“I know, Ma.” And he did. “I lied to you. Not for a day, or a week, either. For a long time. I get it. This is different. Nick wanted to walk away from her. He was so pissed, but I couldn’t let him do that. How could I take him away from his family? It would have killed us. It would have killed him. I just...” Bryce shrugged. “I want him happy. His birthday is at the end of this month, and I just keep thinking about how it’ll go. How he’s going to take having to spend time with me and his family separately. But he has to go. They’re his family. He said he thinks she’s coming around; maybe he’s right.”

“This is where you would have given up before...where you would have walked away.”

“There’s no walking away from him, Ma. He’s it for me.”

When he looked up again, he saw that his mom was crying. She had a shaky hand over her mouth as she looked at him, a broken heart in her eyes. “You really do love him, don’t you?” Her voice trembled as much as her hand.

Bryce gave her a sad smile. “So much it hurts. Hell, we never really do much of anything, except work and spend time together; still, I don’t think I knew what living was until I met him. Just looking at him makes me happy. Nick was an automatic with me, just like when I fell in love with bikes. I waited to find my passion, what I wanted for the rest of my life, and it’s the same with him. I knew it was right when I met him.”

His mom rounded the counter and threw her arms around him. She buried her face in his neck and cried. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Bryce. I’ve been a terrible mother. I should have believed in you. Don’t you dare think there is anything wrong with your love for Nick. If his mom can’t see it...” She combination cried/laughed now. “Well, being honest, fuck her.”

Bryce squeezed her tighter. “Don’t say that in front of Nick. And I love you. You’re a great mom. I get it. I understand why you were leery.”

He held her while she continued to cry. A few minutes later, she pulled back and Bryce asked, “What do I do, Ma? I love him. I want him happy. I want them to see what he means to me... if they see, they have to understand, don’t they?”

“I would hope so. Unfortunately, the world doesn’t always work that way. If Nick said he thinks she’s coming around, maybe she is. All you can do is show her how much you love him. If she can’t see how incredible you are, how incredible you both are, then it’s her loss.”

Bryce couldn’t accept the fact that she might not come around. He would do everything in his power to change her mind.

An hour later, Bryce’s motorcycle sat in front of Nick’s mom’s house. This was probably a big fucking mistake, but then, Bryce never let anything hold him back before, and he didn’t plan to start now. He wanted Nick to have his family. He’d do whatever it took to make that happen.

He knocked three times before the door opened. “You have some nerve coming here,” Mona started in on him the second she saw him. “Not only did you put crazy thoughts into my son’s head, but you turned him against me!”

Huh? What was she talking about? Bryce’s stomach rolled with uncertainty but he ignored it. “I’m not sure what you mean, ma’am. I’m not trying to turn Nick against you. I...I love him. That’s why I’m here. His birthday is coming and—”

“And he hasn’t spoken to me once since the two of you left this house! He ignores all of my phone calls, and he hasn’t called me once.”

Bryce squeezed his eyes closed. He was going to fucking kill Nick. This whole time he’d let Bryce believe that they were still talking, but he’d turned his back on his family...for Bryce. Bryce wouldn’t let Nick take the blame for it, though, even if that meant she hated him more.

“I’m sorry about that. It was wrong of me, but I love him. I love him so much, and I was afraid to lose him. I promise you, I see more clearly now. What I did was wrong, but please don’t take it out on Nick. He misses you. He loves you. We’re going to have a get together at the house for his birthday. My family will all be there. It would mean the world to us if you, your daughters and their families could come. It’ll be at three o’clock, on the day of his birthday. We’re lucky it landed on a Sunday,” he laughed, hoping to keep the mood light.

“Don’t try to play me, son. I see you for who you are. You try to take my son away from me, and then come here pretending to be the good guy. I don’t believe a word of it. What you’ve done to him...that’s not the boy my husband and I raised. You took him away from us!”