Certified Disaster (Beautiful Mess Book 2) (14 page)

He debated a moment, then he heard
himself say, “Fine, you can come visit.  But don’t expect anything from me.”

“Thanks, baby.”
 
His mom actually
sounded excited.  “We were thinking about coming in two weeks, if that’s okay? 
We’ll find a hotel that’s close, and we’ll get to spend some time with you, and
meet this girl you’re so serious about.”

 
“Yeah,
okay.”
 
He
wasn’t getting his hopes up.  He knew there was a very slim chance she’d
actually make it out.  “Call me when you get here, and we’ll meet somewhere.”

“Okay, sounds good.  Can’t wait to
see you, honey.”

“Yeah.”
 
Cole hung up, feeling a strange mix
of emotions.  Anger, apprehension, outrage, and hope rushed through him in
varying degrees of intensity, making it impossible for him to pinpoint exactly
how he felt about his mom showing up out of the blue like this.

A new thought struck him, that wiped
all of his confusion away.  Bri was going to meet his mom.  He wondered how she
would react to this news.  Would she be nervous, scared, angry,
confrontational?  He knew she wasn’t a big fan of his mom’s; Bri didn’t approve
of her for abandoning her family all those years ago.  If nothing else, the two
of them together, face to face, should be interesting, to say the least. 

A small smile lifted the corner of
his mouth, because he was about to find out.

Bri waited apprehensively in the
lobby of the restaurant.  She didn’t know why she was so nervous, Cole’s mom
didn’t deserve that kind of respect.  But as she fidgeted with her dress again,
she couldn’t stop the butterflies swarming her belly. 

What if Lynette didn’t like her? 

For some reason, Bri had this
overwhelming desire to gain Lynette’s approval, despite the fact that she was
already pretty sure she didn’t even like Lynette.  She had this deep rooted
fear that if Lynette didn’t like her, she and Cole were through.  After all,
how long did a girl last when she didn’t get mom’s approval?  Even though Cole
and his mom weren’t close at all, Bri was still afraid that Lynette would be
able to influence her and Cole’s relationship.  And that thought scared her
more than anything.

“Stop,”
Cole gently stilled her wringing
hands.  He smiled down at her fondly.  “I don’t remember you getting this worked
up about meeting my dad.  What’s going on?”

“I don’t know,”
she admitted
honestly.  “I just have this huge fear that your mom will hate me, and even
though I shouldn’t care what she thinks, I really want her to like me.”

Cole laughed.  “You’re right, you
shouldn’t care what she thinks.  I don’t.  She hasn’t been around enough to
deserve a say in what I do or who I’m with.  So please, stop worrying. 
Besides, I know for a fact that she’ll love you.”

“How do you know that?”
she asked
anxiously.

“Because I love you,”
he replied simply. 
“If she cares about me at all, she’ll see how happy you make me.  She’ll see
how much we love each other, and that will be enough for her.  And if it’s not,
then screw her.”

“Really?”
she asked. 

“Really.”

“Thank you.”
 
She stood on her tiptoes and pressed
a kiss to his jaw.  “Sorry, I’m being ridiculous.”

“You’re never ridiculous,”
he smiled, and
captured her lips.

A pointed throat clearing caused Bri
to freeze.  Pulling away from Cole, she looked over, and sure enough, Cole’s
mom and stepdad were watching them with raised eyebrows.  She felt her face
flush with embarrassment.  

Great.  What a perfect first
impression she’d just made, making out in the middle of a restaurant.  Lynette
probably thought she was a total slut.

“Mom, Carl,”
Cole greeted his parents coolly.

Cole’s mom was tall, with brown hair
and brown eyes.  She had probably been pretty once, but the planes of her face
had been hardened and weathered, either from smoking, too much sun, or life
beating her down.  Maybe all three.  Now, she just looked bitter.  Her tight
fitting blue dress didn’t do her figure any favors either.

Cole’s stepdad didn’t look much
better.  What was left of his light brown hair was balding, and he had a
substantial beer belly that his khakis couldn’t quite contain.  He was wearing
an obscene amount of gold jewelry with his poorly fitted dress shirt, and
coupled with his perpetual scowl, he looked like a wannabe mobster.   

“Hi, honey,”
Lynette gave Cole a pointed look
before she stepped in and hugged him lightly.  She obviously wasn’t amused at
catching her son with his tongue down some girl’s throat.  Bri groaned
inwardly.  This night was already off to a bad start. 

Cole returned his mom’s hug
awkwardly, seeming relieved when she finally stepped away.

“Mom, this is Ambria.”
 
