Page 83 of An Unexpected Turn
“Wow, Sunday pancakes and everything. Do you treat all your guests this well?” She raised an eyebrow over the rim of the mug.
“My son has had Sunday pancakes from me ever since he grew out of baby food. Besides him, I don’t see many guests other than my nieces.”
“Many?” She slid onto one of the stools next to the counter, the sides of her mouth quirking up.
“I don’t make pancakes for other women, if that’s what you’re hinting at,” I said, setting the spoon next to the bowl. “In fact, I never have women here. Keeping it casual is easier when you get to leave whenever you want, and that’s hard when you bring someone home. So, I didn’t.”
“Really? You never had anyone here?” Her brow knit as she studied me.
“I lived here when I was married, but after that, no.” I leaned over the counter and kissed the tip of her nose. “Is that the answer you were looking for?”
A slow grin split her mouth.
“Yes,” she whispered, cupping my chin and brushing her lips over mine. “That was agreatanswer.”
A wide smile ripped across my mouth as I set a pan on the stove. Just as I was about to turn on the burner, my doorbell rang.
“Shit,” Peyton sputtered her coffee and popped off the stool. “This is why you should’ve let me put pants on.” She glared at me before racing up the stairs.
I peeked out the side window, my eyes wide as they landed on my ex-wife.
“Eileen? What’s going on?”
She pushed past me without looking at me when I opened the door.
“Where’s our son?” She scanned the living room before shifting toward the stairs.
“Not home,” I told her when I caught her arm. “He’s away with his friend and his family, and he won’t be back until tonight. What are you doing here?”
She swiveled her head, her nostrils flaring.
Eileen hadn’t been this angry when we’d first met. Her easygoing personality was what originally drew me to her. She’d have a tantrum here and there, nothing I found concerning, but maybe I’d misread some important signs early on. While I accepted her anger toward me, what she’d done to my son’s head all these years was unacceptable and unforgivable. I was grateful Mike wasn’t home and was at least spared from witnessing his mother’s wrath this one time.
“Max had to come to Albany for a quick trip, and I planned to surprise Mike today. Is he really not home, or are you keeping him from me?”
“Mike is old enough to make his own decisions, and I’d never keep him from you. I know you hate me, and I’m sorry about that and can’t change things, but do you know what you’ve done to his head by trying to poison him against me all this time? What happened between us should have stayed between us. Using him as a pawn to hurt me ended up hurtinghim.”
“Telling him the truth about his father, the hero, was using him as a pawn?” She scoffed. “You left us.”
“I leftyou, yes. You know staying together wasn’t working, but I never left my son. I appeased you so that you’d let me see him, and I was wrong. I thought I was sparing my son by not putting him in the middle whenyouwere doing it anyway. You forced him to make a new life, and he’s happy here with me, but do you think you can just come here for a visit and he’ll drop everything?”
She rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to say more before something caught her gaze over her shoulder. Her eyes thinned to slits when she turned back toward me.
“So that’s why Mike isn’t home. I see you had a friend to entertain for the night.”
My head fell back as I scrubbed a hand down my face. I exhaled a frustrated gust of air and reached behind me toward where I figured Peyton was standing.
“Sorry,” Peyton mouthed when she sidled up next to me.
I shook my head and took her hand.
“Peyton, this is my ex-wife and Mike’s mother, Eileen. Eileen, this is my girlfriend, Peyton.”
Fuck that.She wasn’t going to make the woman I loved uncomfortable in my house.
I spied a flash of hurt in Eileen’s eyes, but I had to ignore it. Atoning for so many years for something I’d had to do had made things worse for all of us.
“Girlis right,” she said, her shoulders shaking with a humorless laugh. “Find a nice older man to buy you a drink, honey?”
