Page 23 of Fortuity
I let her go and moved back so I could look down at her face. “Not even a little bit. If I wasn’t such a dumbass, I would’ve thought to ask her about her plans and then I could’ve just asked her to come overmyself.”
The worry left my mom’s eyes, only to be replaced by speculation. “Dumbass,huh?”
“Mom,” I groaned, quickly regretting my choice of words because I knew what that look meant for me. She was going into matchmaker mode, which never seemed to go well for me. It should’ve been a good thing this time around since her sights were finally set on a girl I was actually interested in, but I wasn’t sure how Faith would react to my mom’s prodding. She was already hesitant enough asitwas.
Our schedules had been at odds with each other over the past couple of weeks, and I hadn’t seen her since I’d dropped her off at her dorm after we had dinner. We’d texted some and talked on the phone a few times, though. I felt like I was getting to know her, but slowly because she didn’t seem big on letting people in. It made sense considering her background, but having my mom interfere could undo the small amount of progress I’d madewithher.
“What? You could do a lot worse than Faith. She’s beautiful, kind, smart,caring—”
“I know allthat,Mom.”
“Oh, you do?” She looked confused when I nodded. “Then what’s the problem? Are you just not thatintoher?”
My head dropped and I stared at my feet, rubbing a hand over my head. “You really need to stop reading books, watching reality television, or whatever it was where you heard thatsaying.”
She didn’t seem bothered by my complaint. At all. She laughed before she raised her eyebrow and gestured with her hand in a circle that was probably intended to tell me to get on with it because she wasn’t going to let me get away with not answering her question. “The problem is that I don’t need my mom to help me get the girl I’m interested in. You’re bound to do more harm than good since she’s more skittish than that colt you and Dad bought when Iwassix.”
Her brown eyes were hopeful as she stared up at me. “So what you’re saying is that you’re interested inFaith?”
Of course that was the part she zeroed in on. I hated admitting it to her because she was the most stubborn person I knew once she got something into her head, but there was no point denying the truth when it was already obvious what my answerwas. “Yes.”
“Okay, then I’ll just have to trust you to do what you need to do to get the girl.” I was mid-way through a sigh of relief when she added, “Unless I decide you need alittlehelp.”
“No help, Mom,” Igrowled.
She gave me her patented puppy dog look; the one that always worked on my dad. “Not even atinybit?”
That look worked on me almost as well as my dad, but I couldn’t afford to fall for it this time. I knew if I didn’t put my foot down now, she was going to have our wedding planned and Faith at the altar with a shotgun before I knew it. “Absolutely no help at all. Not even atinybit.”
“Fine,” she sighed. “I guess I’ll have to be satisfied with getting her here so the two of you can spend your first holidaytogether.”
It was so like her to point out that she’d already helped me with Faith in the hope that I’d back off and let her do it again. And although I was grateful for her interference in this one instance, I couldn’t say so. It would only egg her on, and she didn’t need any help with that. It didn’t matter if I’d made it blatantly clear that I didn’t want her help and she’d said she would leave it at what she’d already done, she couldn’t stop there. “Maybe I should cancel the return trip for the car I hired so you can be the one to drop her off at campusinstead.”
“Car? What car? Why isn’t she drivingherselfover?”
“Guys and their selective hearing,” she sighed, shakingherhead.
“Mom!” I snapped. “I don’t need another lecture about listening. I need to know what you meant about Faith andthecar.”
“Okay. Okay.” She held her hands up. “I’ll explain it again since you obviously weren’t paying close enough attention when I asked you to pick Faith up when the two of you went to her old high school a couple ofweeksago.”
I was close to losing my patience, and my mom was enjoying every moment she could drag this out and torture me. It was payback for insisting she back off, mostlikely. “And?”
“She doesn’t have a car,Dillon.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh. Faith is a former foster kid. She doesn’t have any family to help out. The only reason she’s been able to attend Southeastern is because of the tuition waiver program she talks to all those high school students about. Your dumbass comment from earlier? It was more on the mark than I realized when it comes to Faith or else you would have already figured out that she can’t afford to buyacar.”
The implication behind her explanation rocked me. “Then how does she get to the schools shevisits?”
“Some rideshare app on her phone, which is why I hired a car for her to use today, because I didn’t feel right about having her accepting a ride from some random stranger to come over to our house. Not when I could send a town carinstead.”
“You’ve gotta be fuckingkiddingme.”
“Language.” My dad lightly smacked me on the backside of my head when he walked upbehindme.
“It’s not directed at me, honey,” my momreassuredhim.