He wrapped his arm
around Bri’s waist and pulled her into his side.  “Bri this is my mom, Lynette,
and my stepdad, Carl Gunderson.”

“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Gunderson.”
 
Bri reached out
and shook both of their hands.  “It’s nice to meet you.”

Lynette regarded her with a cool
smile, but didn’t bother with a response.  Neither did Carl, who’s attention
had already been drawn to the football game on the TV over the bar.  Not sure
what to do or what to say, they all stood awkwardly for a moment, and a
palpable tension descending on the group.

Luckily, the hostess came to show
them to their table, breaking the awkward silence.  After everyone was settled
and drinks were ordered, Lynette turned to Bri.  Bri couldn’t tell if Lynette’s
smile was patronizing or predatory, but it was definitely calculating.

“So, Bri is it?  Tell me a little
about yourself.  You’ll have to forgive me, but I know nothing about you.  Cole
hasn’t talked about you much.”

“Oh,”
Bri couldn’t keep the surprise out of her voice.  Glancing over at Cole,
he was glaring at his mom across the table, but Lynette was oblivious. 
Ignoring Lynette’s thinly veiled jab, Bri figured she may as well make nice and
play along.  At least for now. 

“Well, I grew up in Phoenix, and
lived in Dallas for a few years before moving to Santa Monica a couple years
ago.  And now I’m here, going to school.  I want to be an editor, so I’m
majoring in English and I’m also minoring in Dance.  I
’
m a
dancer, and I
’
m on the dance team at Duke.”

“How nice.”
 
Lynette didn’t look impressed.  “So,
where did you two meet?”
 
She looked back and forth between Bri and Cole.

“High school.  Bri moved to town our
senior year,”
Cole
jumped in, saving Bri from having to answer.  “We were friends for a few
months, started dating, and the rest is history.”
 
Cole smiled down at her, but Bri saw Lynette’s face fall.

“You two met in high school?  How…
nice.”
 
But from the
expression on Lynette’s face, Bri could tell she thought it was anything
but
nice.  “And then you went off to college together.  How wonderful,”
she finished,
sarcasm dripping from her tone.

“Mom,”
Cole warned, giving her a pointed look.  “Don’t.”

“Don’t what?”
Lynette replied, her eyebrows creasing
in feigned confusion.

“I know what you’re thinking, and
you can stop it right now.  This isn’t anything like you and dad, so don’t
start.”

Bri gave Cole a questioning glance. 
She had no idea what was going on, or what they were talking about.  Cole
reached over and took her hand, squeezing it reassuringly, but his attention
remained focused on his mom.

“Don’t be silly.  I wasn’t going to
start anything,”
Lynette
huffed.  “I think it’s wonderful, young love and all that.  Really, it’s very
sweet.  It just doesn’t have a great track record of working out, and I think
you need to take that into consideration.”

“Mom!”
Cole said sharply. 

Bri felt the color drain out of her
face as she realized what Cole’s mom was saying.  Lynette didn’t expect her and
Cole to last, and she obviously disapproved of their relationship.  All hope of
getting Lynette’s approval vanished, and Bri’s heart sank.   

“Okay, okay, I won’t say anything
more about it.”
 
Lynette
held her hands up in surrender.
 
“So Cole, what have you been up to lately?”
 
She turned the conversation to Cole
and kept it there, all but shutting Bri out.

Not having much opportunity to
participate in the conversation, Bri sat through the meal and watched the
interactions at the table around her.  Carl, she noticed didn’t say much,
except to insert his opinion about something, which he expected everyone to
agree with.  He was a gruff man, and Bri couldn’t tell if he was generally
annoyed at everything around him, or just apathetic.  Lynette seemed like she
was trying too hard.  She was overly excited, and a little too anxious to gain
Cole’s trust.  Watching her, Bri got the distinct impression that Lynette had
some sort of ulterior motive. 

Lynette mostly ignored Bri all
night, except to throw her a disapproving glance or a calculating glare.  It
was obvious Bri hadn’t dazzled her, and even though Cole had told her not to
worry about it, Bri was a little hurt that Lynette didn’t like her.

Cole was the most interesting to
watch.  He’d started out cool and distant, but as Lynette peppered him with
questions about every aspect of his life, he slowly warmed up.  Every time
Lynette would praise or compliment him, which she did a lot, Cole would beam. 
Bri could tell that all this attention from his mom made him feel good, made
him feel special.  She knew he’d probably been craving this kind of attention
all his life.  She just worried that it wasn’t as altruistic as Lynette
insisted.  But, not wanting to dampen Cole’s happiness, she kept her
reservations to herself.  Instead, she smiled and laughed along as he and his
mom shared stories and memories.

