Page 47 of Can't Help Falling in Love
In the quiet of her kitchen, she fell a little more. She reminded herself that athletes knew how to fall in a way that helped them avoid injury, but she wasn’t sure that applied to what she was feeling.
Will kissed her like he wanted to keep kissing her, like he had all the time in the world but not nearly enough. It was intoxicating.
When she pulled back, her fingers clutched his sweater. She laughed and smoothed the fabric. “Apple picking, huh?”
He nodded, his gaze darker, crackling with warmth and something deeper.
“Alexandria?” Gwen said from behind her, from the doorway to the kitchen.
Lexi looked back, over her shoulder. Gwen had her phone in one hand, a look of something Lexi couldn’t read on her face.
“Mom, what’s wrong?” Lexi turned away from Will.
In that moment, Lexi watched a little piece of the woman her mom had once been fill this version with light. Her smile was nothing short of luminous.
“I had my phone turned off. I mean, I don’t use it all that much anyway, but.” Her mom’s voice softened as she took a deep breath. “Louanne, do you remember her? I haven’t seen her in ages. She texted me.”
Lexi felt like her breath was trapped in her lungs. “Okay?”
“Oh, honey. You said it was a date. You’re engaged? Why didn’t youtell me?” Gwen looked at Will, tears shimmering in her gaze, happiness emanating from her core. “William. Welcome to the family.” She drew him into a hug, murmuring, “You’re engaged. You’re engaged. Lexi’s father would be so happy.” He hugged her back, a look of uncertainty on his face. Yeah, she didn’t know what to do either. She shouldn’t have assumed her mother would remain clueless about it.
Gwen stepped away from Will, turned to Lexi, and put both hands on her cheeks. “This is why you’ve been talking about moving forward. I’m so happy for you. I’m so sorry you felt like you couldn’t tell me.”
Lexi was incredibly torn in that moment. Part of her felt like an absolute monster letting her mom believe a lie. But the other part of her was staring at something she hadn’t seen in a very long time: true happiness in her mother’s teary gaze.
“Mom,” she said, pulling her into a hug, fighting back tears of her own. She didn’t know what to say, how to say it.
She met Will’s gaze and the softness, the sweet understanding in it nearly leveled her. It was too much. She should end this now, while she could still pick up the pieces of her mom’s disappointment when she told her the truth. And Will. She should end that, too. Because the way he was looking at her right now, a little part of her wanted all of it to be true.
Seventeen
Will had a few serious relationships under his belt. He’d known love, heartbreak, disappointment. He’d even thought he’d found the one when years ago, on break from college, his mom had set him up with the daughter of a friend. When it turned out the family was having severe money problems, Will found the security of his bank account had been more appealing than he was.
Still. None of what came before had prepared him for being with Lexi. For how much he wanted to be with her while at the same time worrying that all of this was too much on her. On her mother. Lexi stared out the passenger-side window, quiet and incredibly still.
He reached over, loving the feel of her fingers automatically curling around his when he touched her hand. “Are you okay?”
Stopped at a light, he looked over at the same time she turned to face him.
“I am. It feels strange. All of this. Honestly, since the second I sat down with you, I’ve felt like I’m in some sort of play or television show. I can’t tell if it’s a comedy, drama, or farce.”
“Life is all of those, right?”
She smiled at him before he turned back to face the windshield.Traffic was slow on a Saturday morning but he liked having her to himself right now.
“Maybe it’s too complicated,” she said quietly, tracing her finger up and down the back of his hand.
“Probably. I was just thinking that myself. I don’t want to hurt your mom. Or my mom. It got tangled pretty quickly, but I don’t want to stop seeing you.”
She was quiet so long his gut cramped.
“I don’t want to stop seeing you either.” She said it so softly that he wondered if she was just admitting it to herself and he was lucky enough to overhear.
“It might be an accident but outside of the mama drama, it’s been a happy one.”
Lexi laughed, the sound filling him with unexpected lightness. “Mama drama? You could have shirts made.”
“There’s that marketing brain. I wish it’d happened in an easier way where the lie wasn’t wrapped around the truth. But let me just say, pretending to be your boyfriend, fiancé, significant other, doesn’t matter. If it means I get to spend time with you, I’ll take it. But I understand if you’re worried about your mom. About the fallout from all this at some point.” It surprised him how very much he didn’t want to think about that. About the idea of them ending. “If you want, I can and will tell my parents the truth, and then we can print a retraction.”
