Sally

I missed Percy and Nico so much. They haven't gotten to meet Alex yet.... Well, now they have. I forgot to tell Alex they'd be here today.

Whoops.

But Nico headed out to go give something to Bianca. Her birthday was recently, apparently. Birthday presents.

I gave Percy a hug, something I haven't gotten as much as I've liked ever since he basically started camp.

"It's been so long," I told my son. "How have you guys been?"

"Good." Percy assured me, knowing he can't lie to me. Duluth is beautiful. Canal Park was amazing."

I looked at him for a minute. Last I checked... What?

"You live in St. Paul."

"We went to Duluth for a day." He explained to me, clearing that up. "Speaking of, I gotta talk to you later. Preferably before Nico gets back."

I've gotten used to Patrick having news for me. So it made sense that my mind jumped to what it did.

"Is Nico pregnant?"

Percy opened his mouth, going to say something and then I said that. And he uh... He took a moment.

"No, Mom." Percy insisted. "I'm not Patrick. Kids are not anything you need to worry about with be right now."

"Good," I told him, messing up his hair. "You guys are 19, I should only have so many grandkids at this point in time."

Percy went to unpack as Alexa retreated to her room. She's there a lot. But she doesn't seem to be depressed or anything so I'm not too worried about her. She's still social. Eats more than enough. Has friends over.

So, of course, Alex was a sap. I was sitting down on a stool at the counter, writing down what we needed for groceries. Some shit I had no idea what it was but when Percy said he'd cook for us a few nights when he was here he said some good shit and he told me what was needed for it.

Between Gordon and I, he's a damn good cook. His children will never starve.

Alex walked up from behind and wrapped his arms around my waist. Something he seems to love doing. Which, I won't complain. I was really cautious about it at first just because that was a thing Gabe did before he... Before he wanted stuff.

But Alex doesn't seem to be like that. And Susan trusts him. A kids intuition is always a good one, if I remember right.

"Whatcha doing?" He asked me, peeking over my shoulder.

"Writing down the groceries we need to get later." I told him, writing down fake weed as an inside joke. Percy once came home and told me he sold weed to a kid. And then when I was ready to become a strict mom he laughed and told me it was oregano. He needed $5 and the dude wasn't desperate or anything. "Do you need anything from the store?"

"I don't think so, no." Alex responded, as he pulled up the other stool behind me and stayed how he was, resting his head on my back.

It was silent for a few minutes as I wrote down some others things that was needed from the store. Eventually, Alex broke the silent.

"Hey, Sally."

"Hm?"

And no, were not anywhere near the whole idea of getting engaged and married and whatever. But Alexa never knew her mom and so when she met me... She clung on pretty fast. She doesn't call me mom. But I'm... That's what I am to her. I'm Sally, Mom.

"I know that Susan adores me and everything," he started off. Which, I'm not sure what I was expecting. Not what he asked me, though. "And Alexa loves you like you're her Mom. But do you think Percy will like me? He sort of... I mean, he seemed nice. But I don't know. He rubbed me wrong after I told him that I lived here and what not."

I sighed. Percys always been kind of tough on boyfriend's of mine. Just because of Gabe and what he did and now Paul. He's protective. It's his nature.

"It's not you, sweetie." I promised, turning around to face him. "Alright? Patrick and Paige aren't the same way, that's just Percy and whenever he meets any boyfriend I've ever had. He's going to be tough on you and not trust you for the first few days. He will threaten you at least once. Take them to heart. He means it. But he will lighten up after a few days. I promise he's a sweet kid. Both him and Nico are. Percy just has trust issues with this sort of stuff."

Debating that, I had no idea what else was on his mind. He's never met the triplets. Paige is next to never here. Patrick and Clarisse live in Phoenix. Percy and Nico are in Minnesota. He's been living here for a few weeks.

"Stuff?" Alex questioned, puzzled by my wording. "What sort of stuff?"

I shrugged.

"Me dating " I knew that much. "He just had a bad relationship with his dad and still does last I checked. My first marriage was... I didn't want to get married. That was a different situation. I dated a guy or two before I got married and Percy was tough on him at first. But he trusted him and a few years later he started to drink and... And then he threw a beer bottle at Percy's head and threatened Paige a day after threatening me. So ever since then he's just... He's going to be a closed book. It has nothing to do with you. It's his dad and his issues."

Alex slowly nodded his head.

"Got it." My boyfriend remarked after all that. "It's okay, I kind of get that. It's the opposite of what Alexa does. I just have to show him I'm trustworthy while he's here."

"Exactly!" I agreed. "Do you wanna do grocery run tonight? I'm making dinner."

He agreed to go get groceries and so he headed to the store with Alexa as I laid Susan down for a small nap and told Percy I was staring dinner if he wanted to help.

He's my son, of course he wanted to help make food.

After putting the potatoes in the water to boil before mashing them, I remembered what Percy had told me earlier. Gave him a little bump.

"Now that we're alone," I told my son, earning his attention. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Oh, yeah!" Percy recalled as he scored fish. He knows what he's doing. "the entire reason I wanted to come out here. You might want to sit down, though."

I rolled my eyes.

"Percy, I think I've heard—"

"Mom." My oldest told me, looking me in the eyes. He was serious. "If you didn't need to sit down, I would've done this over the phone."

"Okay, okay," I remarked, putting a cover on the pot and grabbing a stool. "I'm sitting. What's going on?"

Because now of course I'm worried. He's only ever told me to it down once before. And that was when he told me he was gay but didn't want to come out and yeah. It was a conflicting thing that's long resolved now. He had a boyfriend for God's sake.

"So a few days ago," Percy started to explain, my nerves as high as ever. "For our anniversary, as a matter of fact, Nico and I had gone up to Duluth for the day."

He was taking this slow. I didn't like it.

"You told me you guys planned on that." I replied, not seeing too much importance to that thing regarding me. To them it's important. But I don't know how it applies to me. "What about it? You said it was beautiful."

"It was, yeah." Percy went on, and thought for a moment. "We went to the aquarium there and got to go to a little rock climbing place before we went out to eat. Then after we ate we went along Canal Park, the boardwalk along Lake Superior. And I have photos if you want them."

"Percy, it's a lake."

"I know," he insisted and I noticed he started to do something with his finger. Like there was something on it that I didn't look at earlier. "But as we were walking along the boardwalk, we stopped to look at the lake and the sunset and everything. It was pretty, like I said. But Nico got really serious and I got worried and he's not my boyfriend anymore."

He paused between what he was going to say next and my mind jumped to they came back because they broke up. Because they weren't together anymore.

Which broke my heart. They were so sweet and lovely together. I really thought that they would be together and get married and have kids.

"Oh, Percy..." I felt bad. I knew how much Nico meant to him. "I..."

This wasn't the message Percy was trying to get across to me.

"No, Mom," he stopped me right away. "Not like that. Sorry, I needed to take a breath. We didn't break up. He got serious because he had a question that he wanted me to take seriously."

Is it...?

"What was it?"

Is he going to say what I'm thinking?

"And I'm being completely serious about this, Mom." Percy repeated, just to make sure I knew. "Nico isn't my boyfriend, he's my fiancé. We're getting married."

HE FUCKING SAID IT!

And of course he has that whole worry to him that I wasn't going to take this well. They're young and blah blah blah. But I mean, they've been together for two years and Nico has helped Percy so much it's insane. I could never be mad at something like that.

"Oh my gods," I remarked. "That makes me a lot happier than being told you guys broke up. When's the wedding? I need to know, Percy. Tell me everything."