Page 72 of Lost in Love

“You’re missing my point,” Charlee says, waving her hand in Gretchen’s face. They arrived together and I’m assuming Steve might be hanging out with his naked friends. “What if he knocks her up? He’s eighteen. She’s sixteen.”

Gretchen groans. “He’s using protection. I bought him an entire box of condoms the other day.”

Charlee’s eyes narrow. “Great.”

Kate elbows me. “What’s your problem today?” Reaching for the olives on the tray in front of her, Kate takes a handful and shoves entirely too many in her mouth. “You’re testy.”

I sigh, feeling like I need to get some things off my chest. And damn it, these girls are going to listen to me. “I’m sorry. My mom is here and Noah hates her.” My eyes shift to the living room to see Fin walking Sevi on a leash. I cringe at what my mom is going to say when she sees that. “Which in turn, means Noah is pissed off. With Noah quitting his job and now the shop, it’s created all kinds of stress for us with trying to finish the remodel. And my mom thinks my kids are weird.”

“All kids are weird,” Kate assures me, only to have both Charlee and Gretchen nod in agreement. “They just have different quirks that make them weird.”

She’s absolutely right, but it doesn’t make me feel any better about it.

After getting the steaks on the grill, I attempt to get Sevi off the floor and the leash off him before someone notices him acting like this. Noah is absolutely no help. He’s sitting in the living room with the guys watching football.

He notices what the kids are doing, so why is he sitting there doing nothing? It makes me want to punch him in the fucking throat.

“Why does eating a cracker make your mouth so dry?” he asks, eating a handful of Goldfish crackers Fin hands him, a peace offering for her returning his phone after hiding it for the last two hours.

“Are you even here right now?” Just then, Sevi flings himself on the floor again as I try to take his leash away, in fear he’s going to choke himself with it.

Noah pats himself down from his chest to his stomach. “I feel like I’m here.”

“Then stop eating crackers and help me with him.”

Again, why do men do this? Why can’t he help without me having to ask him?

“I don’t know why you make him take off the leash,” Hazel says, coming into the room, red-faced and sweaty from playing outside. “He likes it.”

If it isn’t the leash battle, Sevi didn’t want to put pants on. And the days I get him to put shoes and pants on, he won’t, or shall I say refuses to wear a shirt or walk without crawling. He’s by far my most difficult kid ever.

And Noah never does help me with him. He laughs and tells me, “It’s fine. Leave him be. I kind of like having a dog around.”

If he doesn’t knock it off today, he’s going to be sleeping in the dog bed with Sevi tonight.

* * *

Just about thetime we’re sitting down for dinner, my mom comes inside. The moment she’s in the same room with Noah, you can see his physical demeanor shift. His shoulders tense, his smile disappears, and he stops talking.

To maintain a sense of politeness, I smile at my mom and introduce her to our friends. She says nothing to them. No, hey, so nice to meet you, or hello, only, “Do you have any vodka?”

Bonner watches my mom curiously and gives Noah a look that says something like, who’s the bitch? Noah shrugs.

Mom sits next to Ashlynn. Naturally, given Ashlynn’s bubbly personality, she offers her hand. “Hello, I’m Ashlynn. It’s nice to meet you.”

“I’m Nina and you look like you have loose morals,” Mom says, staring at Ashlynn’s chest.

More than one of us gasps. For being a bitch for the most part, my mom is southern, and girls like Ashlynn aren’t from around our town. If they are, they’re in the cities and usually at a strip club.

“She certainly ain’t loose,” Bonner adds quickly.

Jason laughs and high-fives Bonner. And then Bonner grins and gives Noah a raised-eyebrow look, to which he just shrugs again and takes another drink of his beer.

I watch his every action, trying to decipher his mood and what might happen next. Whenever my mom is around, he’s like a ticking time bomb and I never know if the next wire we touch is going to detonate a reaction. Sitting next to me, Noah’s hand lightly grazes my knee as he does so. Is that a reassurance? Is it a “hey, I’m here for you,” or is it, “I’m only doing this to keep up the assumption we have a perfect relationship?”

I don’t know the answer to any of it. I do know I have a headache, and bursting into tears could possibly happen at any minute.

Ashlynn takes Mom’s comment well, smiles her perfect white teeth, and says, “Thank you, I think.”

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