Page 17 of My One

Closing my eyes briefly, I sighed again before responding, “Not the good parts. The—”

“Your parents?”

I opened my eyes and looked into hers. “Yeah.”

“Do you want to call them?”

“Hell no.”

She kissed me lightly. “We can talk about it if you want.”

“What is there to talk about? They didn’t show. End of fucking story.”

“You know my heart breaks for you—”

“Why?” I rose, and we both sat facing each other. “Because I don’t have parents who love me like yours love you?”

She swallowed and frowned before whispering, “Yes.”

“Nic”—I cupped her cheek—“you’re my family. You’re all that I need.”

“But—”

“No buts.” I dropped my hand. “It’s been like this practically my entire life. The only functions my parents ever attended while I was growing up were my baseball games, and that was so my father could tell me everything I did wrong. Now that I’m a bartender, they want nothing to do with me.”

“You’re more than a bartender. You co-own a successful bar.”

I shrugged. “They don’t know that. I haven’t seen or heard from them since the night of Halo’s soft opening over five years ago.”

“And how did that go?”

I looked away from her, searching for the words. Nic and I hadn’t been together for even a year yet, and though we didn’t have secrets with each other, I’d never told her much about my parents other than we were estranged. “My dad was his usual self—grumpy and shit. My mother seemed to be happy for Easton and me, but she also seemed sad.”

“So, maybe your father’s the reason?”

My gaze moved back to Nicole. “For what? Mymomnot returning my calls?”

“It’s possible.”

“Then why hasn’tshecalledme? It’s not like they’re together 24/7. My dad is a plastic surgeon for the stars and shit.”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “What would happen if we showed up at their house?”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t even know where they live. They didn’t give me their new address when they moved.”

“But you know where they live in California?”

“Yeah, but I’m not going to fly across the country to show up in their city. It would be a wasted trip.”

“But—”

“Let’s just forget them. We’re on our honeymoon. We don’t need to talk about my parents.”

“Okay.” We slid back under the covers. “Are you going to tell me where we’re going tomorrow?”

I grinned. “No.”

The next morning started like the one before, which wasn’t a bad way to wake up each morning if I said so myself. The only difference was we couldn’t lie around in bed all day because we had a flight to catch.