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“Because in this family we love surprises. Cheers.” After another swig, Amy held up Seo-Joon’s glass. “They eloped.” And all the suppressed hysterics burst out of her.
Chapter 34
It was still dark out when Derek woke the following morning. His body was wrapped around Dylan’s bare torso. Dylan had already been asleep when Derek had come into the bedroom. The workout zooming Derek’s nephews combined with his sleepless night before made him zonk out. Derek had spent an hour on the phone with his mom trying to convince her that he was completely happy for her and none of this was weird.
Of course it was weird.
How could it be anything but weird? Would it have been less weird if he’d known she was dating? How would he have reacted then? Was she worried about how he would have reacted, and that’s why she didn’t tell him?
With the AC blasting, it was almost chilly after Derek had been hot half the night, but he didn’t have the energy to reach and move the sheet over them. Instead he pulled Dylan closer.
The second time Derek woke, sunlight streamed in through a gap in Dylan’s translucent curtains. His thoughts went right back to where they had been before.
His mom had eloped. Actually eloped.
“What are you thinking about?” Dylan words were drowsy, eyes still closed.
“How did you know I was awake and thinking?” Derek lifted his face from Dylan’s chest.
“I feel you doing that adorable eyebrow thing.”
“I don’t do an adorable eyebrow thing. Stop.” His head settled back on Dylan’s sternum.
Dylan smoothed the area between Derek’s eyebrows. “Must’ve imagined it all the times.”
Dylan had to have spent a fair amount of time in the climbing gym. He wasn’t bulky, but everything was lean. He was the kind of man who was probably a lot stronger than he looked. Probably why he could spend an hour tossing around Derek’s nephews.
Dylan’s heartbeat thumped slowly, and his breaths evened out, like he’d fallen back asleep. Derek’s thoughts returned to his mom. He was thirty-five years old. His dad had been gone for nearly two decades, and yet it had never occurred to him for a second that she would get remarried. And he’d been the unwitting matchmaker. Well, him and a family of Eptesicus fuscus brown bats.
His mom had always had lots of people around. Her Bible study. Her running club. Amy. Her grandsons. Before the apartment catastrophe, Derek was over there several times a week on a consistent schedule, usually to fix things and take care of all the basic maintenance tasks around the aging house.
Was he still supposed to do that now? Would her husband change the smoke alarm batteries and fix the pilot light? His mom was quite capable of doing all those things herself, but she still called him to do it anyway… He had never really asked himself why before.
What were the rules now? He’d always just stopped by whenever. Was he going to go over to her house next time and see some other dude’s clothes hanging where his dad’s suits had been? Or would they move to another house?
“What time is it?” Dylan asked in a sleep-addled voice, stirring beneath Derek. “My mom wants me over there by ten to help set up.”
Derek grabbed his phone from the table beside him. “It’s seven thirty.” Dylan’s mouth pressed into a line. “Hmm…”
MOM
Can you come by this morning? We should talk.
DEREK
Will your husband be there?
MOM
No, he’s got to stop in at the office.
DEREK
Okay.
Derek sat at the counter clutching a mug of scalding tea and trying to nibble the corner of a cookie that appeared to be home (over)baked. His mom had always baked when she was happy, so this was a good sign even if the childish part of his brain felt conflicted.
When his mom came back downstairs, she held a box of files. “I was decluttering the office and found these—”