Page 62 of Parentmoon

“Hey, baby girl,” Dallas drawls next to me, groggy and sleepy, but calm as a clam. Having rolled to his back, he scrubs up his naked chest while a sliver of sheet covers his private parts. There’s no disguising Dallas’s state of dress, or lack thereof.

I slowly turn my head back to Michael but close my eyes. As if shutting my lids wards off his presence. Part of me, deep inside, is overjoyed to see him. Just not like this.

“Mom, what’s going on here?” Michael’s tone is full of scorn and concern, like he’s the parent and I’m the child. But his voice is also full of confusion, as if he doesn’t believe what he sees. His mother is in bed with a man.

Dallas shifts beside me, sits up and tugs the sheet higher over his lower body. We went to bed naked at Dallas’s insistence that the cool sheets would feel good on my sunburnt skin. He braces one arm behind me while leaning toward my shoulder, pressing a lingering kiss there.

My gaze doesn’t leave Michael and Keli. His mouth falls open. Her blue eyes widen.

I twist away from Dallas, taking the sheet still clutched to my upper chest with me. A sharp tug on the material from behind me only allows me so far.

“Darlin’,” Dallas groans.

“Can you just give us a second?” I direct to Michael and Keli, although I’m going to need more than that to wrap my head around my son and former future daughter-in-law standing before me as I’m naked beneath a bedsheet beside my son’s former future father-in-law.

First things first, I need to put on some clothes.

“We’ll be downstairs.” Keli’s sweet voice is calm while she places a hand on Michael’s forearm.

He turns to her as if he’d forgotten she stands beside him. His gaze hasn’t left me, certainly befuddled by the sight of his naked mother next to an equally naked man. Michael nods once at her before glancing back at Dallas and me, shifting his questioning stare between us before swiping a hand through his dark hair.

“Jesus,” he hisses as he turns away, heading for the stairs.

To my surprise, Keli offers me a soft smile. Whether it’s sympathy or condemnation, I don’t know yet.

The minute they clear the staircase, I jump from the bed, taking the sheet with me and rounding the room for my suitcase.

“Darlin’.” The endearment is a warning I don’t heed. Instead, I scramble for underwear and a pair of shorts. Slip into my bra with my back to Dallas and tug on a T-shirt. When I turn around, Dallas is watching me. Cool as a model doing a photoshoot, he sits on the bed with one leg bent and his arm casually draped across his raised knee. His other arm holds him upright. His eyes narrow.

I can’t process the look he’s giving me. “I’ll meet you downstairs.”

When I reach the bottom of the staircase, Michael rises from the couch where Keli has been sitting next to him. The two of them were holding hands. Does this mean they are back together? I hold up a finger and point in the direction of the bathroom. “Just need another minute.”

Sixty seconds still isn’t going to be enough time to decipher how to explain myself to my adult son.

Then again, he has some explaining to do himself.

Like how it is he and Keli are here together.

I use the facility, brush my teeth, scrub my face, and stare at myself in the mirror. I’m suntanned, causing my eyes to glisten a deep brown and my teeth to look extra white. I don’t recognize the woman in the mirror, but I like her. She looks well-sexed, relaxed, but she’s tensing up knowing the scrutiny she’s about to undergo.

When I exit the bathroom, Dallas has come down the stairs wearing fishing shorts and a T-shirt. He’s been making coffee but excuses himself and heads toward the bathroom.

Keli crosses the room and hugs me tight. When she pulls back, another timid smile curls her lips. “You look rested.”

Michael kicks into motion next and comes to me, tugging me into a deep hug. As he’s six-three to my five and a half feet, he engulfs me. “I’m sorry I got you into this.”

What exactly does he think he got me into? Dallas and I are consenting adults, but that’s neither here nor there right now.

“Don’t be,” I say, pulling back. My mortification at getting caught in bed with Dallas is one thing, but there’s still an even bigger concern here. “How about you tell me how you two are here, first?”

Keli giggles, peering at Michael, as Dallas exits the bathroom.

“I want to hear your story,” Michael states, his tone rising as he glances at Dallas, narrowing his eyes. Keli wraps a hand around Michael’s bicep and whispers his name like a soothing balm.

With a dismissive wave, I blow out air and scoff. “We’re all adults here. It isn’t like we’re getting married.” It’s just sex. The joke is inappropriate for the couple standing before me, and poorly timed, but they don’t appear like a couple who broke off their engagement.

“You don’t want to marry me?” Dallas interjects incredulously, pulling my attention from Michael and Keli. Deep blue eyes question me, but this is not the issue at hand.