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Being back in Coal’s Lake felt alien. It was the same house, in the same town, yet something had changed.
I was pretty sure it was me.
Before Adam, I’d thought I’d end up back in Coal’s Lake after university, teaching at the high school or somehow smushing my degree into a job. But he’d forced me to look outside my hometown for the first time. It was one tiny silver lining to the clusterfuck our relationship had turned out to be.
I wanted to see more of the world, to explore situations that were out of my cookie-cutter norm.
Like dating two men at once.
Sebastian and Damien hadn’t gone more than a day without checking in since I’d arrived back on Canadian soil. I missed them. They’d left me feeling desired, despite the many thousand miles separating us.
Mom took the bowl from me and began slopping the filling into the pastry.
‘It’s time you told me about Scotland,’ she said.
I’d been avoiding any conversations about it since arriving at my parents’ house that morning. Agreeing to come for the New Year’s party was probably a mistake. I’d barely had time to process everything myself. I was far less ready to tell my mom about it. I’d filled Jamie in, and despite being furious with Adam, she still thought what I’d done was overstepping the mark a bit. When I showed her pictures of my two muscular Scotsmen, she figured she might have done the same.
‘You’ve been off since you got here,’ Mom said, narrowing her eyes at me.
‘I’m a bit tired, that’s all.’
‘Where are all your pictures from Scotland? You’re normally shoving your phone under my nose the minute you’re through the door when you’ve been somewhere exciting.’
‘I was snowed in. We didn’t really do anything.’
‘And who are we?’
I clenched my teeth as I avoided meeting her eyes. I didn’t want to lie…
‘Cara, I noticed that any trace of Adam seems to have disappeared from your social media accounts and that he’s no longer your friend on anything. I’m your mom. Tell me what’s going on.’
I sighed and sat down on one of the kitchen bar stools.
‘He wasn’t at his dad’s house when I got there. There was a storm, and I got snowed in.’
‘Where was he?’
‘With his pregnant fiancée.’
My mom stopped making the pies and looked at me wide-eyed. ‘His what?’
‘His fiancée. They are expecting a baby soon, and he’d neglected to mention her at all. The socials he had were fake. He lied about everything.’
‘Oh, sweetheart,’ she said, coming to my side of the counter to pull me into a cuddle. I didn’t realise quite how badly I needed it until my face was buried against her shoulder. ‘Let me get you a glass of wine. Your father had a delivery.’
Dad was a huge fan of his wine subscription boxes, despite rarely actually drinking the wine himself. Still, it was always handy come party season.
Mom poured me a large glass of chilled white wine and rubbed my back as I took a sip.
‘So what did you do?’
‘His dad let me stay until it was time to go back. I couldn’t get back out anyway as the roads were blocked.’
‘That was kind of him.’
More than you know…
‘So what now? What about your studies in Scotland?’
