She ignored me, taking her hand from my face. “You’re good at so many other things. You can play, you can write, hell, come work with me, get into the other family business. You writing and producing with me, the label would thrive so quickly.” When I only stared, uninterested in what was another attempt at getting me to give up my spot on the Dolphins’ defensive line, Mom exhaled, curling her hands together before she continued, switching subjects quickly. “Aly loves you. You love her. But you both are God awful at realizing something damn important.”
“Like?” “Like love isn’t all it takes to build a life together.” I didn’t like her tone just then, or how she glanced from the house behind us, then out toward that dark lake. “You need honesty and trust and, Ransom, everything has to be equal.” When she looked at me, her bright blue eyes glistened against the moonlight. “You love someone, you have to trust them enough to be at your side, not at your back.”
“I never did that shit to her.”
A small smile then, and Mom tilted her head as though she wanted a good look at me. “You didn’t know you were doing it, baby. You were so focused on making that shadow of yours bigger than the one your father cast that you forgot Aly needed a partner. She needed you to see her as an equal. What did she do in Miami while you were off all over the country playing ball?”
“Mom…”
My protest died with one shake of her head. “Who do you think has listened to her for the past four years? Who do you think has listened to her cry about how lonely she was? Kinda hard for Leann to do that from Florida.” She was right. Leann might have been Mom’s cousin, but she was also the first person to help Aly out when she left her father’s claustrophobic home at seventeen. Leann offered her an apartment and a job at the dance studio she owned. More than that, it was Leann who encouraged Aly. With Leann and her family moving to Orlando, and Aly returning to New Orleans, Mom seemed to be the only person Aly could turn to. And why wouldn’t she? They were close. Aly was family to my mother. “She came back here, honey, and we were all she had.”
“I know that and I didn’t think…” I was unable to scrub away the quick flash of Aly on that stage or the lingering feel of her lips against mine when I stole a kiss tonight. “I didn’t mean to do any of that to her.”
“Doesn’t matter now, does it?”
I sat back, gripping the arm of my chair to keep my temper in check. Mom had a way of calling me out when I was wrong. That was what mothers were supposed to do. Didn’t mean I had to like it. “You saying I should roll over and show my belly? You think I should leave her alone?”
“Is that what you want?” Her voice was even, like she knew the answer but wanted to at least give the impression that I had a damn clue about anything.
“Mom, I want her.” I nodded toward the ring on her finger. “I want another damn Riley-Hale love story.”
And just like that, my mother’s shoulders dropped and she scooted back along the leg rest, as though something I said had put her on edge. When she sat up, her body arranged itself in sharp lines even as she lifted her chin to watch the lake around us and the soothing ripple of the current as it licked against the shore. “There are no rose colored glasses in this house, Ransom. You should know that.”
“Where is that coming from?”
She took a minute, sighing. There was no use in me badgering her. When Mom wanted to elaborate, she would without me having to ask. “Nowhere important.” She recovered quickly, shaking her head as though she hoped her stray thoughts would knock themselves clear. “Relationships, especially those that last, are hard damn work. Sometimes you give and give and sometimes you get to take, but baby, it has to be equal. At the end of the day, if it’s not equal, it breaks apart.”
I’d never meant for that to happen. Aly wasn’t the type of woman to be pushed aside and I never had meant to, not really. We both did well in college. She even took extra classes, doubling up her credit hours so we could graduate together. And my decision heading into the Draft came after many hours of long discussions of where we wanted to be. It had nothing to do with any selfish agendas I had. It was always about the both of us. But I was man enough to admit it hadn’t stayed that way. We got busy. Jesus, doesn’t everyone? But the injuries, the resulting fights, the distance, started when we moved to Miami and got so busy and didn’t make time for each other.
“Mom, what do I do?”
If I lived another hundred years as Keira Riley-Hale’s son, I still wouldn’t be able to guess what she thought when she looked at me the way she had then. There was steel in her eyes; a determined set in her features that was both reprimand and comfort as impossible as that sounds. She loved me with a fierceness I’d never understand, but my mom wasn’t afraid to make me angry or tell me when I needed to stop being an asshole. “You want her, you show her. You be the ear she needs and you put her first for once, Ransom.” Her hands had warmed up and I squeezed her fingers back when she held onto my wrist. “Don’t be a nuisance and don’t try to break up what she’s got with Ethan.”