Meant For You

forty-nine.

Miles Dempsey

It was late Wednesday afternoon and I had just gotten home after running errands all morning. The regular season was ending tomorrow and I knew with the postseason coming, I'd be too busy to focus on anything other than hockey. Which is why I decided to wake up early on an off day and get shit done.

JT had spent the night at Ember and Nola's place and he wasn't going to be back until later tonight. He told me about a special dinner date he had planned for him and the little brunette. That meant that I would have the house to myself for a couple more hours which was all I really wanted and needed.

Don't get me wrong, living with the kid has been great. It's opened up my eyes in more ways than one but as a twenty-four-year-old man, I like my alone time. I haven't lived with an eighteen-year-old guy since I was in college when I was also eighteen.

So, I take advantage of the time I have alone. Except am I really alone when I've been talking on the phone with Nola for the past hour? She called me when I was at Target picking up a few essentials and we stayed on the phone since then. She was on a walk and needed the company. I was pretty far from home since I had to go to the BMW dealership to pick up some new license plates and we got to talking.

I promised myself I wouldn't tell her. I did. But somehow she picked up on my weird energy over the phone and kept asking me what was wrong. When I insisted I was fine, she called my bluff. So eventually, I built up the courage to tell her about the stress of finding my birth parents again.

We had still been talking about it as I got out of my car, collecting all the bags at once so I didn't have to come back. I unlocked my door with my phone and closed it behind me with my foot. "So when are you planning on talking to your parents about it then?" she asks, her voice soft and cautious like she didn't want to push me over the edge with her question.

I sigh deeply. "I have no idea, Scott. Telling my parents I want to find my birth parents isn't the simplest conversation. I'm trying to prepare myself for it too," I say, walking into my kitchen. My body comes to a halt when I notice someone standing in the middle of my kitchen with a white box full of pastries.

But my heart drops to my asshole because it's not just any person.

It's my mom.

She wears an evident frown. I'm not dumb enough to think she didn't hear. I wasn't whispering at all since nobody else was home. At least so I thought. With sad eyes, she sets the box down on the counter. Still in shock from her presence, my phone is still pressed to my ear as Nola speaks. Her words sound like gibberish to me at the moment since my body is in fight or flight mode.

My throat feels like it's closed up as thick silence floats in the air. She heard me. My mom heard what I said.

I'm able to move now and the first thing I do is hang up on Nola. I don't even say bye or anything before shoving my cell phone into the pocket of my shorts. "Mom," I start before she does. The emotion on her face tells me that she's heartbroken and I don't like it one bit. My heart clenches at the sight and I step forward but she takes a step back, sniffling.

"Your dad will be back in a couple of minutes. He went to go pick up a few things I needed to make dinner for you and JT," she tells me, her voice shaky. Great. She came over unannounced to make me dinner. Now I feel even more like an asshole. "Mom, I'm s-"

"I'm back! Miles, where are you, boy?" Pop's voice from down the hall cuts me off. Mom looks almost relieved that he's back now but I don't feel the same way. There's no coming back from this. It's out. The information is out and I'm having this conversation right now whether I wanted to or not.