“The one you’re losing sleep over. You look like shit and you haven’t been listening to me at all...and you keep checking that cell phone like baby Jesus is going to call, so out with it. Who is she?”

He’d never been able to keep things from his mother. Growing up, she’d had to play the nurturing role of mom and the kick-ass disciplinary role of father. He was still amazed at how she’d been successful at both. And still irritated that she’d had to.

“It’s Erika.”

Surprise registered on his mom’s face, then she was nodding. “Makes sense.”

“It does?”

“Yeah... You were always intrigued by her.”

“I’m not sure I remember things that way.” He’d always felt intimidated by Erika, but he’d refused to get close enough to her to be intrigued. Until that night in the woods, anyway, and he’d certainly gone out of his way to avoid her afterward.

But Arlene insisted. “You were. I mean, as she changed from a tall, skinny preteen to that amazing curvy body she has now, you certainly took notice.”

He shifted in his seat at the mention of her body. A body he’d kissed every inch of, touched every soft part of... A body he missed having next to him at night.

“But it was more than that,” she continued. “She was different from the rest of you guys...she was quieter, more serious. She had a determined strength of character that appealed to you. She wasn’t flighty and flirty like most of the girls Cassie hung out with.”

He might have been interested in Erika from afar, but his interest came from trying to get her approval. She’d been so much better than the rest of them. His mother was right—she was smart and determined and she’d motivated his sister to do better. He’d respected her for that, even if they’d seemed too different to be friends.

That wasn’t the case anymore. They were more alike than he could ever have imagined. And they fit together so well...at least they had when she was in Wild River.

“And of course, after that night in the woods...you’d already lost your heart.”

He shook his head, refusing to admit to his mother that she was right. “No, back then, she was irritating and annoying and I struggled to understand her...”

His mother raised an eyebrow.

He sat back in his chair. His appetite vanishing the more they talked about the woman he was missing like crazy. She was right. His ambiguous teenage feelings for Erika had been the first step in developing this attraction and connection, and he was certainly hooked on her now.