“For the record,” her mother said. “I don’t have a problem with you and Jamar sharing a bedroom. That’s your father.”

“Can we pick a different topic, because…” Taylor waved her hands in a cutting motion before stabbing at her cake again.

“Okay, how are things going with work?” her mom asked. “You never mentioned what happened with that homeschooling job.”

Oh, God, please, just bring on the LEGOs.

Taylor chewed excessively slowly, giving herself time to decide how to respond.

“It sorta fell through,” she finally answered. “It all worked out in the end, though. If I had taken on the homeschool gig, I wouldn’t have had time to work with Jamar.”

Her mom gestured toward the guest bedroom with her head. “How serious is this?”

Taylor decided to be honest. “It’s pretty serious,” she said. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and in a hushed voice said, “I think I’m kinda falling in love with him.”

Her mother’s brow arched. “Kinda? You sure about that?”

The cake she’d just swallowed felt like Mount Rushmore as it went down her throat. How long had her mother been in this kitchen?

“It wasn’t supposed to happen,” Taylor admitted. “We were only pretending to be together.”

She told her about their agreement to pretend they were dating, and how her feelings had gradually changed from fake to the real thing.

“Oh, I know what happened,” her mother said. “You played yourself.”

“Oh my God, Ma! You have got to stop hanging out with Freddie! And I did not play myself.”

Okay, so maybe she had played herself. How foolish had she been to think she could feign a relationship with Jamar Dixon and not fall for him?

“So what comes next?” her mother asked. “If you’re no longer working as his trainer, can he still function as the spokesperson for your business?”

“What do you think?” Taylor asked. “If you were in the market for a fitness trainer, would knowing that I once worked with Jamar Dixon entice you to hire me?”

“I would hire you no matter who you worked with, but then again, I’m biased.” She winked, slipping the last bite of her cake into her mouth. “Mmm…I’ll need you as a trainer if I don’t get the rest of this cake out of the house.”

“Just say the word. I’ll give you the family discount,” Taylor said with a grin.

She sat silently as her mom rinsed her plate in the sink, then slipped it in the dishwasher. Taylor had cautioned herself against bringing up this topic before she left Austin, but now that she had her mother alone, it seemed like the right time.

“Mom, when I was in school, did you ever suspect that I maybe had a learning disability?”

Her mother swung around, a puzzled frown furrowing her brow. “No. Why would you think that?”