Page 61 of Semi Sweet
I hated to admit it, but he was right. “It is. So what kind of mom is she? Should I be afraid?”
Sean made a face. “You have nothing to worry about. She’ll probably be more cold to me because I haven’t scooped you up yet.”
Now it was my turn to blush. “I hope you told her it’s not quite that simple.”
“She knows the history, but that still won’t stop her from being disappointed.”
For a while, we listened to the radio, talking about nothing in particular as we approached the mountains that were always in the background of things. Something came to mind as we got closer and I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t thought of it before. I’d been too busy solving the cupcake mystery or dealing with Evan to notice.
“So, um...can I ask why you are still single?”
“We’ve been over this, I like–”
“No,” I interrupted. “You are way too kind and interesting to not be married with at least one kid. Why?”
Sean heaved a sigh. He pulled off the highway and into a rest stop. I looked at the GPS and noticed we were already about halfway to Aspen. The sun was starting to go down. We got out to stretch our legs and let Bear do his business. We hit the bathroom ourselves before grabbing a few snacks to hold us over, because Sean assured me his mother would have a spread of food when we got to their house. The whole while, I found myself getting irritated that he had ignored my question. I was practically stewing as I tore into a bag of sour gummy worms as we returned to the freeway.
“Did you know that I was almost engaged once?” Sean finally broke the silence.
I nearly passed out from shock. I’d waited for his response and that was not what I’d been expecting. Previous relationship, sure, but almost married? That was a hard no.
“That’s a piece of information that probably should have come up in conversation!” I flung a worm at his head.
“Hey!” he exclaimed. “It’s a rental!”
“I’m hurt, Sean,” I said, only half joking. I guessed I was too preoccupied with all my own personal drama to have asked. Maybe that made me selfish. “Well, who was she?”
“Her name was Katie,” he said, then shook his head. “She’s not dead. Her name is Katie.”
“How did you meet her?”
“We’d been acquaintances since grade school. We didn’t start dating until our senior year. We ended up going to the same local college. I did my gen ed courses in Aspen before I went to New York for culinary school.”
I was slightly envious. I would have loved to have been on the same playing field as my significant other. Instead, I was always inferior, poorer, dumber, and more childish.
“What was she like?”
“Spontaneous and reckless. At the time it was fun, but I guess it should have been a red flag,” Sean answered.
“What do you mean?”
“Katie was never able to sit still for long. She’d wake you up in the middle of the night and want to go running. She was skiing black diamond trails way before she was ready. She’d take up dangerous hobbies on a whim, and when we were twenty she decided she was going to be a free runner. She did it for two months before she was on to rock climbing. After that, she wanted to play hockey.” He paused as he searched for the best words. “Super interesting. Super exhausting.”
“Well, Mizuno, I guess you are a bit more human than I gave you credit for,” I commented as I pictured someone more interesting than him. “What happened?”
“Oh, she cheated on me. Like the minute I got to New York,” he replied. “And continued to for the two years I was there.”
“Are you serious?”
He nodded and I could tell by the way he clenched his jaw that it still bothered him after all these years. “I had no idea. I was perfectly happy. Thus the almost being engaged thing.”
“I’m so sorry, Sean.”
“Oh, wait,” he snapped. “I’m not done. I got the ring, got ready to have this magical evening, and she dropped the bomb in front of my apartment. She’d been seeing a guy from our community college. I don’t think she would have even told me, but she had no choice.”
I had a feeling I knew where he was going with this, but I desperately hoped otherwise. “She realized her mistakes and was running off to a convent to atone for her sins?”
Sean laughed bitterly. “Is it bad I wish that was the case?” He shook his head. “Nope. Pregnant. One hundred percent the other guy’s. I went to Russia to meet my birth family during the time of conception.”
