I grinned. All this time Sully had never told me his real name, insisting it was a matter of my protection, although I always suspected he kept it from me to mess with me. Who knew all it would take to get that little secret was to speak to his mother?
“It’s a rather new relationship,” I said.
“You’re bold enough to answer my son’s phone. That tells me everything I need to know. I can’t believe my Milo finally has someone he’s serious about. He’s always so careful not to get emotionally involved with anyone. You must be one special man.”
“I’m the lucky one to have him. Your son’s amazing.”
“This isn’t the way I would have wanted us to get to know each other.” Her sigh came across loud and clear. “But it’s still better than nothing. You must call me Beth. What’s your name?”
“I’m Kit.” And I would be toast if Sully found out I’d been speaking to his mother. “I really should go. Sully wouldn’t be okay with any of this. Do you want me to give him a message for you?”
“No, please. Don’t go just yet. I have so many questions. Milo is always so tightlipped about everything going on in his life.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t want to cause any problems.”
“It’ll be just our little secret, Kit. Understand my position as a mother. I go to bed every night, worried, replaying every last conversation in my head, searching for clues in his words of how he really is. If I could just talk to you, I’d know so much more about my son.”
I clenched my eyes shut.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
How could I turn down my future, what exactly? Mother-in-law? My heart skipped a beat. I refused to want something that could never be. Sully being with me didn’t mean he wanted to marry me.
“May I at least have your number?” she asked. “I’d love to talk with you sometime, to find out more about you. It’s the least a mother can get since being estranged from her son. Don’t you think?”
She damn sure knew how to pound into someone with guilt.
“Okay, but I really should tell Sully about this. I don’t want to keep secrets from him.”
“Technically, unless he asks if you’ve spoken to his mother, you’re not lying to him. If he does, you have my full permission to tell him the truth.”
I chuckled. “I see where he gets his negotiation skills. And his unwillingness to let something go.”
“You do know my son well.”
“Okay, you may have my number, but be prepared to cover the expense of my funeral when Sully finds out about this.”
Beth laughed. And damn, I knew it was wrong to continue without Sully’s knowledge, but how could I deny this woman the right to know if her son was okay? Sully was so stubborn. He thought everyone who loved him was under threat. But maybe I could ease his mother’s mind.
And this had nothing at all to do with me not being able to pass up a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the man I was in love with.
I took a deep breath and gave her my phone number.
“Oh, Kit, I can’t tell you how much this means to me,” she said. “Now don’t forget to delete these calls, or I’ll have to make that funeral arrangement sooner than later.”
I burst out into a nervous laugh. Oh boy, this was taking deception to another level. “I won’t forget.”
“Please don’t worry about keeping this from Milo. You’re doing the right thing by helping me to stay connected to my son. He won’t visit, and I won’t apologize for doing what I can to get closer to him.”
“I understand.”
We said our good-byes, and I ended the call. I stared at the phone in my hand for a very long time. What should I do now? I should tell Sully the truth right now. Our relationship was based on honesty, and I never wanted to give him a reason to mistrust me. But I’d also promised his mother, and how could I break that promise to her? All she wanted was to be close to her son.
Maybe I could convince Sully to visit his family, and then it’d be easier to tell him about what I’d done.
I tapped the screen, and the fingerprint scan appeared. I took a deep breath, then pressed my thumb onto the spot. Sully had added my fingerprint to his phone after we’d both grabbed each other’s phones by mistake once and I hadn’t been able to get in. Guilt washed over me. He’d done that in case of an emergency, not for me to go through his phone like a suspicious boyfriend.
I deleted the two calls from his mother and immediately locked the phone again. I didn’t need to see anything I wasn’t supposed to.