you think we’re deciding to do?”
“Choosing your colleges, for one thing,” she said. “I know that you changed up your applications, and I even understand it. Your father and I both do, but have you told them you’ve been offered a full ride right here in Texas?”
“Nope,” I said with a shrug. I’d been offered a couple of them. But they were football scholarships, and I wasn’t even sure I wanted to concentrate on football in college. More and more, I leaned on no. I wanted to work on my music. I wanted to be with Frankie. I wanted to work on us. “The plan has always been for the five of us to target the same schools or at least the same area so we could share a place.”
Mom huffed out a sigh, but the sound of the garage opening quelled her for the moment. Without her asking, I grabbed the oven mitts and started pulling the food out to take to the table. Family dinners always involved us sitting around the table, no phones, no work, no television, just the three of us talking.
“Sorry I’m late,” Dad called as he let himself in from the garage. “Smells good.”
“It’s fine,” Mom told him.
“No Frankie?”
I almost snorted as I set the bowl of pasta on the table and then the bread followed by the sauce. Spaghetti was one of Frankie’s favorites, and Mom had definitely made more than enough.
“Apparently, our son doesn’t trust us with his girlfriend.” The sharp bite in Mom’s words made me turn.
“I didn’t say I didn’t trust you,” I corrected gently. “Frankie has just had enough on her plate. She adores both of you, and your approval or lack thereof would mean something to her. I don’t want her hurt. So until I’ve answered all your questions satisfactorily, I’m not bringing her over here.”
Dad met my gaze and pursed his lips a moment before he nodded once. “Let me wash up, and then we can eat and discuss this. I have a feeling this is my fault.”
“I never said it was,” I answered—because it wasn’t—as I pulled out Mom’s chair. She paused to study me for a moment as Dad washed his hands at the sink.
“You know we love her, right?”
Glancing down, I smiled. “I do, Mom. Just like I know she loves you.”
“And you still want to protect her from me?” She wrinkled her nose.
“Mom, I want to protect her from everything.” After the last few months, I wanted to do it more than ever.
Dad waited until after we’d all settled on helpings before he dove in. “This is because I warned you about pursuing something with her when she was already on emotionally unstable ground.”
“Partially,” I admitted. “But not wholly. I understand a lot of what you ‘saw’ as an issue, but I don’t agree. Not anymore.”
Studying me for a moment, Dad nodded. “I’m not going to offer you some platitude or insult you by saying sex clouds things.”
“Thanks.”
“But sex clouds things,” Mom added into the conversation. “It’s human that it clouds things. When your father and I started having sex, it complicated a lot of things. He had his duties, I had classes…”
“Sara,” Dad said with a chuckle, “Ian doesn’t want to discuss our sex life.”
“I’m aware,” she said without an ounce of shyness. My parents had never been the type to shy away from a subject. “And I don’t even object to you and Frankie having sex, I’m sure you’re both sensible.”
I downed a full glass of water before I started shoveling the pasta in my mouth. If I kept my mouth full, maybe I wouldn’t have to keep up my part of this. Mom liked to embarrass me into talking about myself. It was a very effective technique and I had to admire her, but not going to let it work tonight.
“That said,” Mom continued as she broke apart the bread, “a poly relationship with four boys and one girl is bound to lead to some strife.” She paused, almost considering. “Ian, the fact you would need to balance not only your needs, wants, and desires but theirs… She’s not even eighteen yet—”
“She’s more mature than all four of us put together,” I told her flatly. “And she’ll be eighteen in a few weeks. Age isn’t the issue, Mom. If it was, then the fact I’ll be nineteen in the not too far distant future would have some impact.”
Dad chuckled. “He has you there.”
“I thought you agreed with me on this,”