Page 53 of Craving Francesca

“Two stories,” I advised. “The master bedroom facing the drop-off, so you’ve got the view and the sunrise.”

He smiled.

“When you need help decorating the place, let me know,” I joked. “After shelling out all that money for the septic and whatever, you’re going to need my thrifting expertise.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he replied. “Come on, let’s eat.”

I followed him back into the trailer and realized I’d left my phone on his bed. As he set the plate of bacon on the table, I scooted past him and stretched out over the mattress to grab my phone from halfway beneath the pillows. I stuffed it in my pocket without looking and caught the photo I’d been looking at earlier out of the corner of my eye.

“Who’s this?” I asked, pointing to the photo.

He couldn’t see the photo from where he was standing, but since there were only two of them in the bedroom, I figured he’d know what I meant.

“My mother,” he replied, reaching up to grab a frying pan from the cupboard above the stove.

“What?” I looked back at the photo. “That’s not Lily.”

“No, it’s not.”

I waited for further clarification, but none came.

“What?” I repeated, looking at the photo again.

“That’s my birth mother.”

“Lily isn’t your birth mother?” I asked skeptically as I moved toward him.

I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Why hadn’t I known that? Now I understood why the woman in the photo looked so familiar. She looked like Gray.

“Ma was still in high school when I was born,” he said as I leaned against the fridge at his elbow.

“Holy shit. Why didn’t I know that?”

“Not a secret.”

“But—” Thoughts whirled. “Where’s your mom?”

“Died when I was two,” Gray said, glancing my way.

“How?”

“Car accident,” he said, cracking eggs one-handed into the hot pan. “Some old man had a heart attack and T-boned Grandpa Casper when he was drivin’ her home one night.”

“Wait, back up.” I held up my hand. “Lily’sdad Casper was driving your birth mother around?”

Gray’s lips tipped up.

“So, your parents—Lily and Leo got together after you were born? I never would’ve guessed that.”

“Ma was off at school—”

“She went to Yale, right?”

Gray nodded. “When she heard Grandpa was in the hospital, she flew home. While she was here, she and my dad hooked back up.”

“Hookedbackup?”

“They’d had something before my pop found out that I was on the way. Innocent, from the way they tell it, but everyone assumed once she was grown up, they’d be together. Sit.” He set a plate full of eggs and bacon at the dinette, then leaned down and pulled the box of random tools out from under it and set it out of the way.

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