“So did you.”

“Louise, I have grease permanently embedded under my nails. I didn’t even know Seattle had an opera house until he took me. How’s a guy like that going to stay interested in me?”

That talk was coming straight from my grandparents. They weren’t happy that Mom got pregnant young, but they were furious that she chose a trade over a college education. Never mind the fact that trade schools were just a different kind of education, or that my mom was good at it, or that it kept food on our table. Bay was right. My grandparents sucked.

I squeezed her face between my hands until she looked like a squished puffer fish. “Mom, you just channeled Grandma and Grandpa, which means you’ve earned a fish face.”

“You’re mean,” she said, or at least attempted to say through her fish face.

“I’m not letting you out of fish jail until you say you’re as proud of yourself as I am of you, which is a lot.”

She batted my hands away. “Cut it out.” She sighed. “I don’t know what to do.”

I snorted. “Don’t toss away a good person that you like because your parents suck.” I grabbed a handful of popcorn. “Give yourself more time to get to know him and see if you like him. You had a good time and he treated you well. Why not take him to the destruction derby? Then bring him to a family dinner. Really test his mettle.”

She blinked at me. “Wow, you really are mean.”

I nodded slowly. “Baptism by fire. If he has a good time at the derby and can withstand the full onslaught of our family, then you know he wants to stick around.”

She hugged me. “I love you, baby girl. So mean. So wise.” She leaned back and tipped her head to the living room. “You think you’re being wise there?”

“I thought you liked Declan?”

My mom let go of me and picked up the popcorn bowl. “I do. I like the way he treats you. It’s just been fast, you two getting together, and under lots of stress. Relationships built under those kinds of conditions tend to burn out.”

“I know, Mom.” And I did. I wasn’t stupid, it was just… Declan and I hadn’t talked about it. There’d been so much going on. Did he want something long term? Something permanent? I didn’t know. But I thought about earlier in the vet clinic, realizing how much I liked him being in my life. What would I do if after this, Declan wanted to move on?

I thought about waking up in the morning alone instead of with him wrapped around me, and I hated it. Hated. It.

I grabbed the beers so Mom could carry the popcorn, my mind spinning. When had I gotten so serious with Declan? When had my feelings leveled up? I had no idea—and I certainly didn’t know if he felt the same way.