Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 121755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
I started laughing.
Through it, I said, “Kevin is long gone.”
“Well, he’d have to be on Mars for Robbie not to hunt him down.”
I closed my eyes.
Here we are.
And with this, I’d been here, and Mom had been here, for ten years.
I so totally loved my stepdad, Robbie.
“Mom, Tex and Tito offered me a job as pastry chef for The Surf Club,” I shared. “And they want to partner up with Willow’s Good Stuff. I’ll be running it out of SC’s kitchen. It comes with a fifteen K raise, no change in bennies, and I no longer have to do deliveries.”
“Holy shit,” she whispered.
“And I met a guy, and don’t worry. He reminds me of Robbie. Except he’s less mountain man tough guy and more city man badass.”
She was silent.
Then she burst into tears.
I almost did the same, but I was totally cried out from before, so I just smiled.
Then Robbie’s gravelly voice came over the line.
“What the fuck?” he demanded.
Un-hunh.
I loved it that I had a mountain man tough guy dad.
“You okay?” he asked before I could answer. “Tell me it isn’t that little fuckwad. Is he back?”
“Those are happy tears, Robbie. I have a new job, more money, I get to keep Willow’s Good Stuff going, but do it in an industry kitchen, no additional overhead, just have to pay a percentage of the profits. So I’ll be working less, making more, no more deliveries. And I’m dating one of the Nightingale guys.”
They’d met Cap. And Eric. Also Javi.
And…
Wait.
Shit.
We’d all gone out to catch a game at a sports bar when they were down one time, so they’d met them all.
Including Gabe.
So I added, “It’s Gabe. The black-haired one with the beard and the blue—”
“I remember which one he is.” Then, not to me, “She’s dating the one called Gabe. You know, the one who looks like he could twist a band of rebar into a Celtic knot with his bare hands.”
“Oh my Lord!” I heard Mom cry. “He’s a cutie!”
He was not a cutie.
But I loved it that Mom thought that.
So I was laughing again.
“I’ll wanna meet him even if I’ve met him,” Robbie decreed, this time to me. “It’ll be meeting him in a way he knows you got a man in your life who is not gonna put up with him shoveling an infinitesimal amount of shit your way. Shoulda done that with that other asshole, but Viola wouldn’t let me.”
Viola was my mom.
“You can’t intimidate and threaten all of Willow’s boyfriends, Robert,” I heard Mom snap.
“Uh, yeah I can,” Robbie retorted. “And henceforth, I’m gonna.”
I was laughing yet again, and doing it harder just hearing Robbie utter the word “henceforth,” when Mom demanded, “Give me my phone.”
Robbie didn’t give Mom her phone.
He said into it, “Love you. Bring him up soon. He can bunk in the woodshed.”
After that, I had Mom.
“Honey, Gabe’s not going to bunk in the woodshed. Good gracious! If I didn’t like what your stepdad did with that overabundance of testosterone he has, I’d lament he had so damned much of it.”
Gag!
“Mom!” I whined.
“It’s not like I pretend to myself you’re a virgin. We’re both adults. Get used to it.”
“Still,” I complained.
“Whatever. I’m happy for you. Delighted. Gabe seemed solid. Like all those guys. Robbie and I have even talked about it, that we’d like you to hook up with one of them like Raye, Jessie and Harlow have. And look at you! You did! Perfect!”
She was right.
Perfect.
Mom kept jabbering (guess it ran in the family).
“Now, talk to him and check your schedule and shoot me a text when you can come up,” she went on. “You can sleep together in your room, but no sex. If Robbie and I can refrain, or be real quiet when you’re up here, you can return the favor.”
Oh my God!
“Mother!” I shouted.
She ignored my shout.
“Love you. So happy for you. Not surprised. Knew you’d bounce back. You always do. That’s my girl. But glad it’s happened. And see you soon! Love you and bye, doll.”
“Love you too, and bye, Mom.”
She disconnected.
I called Gabe.
“All good?” he answered (yes, on the second ring).
“We’re invited up to Mom and Robbie’s almost-but-not-quite Ted Kaczynski cabin in Prescott as soon as we have a free weekend.”
“Great. We’ll look and see when we can go.”
That was easy.
Scary easy with a meet-the-parents weekend.
“They have electricity and running water,” I shared. “And Robbie is okay at a push to turn on the furnace if the cabin gets below sixty-five degrees. And there is no bomb-making paraphernalia,” I paused and finished, “that I know of.”
I enjoyed listening to him chuckle.
Then, like mother like daughter, I continued to jabber.
“They like we hooked up, but warning, Robbie is still going to threaten you. That said, Mom has hidden his bullets because he’s not over Kevin being a dick.”