Page 201 of Force Play
Lucia beams at me, and for the moment, we’re in our own little bubble.
A bubble that gets popped as soon as my mom screeches again.
“I happy, Jae-Hyun.” My mom’s smile stretches from ear to ear. “You give me grandbabies now?”
Lucia throws her head back and howls in laughter.
“Jesus, Eomma,” I sigh. “We’ve been together for less than a day.”
Sure, we both dream about getting her pregnant, but my mom doesn’t need to know that. She can find out when Lucia actually is.
“No babies right now,” Lucia chuckles. “Maybe one day.”
I’ve been so open with Lucia lately that I don’t even register what I say to my mom next.
“What would you be asking if I ended up with a man?”
“I ask when you adopt and give me grandbabies.”
Lucia looks at me in shock, andthat’swhen it registers.
“Wait, you didn’t even hesitate with that answer, Eomma.”
She shrugs. “I know my son, Jae-Hyun.”
I stare at her, dumbfounded. “So you know…”
“That you like boys?” she smiles. “Yes. You my son, and I know my son.”
I shake my head in disbelief while Lucia grins at me. “I know you didn’t mean to say that, but I’m so proud of you for telling her.”
The conversation carries on, but I hardly hear a thing.
I just opened up again. Unintentionally, but there’s one less person I’m hiding from.
And it feels really damn good.
Maybe I don’t need to keep hiding from everyone.
“I cannot believe our friends are making us come over this early,” I grumble as Lucia and I ride the elevator up to Lane and Liv’s penthouse.
“Really?” Lucia deadpans. “You can’t believe our friends who always teased us about getting together would set something up the day after we do so they canseeit?”
I rest my head against the back of the elevator and laugh. “We should just ready ourselves for the interrogation.”
“We’ll do it together,” she smiles, taking hold of my hand. “We’ll be just fine.”
The elevator stops, and the doors open right into the penthouse. Lucia and I step off, still hand in hand, and pause when we find literally every one of our friends just staring at us.
Lucia squeezes my hand, and we continue to walk inside, joining them in the living room.
“Could you be a little less creepy?” I ask, taking an open spot on the sofa. Lucia yelps and laughs when I pull her down onto my lap.
“We’ve literally all been waiting for this to finally happen,” Cole says.
“And now it’s happened,” Lucia shrugs. “Staring at us like we’re a spectacle won’t change that.”
“Uh uh,” Ella pipes in. “We’resonot going to just let you two off the hook right now. We’ve waitedyearsfor you two to even be friends, much less anything more.”
