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I tap my glass against hers and Austyn’s before I take a long pull of my drink.
It’s then Paige asks me, “Are you ready to tell me why you didn’t come to us the moment you knew she was ill?”
With a sigh, I relay my mother’s wishes. Paige doesn’t get irate. Instead, her lips quirk. “If I didn’t have my husband or family, I’d likely feel the same. I’m not upset, Fallon. I just wanted to understand. Now, what about bills?”
Austyn slants me a furtive glance. I scoff and jerk my head in her direction but address Paige. “You mean the little prodigy didn’t tell you?”
“She hinted at something unorthodox, but I’m not quite certain what that means.”
Taking another drink, I tell Paige about Devil’s Lair, how the proprietress was one of my former customers at the bar I used to work at. Her jaw drops. “You’re kidding. They paid for your mother’s medical treatment?”
“I never received a dime. In fact, they let me go from my contract early when…when…” I take another drink of wine.
“When they learned your mother wasn’t going to make it?” Paige says as gently as possible.
Tears burn my eyes, but I manage to say, “Yes.”
Paige takes a sip of her own drink. “Unorthodox, yes. But honest work, Fallon. You didn’t commit any felonies. You had a job, and you worked hard in addition to maintaining your curator position and caring for an ailing mother. That just further demonstrates your incomparable strength as a woman.”
Austyn’s hand comes down flat against the wood coffee table before she hisses, “That’s not what Uncle E. said.”
“Austyn, don’t,” I plead.
“Ethan? What on earth does he have to…” Her eyes dart between her daughter and me. I can practically see the wheels turn in her mind, and when they stop on the correct combination, all the secrets are exposed like a slot machine spilling its coins. Her eyes widen in shock before she takes a longer drink of wine. “I see.”
Resigned to explaining it to her, I shoot Austyn a filthy look. “We started out as friends.”
“Most good relationships do,” Paige remarks.
“What about the shitty ones?” Austyn mumbles, earning a stink eye from me.
Mentally giving her the finger, I explain to Paige the high and low points of my relationship with Ethan. “It changed for both of us after Austyn’s accident. We were each other’s rocks.”
I take her through the different stages over the years—Ethan’s jealousy, my own hurt he hadn’t shared our friendship. “I told him he made me feel like his dirty little secret.”
Austyn mutters something rude about her uncle beneath her breath. Her mother snaps, “Austyn!”
“We haven’t got to the worst part yet, Mama,” she warns her.
Paige guzzles some more wine and refills her glass, topping off both of ours. “Keep going.”
I catch Paige up on how our relationship shifted—how we evolved. Despite her being okay with this, she still lifts her hands to her ears and chants, “La la la, I do not want to hear about my brother sexting.”
“Deal with it, Mama. Once I figured it out, I had to,” Austyn offers her no quarter.
“How long did you know, my darling daughter?”
Austyn chews on her lip before answering. “About her crush? Years. Fallon’s always had a thing for older men.”
I bob my head. “Truth.”
Paige shoots a grin in my direction. “At least you have good taste.”
The wine in my mouth turns bitter. “I had good taste, Paige.”
“Fair enough. When did it become more between you two?”
“Truth?”