Page 60 of Always a Roommate
Mom lifted the lid off the big pot on the stove and stirred.
I stepped closer. “Smells good. Meatballs?”
She nodded. “Something is going on with your brother.” She shook her head. “Well, it’s only my business if he wishes to tell me. I’m just glad he has Rae. It looks like that hurricane might have brought them together. Maybe he’s over the feelings he was never going to tell Mariana about.”
I wanted to tell her. Right then, I wanted to say I was the brother Rae had chosen, that it was me she’d kissed moments before coming here. But I imagined her questions. Chosen for what?
She sighed and set the lid on the counter. “Meatballs are ready.”
“Mom, you didn’t bring me in here just to say the meatballs are ready.”
She gave me a guilty smile. “Have you made a decision on the house?”
I hadn’t. Every time I thought of that house and how it was perfect for me, I couldn’t make a decision. But I needed to. “They gave me until Wednesday.” I could either back out or take their offer to fix the roof and nothing else.
Nothing in my mom’s face let me know what she thought I should do. I wanted to ask, but I knew what she’d tell me. I was a grown man, who could decide my own heart.
As if that was so easy.
“Is that what you wanted me for?” I leaned against the counter, having no desire to go out into the living room and try to deduce what Tanner and Rae were hiding.
“Shane.” Her eyes grew sad. No, I wasn’t sure grew was the right word. They were sad, and I only just noticed how much.
“What is it?”
She hesitated. “I’ve been asking around my book club about that student of yours.”
I knew exactly which one. “Trevor?”
She nodded. “Apparently, the Lances have had some hard times. His mother died a few years ago, did you know that?”
I shook my head, wondering if I ever knew the kid at all. “And his dad?”
“That’s where the story gets a bit dark. He used to work road construction, a rather dangerous job with a lot of injuries. I can only guess what happened next.”
So could I. He’d been prescribed painkillers and never gotten off them before moving on to harder drugs. It was a common enough story. “And where is he now?”
“He lives across town near Shailene Griggs. Shailene tells me the neighbors never see him or the boy leave the house.”
And I suddenly knew why with a sharp clarity. Trevor had left his home, and no one had cared to do anything about it. My entire body sagged, and it was all I could do to hold myself up against the counter.
“He has a grandmother.”
I jerked my head up at my mom’s words.
“In California,” she went on. “A few of the ladies said she used to come to town. Trevor’s mother wasn’t the sociable sort, but she wasn’t a hermit either. I made some calls to find anyone who’d known her. The grandmother was alive as of his mother’s funeral.”
I wasn’t sure this information helped. Rubbing a hand over my face, I breathed in deeply. “What do I do, Mom?”
“I don’t know.”
I lowered my hand. That wasn’t like her.
“Honey.” Her eyes met mine. “You might just have to come to the realization you can’t save everyone.”
Those words had me straightening, an arrow pulled taught. “I can try.” I turned on my heel, striding away from her with a purpose that faded the moment I exited the kitchen.
All strength I’d had in defying her words—not her, just the words that were so unlike her—left me depleted, as if I had nothing left. Maybe she was right.
