I sat down and Ryan began to speak. His tone was quite direct contrary to his nervous look while softly chuckling, "You’re probably old enough so I can’t bribe you anymore huh?”

I smiled coldly and replied, "Definitely not."

He just spoke facts right there. I wasn’t a kid anymore. I wasn’t someone he or anyone else who liked my mom needed to convince her to say yes or give them blessings or whatnot. Though there wasn’t going on between them anyway.

“I’m going to go straight to the point then,” Ryan said as he looked at me with serious eyes. “I really like your mom, Jack. Well, it used...