In Her Way (12 page)

But then something clicks and I look up at this guy I've started to get to know, started to care about.

I shake my head. "Actually, no. I wouldn't change a thing about you and me. Things will work out for us. My mama always says,
Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end
."

Andrew covers a smile by popping the last bit of a muffin into his mouth.

"What? I'll have you know my mama is a very smart --"

He puts his hand out. "No, that's not it." Then he laughs some more. "I'm sure she’s very smart. It's just that John Lennon said that, not your mama."

"What?" The word bursts out amid a laugh that shakes my core and I let my head fall back. "I've been telling people she came up with that for years!"

We laugh some more and I go through some of her other sayings to see if Andrew recognizes any more of them as rip-offs. Luckily he doesn't and the rest of my childhood remains intact.

After we're filled up with sugar and caffeine, Andrew walks me back to the office. I can see his eyes flick to the front window, to where Kaylee sits safe and sound, before he turns to walk to his car.

I pull out my phone before I go inside.

"Hello?"

"Mama?"

"Yeah, darlin'. Everything alright?"

"Um, totally. I was just wondering if I could come out and see you guys this weekend."

"Oh Julep, that'd be wonderful, darlin'. You at work right now?"

"Uh huh."

"Well you do a good job and finish out your day, but soon's you can, you get that wonderful butt out here. Your Daddy and I will have the guest room all ready for you. Matt and the girls are coming for lunch tomorrow already, so you'll get in a good meal with them."

"Sounds great, Mama. I might be working late tonight, so I'll leave tomorrow morning. Oh, and we have some talking to do about these sayings of yours."

Not getting my ominous tone, Mama just says, "Sure thing, pun’kin" before she hangs up.

I shake my head and smile. Even if it wasn't originally hers, I love that saying,
"a good meal with them
". Mama and Daddy use it all the time to mean some great, warm, conversation time. I can't help but think that I just had a pretty good meal with Andrew.

15

Family Matters

More of Mama's words float around my head as I get things together for my trip.
You should pack for any situation
. And she sure does, never taking less than three bags everywhere she goes.

But then there's also the constant,
A bright person can survive with the clothes on his back for as long as need be. There's no gain to weighing oneself down with a bunch of stuff they don't need,
floating along side Mama's words. Yep, you guessed it, that's from Daddy.

Those two are the human equivalent of oil and vinegar, never mixing or compromising, but oh-so-sweet and wonderful when they're together.

I let my elbows pull tight to my body in an excited squeeze. I can't believe lying to Andrew was the only way I'd thought to go see them this weekend. I pack one bigger bag and one little one, the perfect compromise of their advice. A little of Mama and a bit of Daddy, just like me.

A long sigh pulls my attention to my bedroom door where Kaylee leans, her shoulders slumping forward and her bottom lip sticking out like my niece Jordyn's does when she wants something she knows she can't have.

"You'll be fine." I repeat the statement for the seventh time.

Her head flops to the right. "I've gotten used to it here."

I nod. "I know, but Andrew's going to start checking on you at your place and if you tell him you've been staying here, you'll have to explain. And that won't be good." Then I snap my fingers and point at her. "You told Andrew about your phone, right?"

She nods. "And he's already ordered me a new one, with numbers backed up. We pick it up tomorrow."

I smile. "Good! See, everything's okay." I had told her about the weird calls being confirmed as telemarketers, and she was glad I felt I still didn't need to tell Andrew. "I'll be outta here early, so leave whenever you feel like it."

We say good night and Kaylee heads into the guest bedroom. I top my bag off with last minute articles of clothing and shoes, then I turn off my lights and pull the covers tight under my neck. Excitement bubbles in my stomach, but I fall asleep quickly all the same.

I wake up early and make the hour-and-some-change drive down to my parent's, turning right at Mama's hand painted mailbox that tells people “The Maddox Family lives here”, around eight o'clock. My car coasts down their long, unpaved driveway, trees creating a leafy tunnel of sorts, leading me right to the little blue house I grew up in.

After I park, I get out of the car, stretch, grab the wrappers from the fast food I stopped for on the way (the only time I'll allow myself the stuff, but that's also kind of a tradition), and head inside. I leave my bags in the trunk, but pop it open for Daddy. He loves coming out, grabbing my bags, and placing them in the guest room for me.

The screen door creaks as I swing it open and the lovely coffee-brewing, people-waking smells and sounds wrap around me almost as tight as Mama's arms do when she leaves the kitchen to greet me, her cheeks already rosy from prepping breakfast.

Daddy's in the kitchen, too. But he doesn't scuttle over to me right away like Mama does, holding her gooey, been-cracking-eggs hands out and hugging me with her elbows. Nope, Daddy nods in my direction, walks over to the sink to wash his hands, then heads outside. He does stop to plant a kiss on the top of my head as he walks by, but that's it. Well, that and the way his eyes squint small and tight and happy. It's enough to melt you right then and there if your Mama wasn't holding you up, squeezing you tight to her well-padded, especially-around-the-hips, body.

