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“For sure,” I laughed. “I talked to mom the other night. It wasn’t a bad conversation. She said she’s getting herself together this time. I hope so.”
Uncle Joe kept quiet. He was done waiting for mom to get her act together. I knew it was hard for him to watch his sister live the life she lived, but there was nothing he could do to stop her. There was nothing either of us could do to stop her.
“How’s therapy been going?” he asked. “Doing you some good mentally?”
“Better than I thought it would,” I said.
“Ah, you’ve never been a bad guy. You made some terrible decisions and could have been a lot nicer at times, but you’ve always had a heart of gold under all that toughness. I'm happy to hear therapy is something you can manage.”
I was proud to hear my uncle say that I wasn’t a bad guy. For a long time, I thought I was the worst guy on the planet. Especially after losing Mia.
“Have things been better between you and Mia? I imagine they have since I haven't gotten a call from her about finding a new place to stay.”
I let out a chuckle and leaned back in my chair. I thought I had given up on coming clean to her, but when Uncle Joe mentioned her, I felt inclined to come clean even more.
“They’ve been great,” I said. “I don’t know how great they’ll be when she finds out I was the one driving the car that night, but they’ve been great so far.”
Uncle Joe looked like he’d seen a ghost. He stopped eating his sandwich and stared at me like I had lost my last brain cell for even saying such a thing. I felt like I had too. But with Nick poking around for answers, I knew I had to come clean to her before he did.
“Nick, her little brother, he was here last night and had some pretty interesting facts to share with me. I think he knows I was the one driving. He just doesn’t have the proof right now.”
“How does he know that?” Uncle Joe’s tone was serious.
“I’m not sure. He said Naomi talks about it a lot. He also said that every time she went to the police for a police report, you always showed up to steer her away.”
He and I stared at each other in silence for a while. I didn’t look away from his eyes for one second because I knew I would find the truth there. Uncle Joe had never been a man to keep the truth from me, but I could tell he was in that situation.
“Brayden,” he sighed. “I did what I did to save your ass, and to keep her from losing her mind about this any more than she already had. This whole situation is messed up. It's sad. But Trent was going away regardless. You didn’t have as much trouble with your name as he did, and he agreed to take the fall. He also wanted me to keep his mom close because he knew it would be hard on her. That's why I did it.”
“You could have told me,” I said. “We tell each other everything.”
“There was a lot of heat surrounding that situation,” Uncle Joe said firmly. “The cop you hit was a guy I had a lot of issues with in the past. The boys in blue were looking for every reason they could find to get rid of you because you’re my nephew. I couldn’t let that happen.”
At that moment, I understood his rationale completely, and I thanked him for it. But I still had to tell Mia. I felt like a snake slithering in the grass the longer I held onto it; the more we slept together, and the closer we got. I told myself that if I was going to take therapy seriously, I had to set every skeleton in my closet free.
“I plan on telling Mia the truth.”
“Brayden.”
I gave my uncle the most serious look I could conjure. I had to tell her, regardless of her reaction. Being one hundred percent truthful with her was the only way I felt safe building something new with her.
“I have to,” I said. “I can’t keep lying and hiding the truth. Not with Nick getting closer and closer to it anyway.”
Uncle Joe sighed and leaned back in his chair. He nodded his head in agreement, but I could see a look of worry on his face.
“Alright,” he said. “If you feel like you absolutely have to tell her, then go for it. There's no telling how she’ll react, but I hope you're ready for whatever the outcome is.”
“I have no choice but to be ready,” I said. “She and I have been getting close again, so I have to tell her. I'm in love with her and lying to her about something that means so much to her isn’t a very good display of that.”
My uncle’s face went from contemptuous to proud. I felt proud of myself as well. I admitted my love for her and wanted to change my ways to suit it moving forward. I wanted to build a life with Mia, on a truthful foundation.
“I admire that, Brayden,” he said. “There aren’t many men who would ever come clean to the woman they love out of fear of losing her, but you, you’re a different breed. I can respect that. After all, Mia does deserve to know the truth. They all do.”
“I’ll tell her when she gets back from Florida. She’s planning to take Nick to see Trent, I don’t want to ruin their trip before it even gets started.”
“That’s a good idea.”
We sat and talked for a while more as we finished our lunch, and I filled him in about my relationship with Mia. I jumped the gun by calling it a relationship, but I felt so good about the prospect of winning her back, I took the risk of calling it one anyway. I knew in my heart we would end up together again; there was no way we couldn’t. We loved each other and fit together like two peas in a pod. Eventually, I knew love would win.