Bri had to admit, she loved getting
a glimpse of Cole as a little boy.  She could still see traces of the eager,
mischievous kid they talked about.  Cole’s desire to please people was
definitely still there, and Bri saw it peek through a few times as he tried to impress
his parents.  Her heart broke a little for him then.  It made her sad that he
felt he needed to earn his mother’s love, something that should’ve been given
to him freely and unconditionally.  He deserved so much more than that.  But
Lynette looked happy, so Cole was happy.  Carl just looked bored.

After dinner, Lynette and Carl
headed back to their hotel, and Bri let Cole drive them home.

“So, did you survive?”
he grinned at her.

“Yeah, did you?”

He nodded.  “It wasn’t as bad as I
thought it was going to be.  What do you think of my mom?  Still worried she
won’t like you?”
 
He
winked at her.

“She seems nice,”
Bri replied
noncommittally.  The truth was that Bri didn’t know what to think about Cole’s
mom.  Carl she definitely didn’t like, but the man made no effort to be liked. 
Lynette made a lot of effort to be liked, at least by Cole, but that sent up
red flags in Bri’s head.  Something about her made it hard to like the woman.  “And
she definitely doesn’t like me.”

“What?  Why would you think that?”
 
Cole looked over
at her in confusion.

“Come on,”
she gave him an incredulous look.  “You
didn’t notice it?  She kept glaring at me all through dinner.  And she
obviously doesn’t approve of our relationship.  What’s up with that, anyway?”

“Oh, that,”
he sighed.  “Well, she and my dad met
and got married really young.  Like, right out of high school young.  And then
they had me not too long after.  You’re already aware of how well she took
that.  She hadn’t been happy for a long time, even before she left us.  My mom
didn’t want me to make the same mistakes she did, so as I got older she pounded
it into my head not to settle down too soon, not to get too serious about a
girl while I was still too young to know any better.  She’d tell me to wait
until I had enough life experience to know for sure what I wanted, to wait
until after college to start thinking about any kind of serious commitment.”

“Seriously?”
 
Bri couldn’t believe it.  “She really
did that to you?”
 
Suddenly,
Cole’s commitment issues made total sense.

“She just wanted to make sure I had
a chance to grow up and experience things before falling into marriage and a
family.”

Bri just shook her head.  “Still,
what kind of parent dumps their issues onto their kid like that?  What’s so
wrong with wanting marriage and a family, anyway?”

“There is nothing wrong with that,”
he reassured her.  “And
even though she practically sermonized it, doesn’t mean that she’s right, or
that I agree with her.”
 
He glanced at her meaningfully.  “And it doesn’t mean that she has any
say in what I choose to do with my life.  Like I’ve said before, she was barely
even a parent.  She’s been absent practically my whole life.  What does she
know?”

“Exactly,”
Bri agreed, relaxing a little.  “Everyone
is different, and our situations are definitely different.”

“Right,”
Cole nodded, grabbing her hand.  “So,
no more worrying about what my mom thinks.”

“Right.  We live our lives our way. 
And if she doesn’t like it, screw her.”
 
Bri smiled at him.

“Good to know we’re on the same
page.”
 
He
smiled back at her, and Bri felt lighter than she had all evening.

The next day Cole gave his parents a
tour of the campus.  They ended at his dorm, and Bri was surprised when they
walked in to find Jordan still at home.  He was rarely home, especially on the
weekends.  Cole introduced everyone, and Lynette turned to Jordan eagerly.

“It’s so nice to meet you, Jordan. 
I remember watching you on TV last year.  You are really good.  Are you
thinking about going pro?”

“Of course!”
Jordan grinned.  “I’m just not sure
when.  It’ll really depend on how this season goes.”

“What do you mean?”
Lynette asked.  “You
haven’t decided if you want to join the draft next summer?”

“No, not yet.  I want to enter the
draft in the best position possible, to get the most money possible.  If the
team has a bad year, it might be better to wait another year, and hope for
better results.  If I want to go top ten in the draft, which I most definitely
do, we’ll need to have a high national ranking, win the ACC championship, and
hopefully the NCAA title.  I’m willing to give it a year or two to achieve
that.  Like I said, I want to be in the best position possible going into the
draft, and I’m trying to pad my resume as much as possible.”
   

“Interesting,”
Lynette smiled at
Jordan appraisingly.  “I hadn’t considered that before.  What about you, Cole? 
Are you planning on going pro?”

Lynette’s question seemed innocent
enough, but Bri snapped to attention. 

“Yeah, I mean, I
’
d
like to,”
Cole
shrugged.  “But I’m going to finish school first, so it’ll be a few years
before I do.”