Quinn
Hallie and I pulled up in Cody’s parents’ driveway again, and I hoped the second meeting would go a little more smoothly than the first.
While I knew I should be making them hate me so Cody would be more inclined to do the same, I just didn’t have the heart. A lifetime of not being good enough for my own parents had left me desperate for approval from any sort of parental figure, including my soulmate’s.
When a teenage boy opened the door, I raised my eyebrows. I hadn’t noticed him in the drama of everything that had happened earlier. Cody told me he had a younger brother, but I hadn’t imagined he’d be so large. He was nearly the same size as Cody and Tanner, who I’d been surprised to realize looked incredibly similar.
“Hey.” He left the door open for us and headed back into the house. Sitting down in front of an already-made bowl of cereal, he picked up the phone he’d left on the table and went back to playing some video game.
I’d forgotten that it was still early in the morning, so Cody’s brother was probably getting ready for school.
“Who’s here, Artie?” Leah yelled from the other room.
“Hallie and Quinn.” Artie yelled back.
I winced at the noise. With wolf hearing, I didn’t know why they would ever need to yell.
Leah hurried into the room, blowing a strand of dark hair out of her eyes. She had a laundry basket on her hip and a smile in her eyes. I’d been a little worried she’d hold my past with Logan against me, but she didn’t seem even a little bothered.
“What can I do for you, girls?”
“Quinn’s place is a wreck and we didn’t want to drive all the way back to my apartment for cleaning supplies. Do you have some we can borrow?” Hallie checked.
“Of course. Do you need some help? I’ve got a few hours to spare this morning.” she asked.
I would’ve had to be blind not to notice the hope in her eyes as she looked between me and Hallie.
Hallie looked to me, since I was the crazy one. She was so nice that her answer would be an obvious yes.
While I knew I should turn her down, I couldn’t. I’d gone my whole life wanting my mom to offer something as simple as a few hours of her life spent with me. With Leah looking at her two daughters-in-law like she wanted nothing more than to get to know us and spend time with us, I suddenly wanted the same thing.
“That would be fantastic.” I smiled.
“I just need to put the cleaning supplies in a basket and I’ll be ready to go. You can grab some breakfast if you’d like. There’s cereal in the pantry, fruit on the counter, and yogurt in the fridge.”
I noticed her lift her hand to her eyes as she left the room.
Was having a relationship with us so important that us letting her clean with us for a few hours could make her cry?
“The pack thing has been really hard for mom.” Artie said quietly, putting his phone down on the table, the game forgotten. “It’s nice of you to let her spend the day with you.”
He thought it was nice of us to agree to her help? I was almost overwhelmed by the fact that she had even offered.
“It’s nice of her to ask.” I stepped into the kitchen and eyed the fruit on the counter that Leah had mentioned. I didn’t want to intrude if she’d just been offering to be nice. “My mother wouldn’t spend the day with me for a million dollars, and she wouldn’t spend it cleaning for a hundred.” I muttered, weighing my options before I just gave in and grabbed a banana.
“What?” Artie and Hallie both looked at me with surprised expressions.
When I peeled my banana and ignore their questioning, Hallie admitted,
“I don’t have a good relationship with my mom either.”
Huh. I hadn’t seen her for someone with mommy or daddy issues. She seemed far too whole to be in the same boat as me family-wise.
“Alright, I’m ready.” Leah came out into the living room with a smile on her face and a different, smaller laundry basket on her hip. This one was full of cleaning supplies. She’d put her hair up in a ponytail on top of her head and was wearing an old faded t-shirt and jeans.
I’d never seen my own mother look that casual, or that genuinely happy.
“Artie, can you grab some towels and rags from the closet and bring them out to Tanner and Hallie’s truck?” She called out as she headed for the front door.
Hallie grabbed an apple off the counter, and I grabbed another banana for the road.
I realized on the way back to my dump of a house that I’d made my decision to choose my parents over Cody and his family far too quickly. That decision wasn’t going to be an easy one, and I would need to know with certainty before I chose one way or another.