Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 106538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 533(@200wpm)___ 426(@250wpm)___ 355(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 533(@200wpm)___ 426(@250wpm)___ 355(@300wpm)
Mom straightens in her chair. “Oswald, that’s great. Tell me about her.”
“She’s a breath of fresh air. Unexpected. And I can’t stop grinning when I’m with her. Her humor is refreshing. When she laughs, I feel it deep in my chest. And she seems to adore Lola.”
Mom presses her hand to her chest. “Do you hear yourself?” she says, with thick emotion.
“Hear myself?”
“You didn’t tell me her name. You didn’t tell me what she looks like. And you didn’t tell me what she does for a living. I hope this woman knows how lucky she is to have you. A man who really sees the parts of her that matter.”
I laugh. “You might be a little biased.”
“Perhaps. But you’re a hundred times the man your father was. God rest his soul. I loved him, but he wasn’t, well, you know.” She folds her wrinkly hands and nervously wrings them. It’s what she does whenever she or anyone else mentions my father. I feel indifferent about him. It’s the only way I can reconcile the way he died and everything he stole in the process. Anger and regret are a waste of time.
But I don’t want to talk about him. “Well”—I act like she didn’t mention my father—“just to give you a few of those details, her name is Maren. She is beautiful inside and out. She’s a firefighter—a tanker pilot. And she’s never been married.”
“See how boring all of that is compared to you feeling her laughter in your chest?”
I hum. “True. Also, Lola thinks we’re just friends.”
“Why? Don’t you think she’s old enough to handle the truth?”
“She’s old enough to handle the truth but not old enough to keep a secret.”
“A secret from who?”
“Tia and Amos. Well, mainly Tia.”
Mom frowns. “Is she still holding a grudge?”
“An eternal one.”
“Oswald, you can’t let her tell you how to live your life.”
“I need their help. That puts me at their mercy.”
“They love Lola. They’re not going to abandon her because you want to move on with your life,” she says.
“No. But I don’t want Lola living in a house where the adults are at each other’s throats. And I don’t want Tia bringing up the accident more than she already does. They love Lola, but they show their love differently than you show your love. Tia has always been tough on me, and she was tough on Brynn too. She’s never been a coddler. So she didn’t approve of every choice we made raising Lola. As is, she’s frustrated that Lola’s therapist hasn’t miraculously cured her or forced her to get into a car.
“If I push her by stepping out of line, she and Amos will pack up and leave. It won’t be about Lola. She’ll blame it on me. She’ll let Lola know that it’s all because of me.”
“I could help with Lola,” Mom says.
I don’t say anything.
“She’s ten, not two.” Mom blows out an exasperated breath because she’s offered to help with Lola before now. I haven’t felt comfortable leaving Lola with someone who is legally blind.
Mom continues to make her case. “And Ruth can help.”
“Ruth is already helping by staying with you,” I say, swiping my hand along the cobwebs inside the shade of her standing lamp.
“Oswald, Ruth does very little to help me. Ask her, if you don’t believe me.”
“You can’t drive.”
“What does that matter when Lola won’t get in a car?”
She’s not wrong.
“Now, what can I do? Would you like Lola to stay with me while you take your new lady friend on a date?”
A date.
We’ve done that.
I want a night.
Can I tell my mom that? Or is that basically saying I need her to watch Lola so I can get laid?
I don’t push my luck. “What if Lola spent a Friday or Saturday evening with you?”
“A sleepover?”
I rub the back of my neck. “It wouldn’t have to be.”
“What if you don’t want your date to end with dinner?” Mom smirks.
“Grandma, can I take Paxton out of his cage?” Lola yells from the bedroom.
“Come here, Lola,” Mom says.
“Please don’t say anything,” I beg.
Lola pokes her head around the corner. “What?”
“I think Aunt Ruth should be here if you take Paxton out of his cage. But since she’s not here right now, I think you should return and spend the night sometime.”
Lola slides her wide-eyed gaze to me. “Really?”
Not once has Lola spent the night with my mom, or even with both my parents when my father was alive, even though she’s begged to do it. But she’s not a baby anymore, and Aunt Ruth is trustworthy. Still, it will spur a conversation with Tia and Amos that I don’t want to have. But the question is: Am I willing to have it for the chance to spend a whole night with Maren?
“Really,” I say, not just because thinking of Maren gives me a semi-erection.