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He huffed. “Well, this actually makes a lot more sense.”
She shot a glance at Thomas, finding him staring at her. There was no malice, but there was also zero happiness in his gaze.
“I thought something weird was going on between you and Zeke, but my mind never went… that far.” He stood abruptly. “How long have the two of you been involved? Is that why…” Thomas faced her, his arms folded. “How long?”
“Not more than a couple months. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”
“I’m not upset.”
“Really? I’d understand if you were.”
“Well, I’m not.” He sighed but didn’t say anything else. The silence that continued to grow between them wore on her.
“Well, it doesn’t matter anyway. We cut everything off. It was really for the best.” She reached for her food, if only to keep her hands busy. Confessing her secrets was only part of the reason they needed to have this conversation. “You’re probably wondering why I brought this up in the first place.”
“Not really.”
She shot him a surprised look.
“I can’t believe he called the cops on you! Seriously, what kind of guy does that? You were dating him, and he didn’t like that you borrowed his truck?”
Agatha bit back a smile. “You’ve got a decent point there.”
Thomas laughed. “I mean, I guess I can understand why he was so worried now, but I would have never told the sheriff to hunt you down.”
They ate in amicable silence for a few moments, and then she finally tossed him a smile. “You know, I really am sorry about keeping this from you.”
He shrugged. “It’s fine.”
Strange. She was certain he would have been more upset. If he had been younger, she knew without a doubt that he would have held it against her. But something told her that his easy-going nature about this didn’t have as much to do with maturity as she would like to think.
“I was wondering if you were up for telling me where you really were that one night…”
It wasn’t hard to see she’d hit a nerve with that statement. He frowned and his jaw tightened. “I told you it didn’t matter.”
“You’re wrong.”
“No, I’m not. I can decide what is important to share and what isn’t. We’re both adults, and I’m not ready to talk about it.”
“So, Zeke was right.”
He stiffened further, freezing so much that he appeared to look more like a statue than a real human. “Zeke talked to you about me?”
“All he said was that you were keeping something from me because you didn’t want to disappoint me.”
Thomas released a pent-up sigh that resembled a groan. “If I were you, I wouldn’t put much stock in what he might have said.”
“Zeke might have a lot of flaws that I didn’t like, but he never lied to me.”
“I didn’t say he lied, but is it possible he was making you look in one direction when you should have been looking in another?” Thomas stood again. “I don’t want to talk about this. I’m not interested in spilling what’s going on with me. That’s not to say that it’s never going to happen, but can we just not talk about it?” All it would take was for her son to take a dozen steps in one direction and he’d be able to escape.
But ultimately, it came down to one unalienable truth.
Agatha couldn’t control Thomas any more than Zeke could control her. She’d gone from having two close relationships with the two men in her life that meant the most to her… to having neither.
She could feel a shell wrapping around her, closing her off from the outside world as if it were tangible and she could touch it. Words of assurance stuck in her throat, the disappointment like a sticky glue that prevented any movement. She nodded, fighting back emotion.
Somehow, she’d known this was going to happen eventually. She’d lose the close relationship she’d had with her son. She just didn’t want to accept just how much it stung.
