Chapter 32

“Is everything okay?” he asked.

“My mom had a fight with my stepfather this morning, and she’s upset. So she came here.”

“Do you want me to go?”

“No. She knows you’re here. She’s making coffee.”

“Great,” Eric said before grabbing his toothbrush from the holder beside the sink.

“There’s more.”

“Okay.”

“My mother isn’t just here for a visit. She’s going to be staying with me for a while.”

Eric squirted a glob of toothpaste on his brush and looked at me. “What’s ‘a while?’”

“A week…probably. I doubt she’ll be here more than a few days.”

Eric nodded slowly before starting to brush his teeth.

“Are you okay with that?”

He shrugged. “Sure,” he said with a mouthful of toothpaste. “I’m okay if you are.”

I put my arm around him and kissed his stubble-covered cheek. “Thank you.”

After we both had freshened up and made ourselves presentable, we went downstairs to have coffee with my mother. By then, she had gotten into the fridge and cabinets and started mixing a batch of pancakes.