Page 19 of Small City Heart
Chapter Six
Patrick snuck out while Charlie was sleeping off their morning sex, but he left him a note—See you tonight—so Patrick wasn’t totally a horrible person. Maybe only a partially horrible one.
It had all gotten to be too much there at the end.
He needed time to decompress and build up some walls around his heart before they faced each other again at the Alumni Cookout and Ice Cream Social. Even thinking the words “ice cream social” made Patrick feel ridiculouslysmall town. What even was his life right now?
Mom was drinking coffee on the front porch when Patrick pulled up. She had the next two days off from the diner for the Alumni Weekend festivities and obviously planned to milk them for all they were worth. She was in her favorite floral muumuu.
Patrick, on the other hand, was rocking last night’s clothes in the most obvious walk of shame ever. After leaving the reunion, he’d sent his mom a text not to wait up for him, but he’d hoped to at least make it through the front door before being confronted.
“Nice morning, isn’t it?” she called to him as he jogged up the front walk.
“Yeah, it’s peachy.” He fell onto the porch swing beside her.
After a few beats, she said, “How do you feel about makeup? Like, on you?”
He slowly turned his head to stare at her. “What are you talking about?”
“You have an enormous love bite on your neck. I was going to offer to cover it up for you.”
“Shit.” He slapped a hand over his throat and cringed when he felt a twinge of pain from the bruise. She cackled.
“I’d thought maybe you were sleeping off a hangover at someone’s house, but it seems I was mistaken.”
Her laughter was infectious, and rather than getting angsty about being caught out, he laughed too.
“So … Charlie North?” she said slowly.
He snorted. “I’m not talking about this with you.”
“All I’m saying is that you could do a lot worse than that boy. He’s a firefighter. I mean,come on.”
“Ew, Mom. Stop.”
She laughed and nudged his arm. “I’m a red-blooded, single woman. I’m allowed to look at firefighters.”
He wanted to hug her, happy she was making jokes about being single when he knew it was anything but simple for her, but he was worried he smelled a bit like sex. So no hugs this morning. He should have showered at Charlie’s, but it had been more important to leave than to be clean.
“What are you wearing tonight?” Mom asked, changing the subject. “It’ll be hot. Did you bring shorts?”
“The only shorts I own are … too short for Small City.”
“Eh, Small City is too short foryou.”
That didn’t make sense, but it also did. She was saying this place, his hometown, was too small-minded. He wasn’t so sure she was correct. After spending time with Charlie and Suzy and Rachel … Well, his mind had been reeling all morning, dreaming up possibilities that he’d never considered before. He could have a community here. A family. He didn’t have that in Chicago. Never had. He had peers and frenemies and surface-level friends who turned their backs on him when shit got weird.
“Maybe it’s not,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe I could fit in here if I tried. Maybe I could come home and stay.”
Her humor stalled and she studied him, her mouth slightly open. “I’m assuming there’s a story behind this?”
He nodded reluctantly. “I need to quit my job at the gallery. I’ve already written the resignation letter.”
“There are other galleries in Chicago.”
