Page 20 of This Feeling

“Here we go again,” Dad mumbled, sitting on the sofa and picking up the remote to turn on the TV.

Mom waved her hands in front of her. “Sean needs someone he can depend on. Harper is…well, she’s so set in stone. She runs her own business, and I’m afraid she’d put that before Sean.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You don’t think she’s capable of having both a career and love?”

My mother had been a stay-at-home mom all her life, but as far as I knew, she’d never looked down on women who wanted to work outside of the house. So why she was suddenly against it in Harper’s case, I had no idea.

“You want him to be with Crystal so bad that you’ll dislike Harper?”

She turned and gave me a fake look of shock. “I don’t know what you mean.”

I let out a bark of laughter. “Mom, I can see right through you. And like I said earlier, it’s never going to happen.”

With a huff, she turned and started back toward the kitchen. I glanced at my father. “Have you always known that she wants Sean and Crystal together this badly?”

He nodded as he reached for the remote to turn down the TV. “I’ve tried to talk to her about it countless times. She was over the moon when she found out Sean and Harper broke up, since that was his longest relationship.” Dad shook his head and sighed. “Then the hope of Sean and Crystal was sparked back to life. But now that he’s back with Harper, your mother isn’t taking it well. It’s foiling all her plans.”

“Right. They’reback together.”

“What do you mean by that?” he asked, eyeing me.

I thought about whether or not I wanted to share with my father my thoughts about Sean and Harper’s so-called reunion. In the end, I decided to keep them to myself. “Nothing…just that Mom probably needs to stay out of it.”

He pointed at me. “Agreed. But doyouwant to be the one to tell her that?”

I held up my hands and shook my head. “I’m Switzerland.”

Laughing, he turned the TV back up. “Coward.”

I set my two bags in the back seat of my truck and turned back to look at my mother and father.

“Mom, please don’t cry.”

She shrugged. “It’s just that you’ve only been home a week, and you’re already moving out!”

“I’m a thirty-five-year-old man, Mom. I can’t be living at home.”

“What if he wants to bring a date home?” Dad said, causing my mother to perk up.

“Are you seeing anyone?”

I nearly choked. “No! Not now, at least.”

She put a hand to her heart. “Well, are you interested in anyone? Because—”

“Mom, don’t even go there.”

“Go where?”

I rolled my eyes. “You know exactly where. I’m going to kiss you goodbye now, and I want you to promise me, no matchmaking.”

She crossed her heart. “I promise, no matchmaking.”

Raising a brow, I gave her a questioning look.

“I crossed my heart, Declan!”

Laughing, I leaned down and kissed her cheek. “I’ll miss seeing you every day, Mom.”

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