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“Cool.”

Skyler can’t help but smile. Trevor and Layla used to get along great, which always made him happy. Even if their way of bonding was by ganging up to make fun of him.

He stops smiling when he remembers his conversation with his mom. Even though Trevor was close to his family when they were together, it was weird for him to keep in touch with Skyler’s mom after they broke up, right? And especially to hide it from him. Except he’s not sure it counts as hiding it, considering he and Trevor weren’t speaking to each other.

Unable to think of a tactful way to bring it up, he blurts out, “Were you ever going to tell me you’ve been talking to my mom all these years?”

Trevor’s body stiffens and he suddenly looks distinctly uncomfortable. “I…”

“I don’t get it. She swore you guys never talked about me, but I don’t see why else you’d be calling her if it wasn’t to talk about me behind my back.”

Frowning, Trevor glances toward the front seat where Mike is dutifully pretending not to listen. “Not everything’s about you.”

“So what did you have to talk to her about?”

“Me. My life.”

“Why?” Skyler asks, trying desperately to understand.

Trevor doesn’t answer for a few moments. And when he does, it’s so quiet Skyler almost misses it. “You said she was my mom too.”

Oh.

Shit.

He did say that. They were together long enough that their families naturally became like each other’s families. But he did, in fact, specifically say those words.

After Trevor’s own mom died.

Trevor angles his body toward the window and away from him, looking like he wants to curl in on himself.

Andshit shit shit.

Skyler’s such an idiot. His mom even tried to tell him. She said Trevor needed someone. Of course he did. He must have felt so alone the last five years.

“I’m sorry, I’ll stop talking to her if you want,” Trevor says, not looking at him.

“No! No, don’t be sorry,” he rushes to say. “You have nothing to be sorry about. I overreacted. I just found out about it this morning, and it threw me off.” He reaches over and takes Trevor’s hand, this time holding it tightly, not caring if Trevor wants to pull away. He won’t let him. “Sheisyour mom too. She always will be, okay?”

Trevor finally turns his head to him but doesn’t say anything.

Skyler squeezes his hand. “I promise I don’t mind if you keep talking to her. But I want you to know you can talk to me too. About anything. I get that you couldn’t do that before, but you can now. I’m not going anywhere.”

Trevor nods, though he still doesn’t say anything. But he doesn’t try to pull his hand away either.

They’re quiet for a minute, and Skyler starts to realize thiswasan awkward conversation to have with his security guard sitting two feet in front of them.

Then Trevor says, “Thank you,” and squeezes his hand.

And well. It doesn’t matter.

TREVOR

Trevor can’t believe Skylerchartered a plane for them. It’s not like he’s never been on a private plane before, but it’s been a long time. And back then it was usually for the whole band, management, and crew.

He understood, theoretically, that there must be a large discrepancy in his and Skyler’s net worth by now, but having it tossed in his face this way is staggering. Trevor may be fly-first-class-to-anywhere-in-the-world rich; he’s not charter-a-private-jet-at-the-drop-of-a-hat rich. He’s aware, though, that Skyler didn’t do this to flash his wealth around. He did it to get them away from L.A. for their safety.

He’s still a little overwhelmed by the events of the last eight hours. The last couple months, if he’s being honest. After losing Skyler years ago, and then his divorce, he eventually figured out how to be by himself. Settled comfortably into his life, his routines. It was lonely, but it was safe.