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He rubbed his chin. “Honestly, those weeks are kind of a blur.”
“You never left Olive’s side.”
He nodded.
“I think you’d gotten called into work. You were working a lot of overtime back then too…” She flipped through the box of files. “I’d just found out what was actually happening with Michelle’s apartment and everything you’d done to try to clean up that mess. So, the question just slipped out.”
“Wait, what question?”
“I asked him if he was finally here to ask you out on a date.”
“Mom. You didn’t.”
She winced. “He seemed so startled by it that he said yes. Dropped his bag actually. His things went everywhere. He said he’d just gotten off a plane and wanted to surprise you and take you to get a late dinner. I told him he’d strung you along for too long since moving back to the area, and that if he was going to date you, he needed to show that he recognized how special you were and make up his darn mind.”
“Mom. God.” Was it possible to die of delayed mortification over something that had happened years before?
“You know what he said?”
“What?”
“He said watching you with your sisters was what taught him how to be a better brother to Olive and his other sister. You know, I don’t get the sense that those Murphy parents were ever very nurturing…” She paused to blink a few times and then continued. “Jake said he’d traveled all over the world and met all kinds of people, but you were the best man he’d ever known. The kindest best friend his sister could ever hope for. And right before he let, he turned back. He said that lately, the question wasn’t whether or not he had real feelings for you. I get the sense that he saw what I saw even before Jake’s accident.”
“What’d you see?” Derek stared at a blank kitchen wall, his breath catching. “Why are you telling me this now?”
“Because after meeting Ken, I realized that for years I was using your dad as an excuse. Devotion seemed like a good reason to avoid even thinking about finding someone else. I think you’ve spent a lot of your life worried about losing people. You hold that door closed so tightly because it feels like you’re protecting what you have…”
“Mom…”
“And I don’t think that’s just about Jake Murphy. I see it in everything you do for me and your sisters and Olive too. But really, it’s about your father.”
“I promised Dad—”
“It wasn’t fair for him to ask that of you. You were a child. Might be hard for you to understand, but when he got sick, your dad was younger than you are now.”
Derek’s hands balled together.
His mom patted his fists once. “And maybe you need to start investing more in your own life.”
“Now you’re giving me accounting advice?” The question hadn’t sounded as wry as he hoped.
“Giving you the advice I wish someone had given me.” She took another long sip of tea. “Are you sure you can’t stay for lunch? Ken should be back—”
“I have a thing with Dylan’s family today or I would, I swear. I’m not avoiding meeting him.”
Somehow his mother could sip tea skeptically. Her cup was empty when she set it down.
“I’m not intentionally avoiding meeting him.”
“Fair enough.”
A sound came from upstairs.
Derek looked up at the ceiling.
His mom set her tea down. “That woman in need I mentioned before is still staying here. Wait here a second.”
“Okay?” He washed their mugs, a pang going through him when he read that underneath the painted image of the Cinderella castle on hers there was a personalization that read ANGELA AND KEN… HAPPILY EVER AFTER.