Mom saw her at that moment, too, stopped and went very still. “Kaelin.”
Kaelin’s eyes shifted from one person to the other and back again but she put on a brave smile. “Hi, Mrs. Wirth.”
Mom walked farther into the living room, clutching her purse to her. “I didn’t expect to see you here.” Then she smiled, warmly, genuinely. “But I’m happy to see you here.”
Huh? There wasn’t much doubt about what was going on, given Kaelin’s skimpy attire and his own half-dressed state, and what she made of Nick being in on all this, he had no idea. His mind was still reeling from seeing her there.
“I’m just making coffee,” he told his mom, freaked out at how normal and polite and host-like his comment was. “Want some?”
“Yes. That would be nice.”
His chest clenched as he poured fresh coffee into mugs. Sticky silence hovered around them.
“So. What’s going on?” he asked his mom.
She smiled, looking strangely more at ease now she’d seen Kaelin there.
“Well. Like I said, I’m on my way to Italy.”
“Why?”
“I’ve always wanted to go there. I’m going on a cooking holiday. I’ll be staying in a little apartment and taking cooking lessons, and touring olive groves and wineries.”
“Uh. Wow.” She’d always liked to cook, but…wow.
She looked down at her coffee, then back up. “I’ve been trying to convince your father to travel with me, maybe even retire, but he’s not interested in that. So I’ve decided to go myself.” She bit her lip briefly.
“Mom. Are you and Dad splitting up?” A rock materialized in Tyler’s gut.
“Well. Not exactly. But I think some time apart will be good for us.” Her eyelashes drifted down. “I haven’t been entirely happy for some time and I think we need to do this. Figure things out. Last weekend was…difficult. But in a way, it finally got some things out in the open that needed to be said.” She looked at up him sadly. “I just wanted to keep our family together.”
“Jesus, Mom.”
“I still love him,” she said. “I just need to figure out what I want my life to be. You know, when you’ve been married thirty years you start to take things for granted. Maybe some time apart will help that.”
Tyler had a feeling there was a lot more to it than that. He appreciated that his mom wasn’t there bad-mouthing his dad or blaming him for whatever had happened, but he sensed her unhappiness with his dad, remembering last weekend, when he’d tried to talk to them, the tension between them, remembering how for the first time in his life they hadn’t been a united front against him.
“But that’s not really why I’m here,” Mom said. “Well, I wanted you to know that, but mostly I wanted to apologize.” She sighed and lifted her cup to her lips. After taking a sip, she continued. “I’m so sorry about last weekend. I’m so sorry about…everything.” She lifted her blue eyes to meet his. “I’m sorrier than you’ll ever know that you thought I believed you would rape someone. Truly, Tyler, I never really believed it.”
“Then why did you kick me out?” he said, disturbed at how low and shaky his voice was.
“It was still an incredibly stupid thing to do,” she admonished him. “Putting yourself in that position. Clearly something happened that night. Even though I believed you never forced that girl into anything, it was mortifying to have her parents contacting us and accusing you of that, and then having to give them money to keep it quiet.”
“That was your choice.”
“Yes.” She nodded. “It was. Oh, Tyler. You were only seventeen years old and you were doing crazy things like that! Tying a girl up! Naked! You were getting wilder and wilder and I thought…” She paused. “It seemed like we needed to take drastic measures. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” Then she made a face. “Maybe. To this day I wonder if it was the right choice. I never imagined it would turn into ten years without seeing you.” She waved a hand. “But we can’t go back and change things. All I can do is tell you how sorry I am. And last weekend, yes, I know we overreacted about that rumor. I don’t want to blame your father, because lord knows I haven’t been without blame in this whole thing, but this time we really did have a…difference of opinion about how that was handled. I knew he was furious, and I was going to try to smooth things over but I didn’t really get a chance. I really don’t care if you took ten hookers up to your room.” She shot an apologetic glance at Kaelin. “I don’t mean you, dear.”
“I know.” Kaelin smiled briefly.
Mom sighed. “That’s not entirely true,” she said. “Hookers…well…I hope you never have to resort to that. But…” She held up a hand. “It’s none of my business. But it did disturb me again that something like that happened. I could kick myself, but I did have a moment where I was annoyed at you for acting so irresponsibly.”
Kaelin covered her mouth with her hand.
“But that’s all it was,” Mom continued. “It wasn’t life or death or anything to get so worked up about.”
This was freaking him out. He rubbed the back of his neck, glanced at Nick and Kaelin, who both took it all in, trying to keep their faces expressionless, apparently. Though when his eyes met Kaelin’s he saw a hint of a smile.
“But most of all, I wanted to tell you how proud I am of you.” Her voice caught. “I wanted to tell you last weekend. I was looking forward to you coming home, so I could finally tell you how proud I am of all that you’ve accomplished. Your life was spiraling out of control, and I’m so proud of what you’ve made of yourself. I could see how bright you were, how creative, how talented. I didn’t know what you were going to end up doing…”
“Neither did I,” Tyler said dryly.
She smiled, eyes shining. “But I wanted you to have the best life you could. To make the most of yourself. That’s all any mother wants, I think. I just didn’t do a good job of telling you that, I guess.”
“Mom.” His chest ached and emotions swirled inside him.
“I’m proud of you. And I love you. It hurt me to see you so angry at people who love you, just because you think you’re not worthy of their love.” She glanced at Kaelin, and then, surprisingly, at Nick. “But you are. And I think…I hope…maybe you’re figuring that out.”
Tyler didn’t know what to say.
“We’re trying to show him, Mrs. Wirth,” Kaelin said softly.
Mom turned to Kaelin and studied her face. “And you, dear…have you figured things out?”
“I think so.” She smiled.
Mom touched Kaelin’s cheek, her smile full of warm affection. “I’m so glad, dear. I always had this feeling that you weren’t entirely happy. I hated to think that you were going to end up feeling like…” She hesitated. “End up feeling unsatisfied.”
“You’re okay with…this?” Kaelin asked. “With us?”
“I am if you love him.”
Kaelin nodded. Christ. Tyler scowled. She’d told Nick she loved him, she’d told his mom she loved him, but she still hadn’t told him. But then, he hadn’t told her yet either. Suddenly Tyler felt a little less afraid of that and some of the tension eased out of him.
Mom looked at him, fiercely. “And you. Don’t hurt her. You may be too big for me to spank, but you’ll hear from me if you do that. Understand?”
“Yes, Mom.” Her protectiveness of Kaelin startled him, warmed him inside, but not as much as the way she stood up to him. Jesus. It really did make him feel—strangely—loved.
“I should go.” She set down her cup on the counter. She paused. “Do you think I could have a hug?”