like. It has Selene Maddison written all over it, not an ounce of Lilah Maddison to be seen. The flowers are all wrong, the dress code she insisted on is so not me, and I hate everything on the buffet table.

Everything about this party is the exact opposite of anything I could have possibly wanted.

“Not at all.”

My eyes land on Fox standing with his parents across the room. He’s sipping on what I know is a glass of sparkling apple juice, his dad has a beer from the open bar, and his mother is clutching her sweet tea like a lifeline. They’re all three laughing about something. I don’t know what, yet it still makes me smile.

Roy and Bonnie are everything I expected and then some. They’re kind and loving, and they clearly support their son no matter what he does, not that I know what that feels like. They’ve accepted me so easily it’s almost too much to handle sometimes because, after this party, I’m going to have to give it all up. I runmy hand over the base of my throat, massaging the lump that’s settled there.

“How are you holding up?” Auden asks.

“I’m okay.”

“You sure? Because with the way you’re smiling right now, I’m worried you might crack.” She pokes at the grin on my face, and I glower at her, poking her back.

---