Page 93 of The Boss I Can't Stand
“Can you cut it down to twenty minutes?”
“Can you get it right on the first take?” she challenged.
I smirked, hanging up, but slowing as I heard a familiar voice. That sounded like…No, it couldn’t be. I inched toward the conference room, spying through the crack where the door had been left open, my eyes narrowing.
“I never stopped caring about you,” X said, reaching for someone. “I thought going our separate ways was the best decision for us given the circumstances, but I was wrong. And I think we owe it to ourselves to give this another shot. We can go as slow as you want.”
“Slow sounds perfect. I’d like to rebuild this and see where we go.”
I barged into the room. “Mom?” I said, the word coming out harsher than I’d intended. I was just shocked—and a little frustrated—to find her holding hands with X, hearing him go on about hisfeelings. “What are you doing here?”
She released X, turning to me, a soft smile on her face. “Hello, love,” she said. “I meant to surprise you later. Liam thought it would be nice to have the whole family in town for the Oscar nominations this week.”
“But what are you doinghere? At the studio? With X…Is he bothering you?” My eyes narrowed in X’s direction, a surge of protectiveness washing through me. I lifted my finger, pointing straight at him. “She doesn’t need you wasting her time, trying to justify why you dumped her.”
“No, no, no,” Mom hurried to say as she stepped in between me and X. “Sweetheart, I came to meet X for lunch. I wanted to talk to you before now, to tell you that?—”
“Tell me what?” I grumbled. I didn’t like where this was headed.
Mom licked her lips, but X stepped forward to take her hand. “Your mother and I are…we’re…well?—”
“We’re getting back together,” Mom interrupted, her words spoken with a surprising amount of conviction.
“You’re…what?” I demanded, feeling like I’d just walked into an alternate reality.
X looked a little stunned himself. “You’re sure this is what you want, Cathleen?”
Mom nodded, chuckling as she touched his cheek. “I guess I figured we’d iron out the details over lunch first, but the truth is…Yes, this is what I want. Like you said, we owe it to ourselves to see where this goes.”
I rubbed my eyes. In what universe did that make sense? “Mom…Why?”
“X apologized,” Mom said, dropping her hand from X’s cheek and wrapping it around his forearm. “We’ve talked…beentalking for a few weeks now.”
“A few weeks?”
“Since just before Christmas,” Mom said, “when we saw each other again at the?—”
“Premiere,” I finished for her, all the pieces clicking together.
“We didn’t know where we stood, but we decided to see if we could find a way back to each other, and I think we have.” Mom looked into X’s eyes, her gaze softening. “X has committed to doing better this time. We’rebothgoing to do better.”
“We are,” X agreed. “No more sneaking around. No more secrets.”
I shook my head. “This is a bad idea?—”
Mom released X and held her hand up, silencing me. “I understand your concerns, Finn. And please don’t think I’m taking them lightly. Ilove you, honey. But this is my decision.” Her voice was calm, steady, as she straightened up beside X. “And this might be harder for you to understand, but at my age, I don’t want to waste any more time. I don’t want to have regrets about all the chances I didn’t take.”
“I…” What more could I say? Mom was an adult. Her own person. I couldn’t dictate who she was with, whether I approved of X or not. At most, all I could do was say it was him or me, and I had no guarantee I’d come out the winner in that contest.
So if I wanted to be a part of my mom’s life, if I wanted to hold on to what little relationship we’d started to rebuild, I was going to have to accept her decision. Because that’s what my job was, wasn’t it? To love her through all the mess.
I sucked in a hard breath, releasing it slowly as I glared at X. “I promise not to interfere inthis,” I said. “Actually, I’d mostly like to not think about it.”
My mother chuckled.
“But,” I said firmly, focusing on X, “if you hurt her again, I swear to?—”
“I understand,” X said, interrupting me. “But you don’t have to worry about that.”