After a moment of taking in the house, the green walls, the bowl of caramels Mama always keeps filled on the counter, and Old Blue (the worn couch that has a broken spring in the middle, but is still insanely comfortable if you lie in the right place), I head into the kitchen. Even though it's still morning, I unwrap a caramel and pop it into my mouth.

By the time I'm done chewing that damn caramel (and breaking every dentist no-chewy-candy rule by doing so), Daddy's back with my bags. He walks them back to the guest room. It's not like my parents got rid of our childhood bedrooms right away, they waited until we all had our own houses. But give them a break, there were four of us and they were psyched to have the extra room.

We meet back in the kitchen and fall right into routine. I become third breakfast chef, we plate up, eat out on the porch, and by the time the ground really starts to get hot and cracked, we're already camped out in lounge chairs in the backyard, soaking up sunshine, words, and each other.

"What's been going on with you?" Daddy sits back and sips at his coffee, squinting in the sun.

I'm about to tell him. All of it. Like seriously the words are piling up behind my freaking lips, I was that close to spilling the whole Witness Protection secret. That's when I realize not telling Andrew or even Em about Kaylee is one thing, but my family is something totally else.

Suddenly the whole mob scare is all I can think about. What else
have
I been doing? Yeesh, it feels like Kaylee's taken up all of my time plus more this last week.

My mouth drops open and I look at him. Then I notice his lips twitching up into a smile. Oh, that's total Daddy-code for him playing with me. Which means that question wasn't serious. My brain searches through what-could-it-be? possibilities. Why would asking me that question be a joke to him?

Then it hits me. My business! My freaking business opened two weeks ago! Of course that's what I've been up to. Holy hell, I've definitely been too caught up in all this Kaylee and Andrew and mobsters drama.

I roll my eyes. "Haha, Daddy." Saved. Phew.

He tips his head back at me and his rough face-skin wrinkles as he furrows his brow, seriously this time. "And how's it doing?"

I nod. "Great, actually. We're picking up and things are running pretty smoothly for a new practice." I lean over to the wooden railing and give it a good couple knocks. So far, my being preoccupied with Kaylee hasn't had any negative effects, but heck if I'm going to risk it.

Mama lets her shoulders hug up to her ears. "Oh, good. That's wonderful, Julep."

I continue nodding, but my thoughts can't seem to get past the fact that there's something I can't tell them. Or can I? I mean, there are no two kinder, more trustworthy people on the planet than my parents. And they don't know Kaylee nor do they have any connections to the east coast or Russian mobsters. So what if they knew?

The other, more responsible side of my brain starts countering these points left and right. First of all, really? I can't even go a week of having a secret before I spill it? Not even an hour at my parent's place and I lose all my conviction. What's next? Oh, Em wouldn't really mind, would she? She won't tell anyone either. Soon even the girl who makes my coffee will know and Kaylee will be dead as a that tooth I pulled out of Mrs. Eisenhower’s mouth yesterday.

My jaw clenches tight and I vow that I will keep this secret. I have to. I blink as the sun moves slowly up in the sky.

Mama asks, "Anybody you're interested in lately?" She asks the same question every time she sees me. Well, actually, she used to ask, "Any boys you're interested in?" but ever since my brother Joel came out of the closet, she's trying to show she's accepting of all lifestyles just in case someday I tell them I'm interested in the same sex, too.

I press my lips together and tilt my head to the side. "Mama, you know I'm concentrating on my practice. I don't have time to waste on a relationship." I try to keep the smile from my face, the one that shows up every time I think about Andrew, but I'm holding too much in already and my feelings about him seem to show loud and clear.

"Oh. Alright then." Mama smiles, her eyebrows rising up as she catches my slip up. "And who is he? -- or she?"

I wave a hand at her. "It's no one, Mama. There is this guy I've been hanging out with, but it's complicated and I already told myself I won't get involved. I have to stay focused on the practice, you know that."

Mama picks at her fingernails and shakes her head. "Julep Maddox." She says my name like it's a scolding, stringing it out long and southern-like. "What do you want to be written on your tombstone?"

If I had a dollar every time she said that in my life, I'd be able to open thirty-five practices, no problem.

I'm about to open my mouth when she says, "Your business is great, but it can't be your life. Relationships, babies, those are the things worth living for, darlin'."

I sigh and my shoulders slink forward. "I know, Mama. But the business is so important to me. It has to do well. I want you guys to be proud of me. I want to be able to pay you back." I pick at my nails and avoid her gaze. "Andrew and I are better as friends. He even said so."

"This boy sounds like your brand of short-sighted, Honey." Mama watches me knowingly. Then she adds, "You're focused and stubborn and I love you, but I know you better than the back of my hand and there's no 'friend' in the way you looked when you brought him up. And don't you try any harder to make us proud. We're more proud of you than we can stand already."

Daddy clears his throat. "Seems to me, Minty, that you’re so focused on one thing at a time, you're seeing these things as obstacles instead of what they are, possibilities."

I shake my head. "I can't take that chance right now. I have bills and --" Looking away, I pick at my nails. "Joel told me that you wanted to have Nick look at your finances. I can't live with the fact that you guys are having money problems because you gave me too much for the business. I'm working hard so I can pay you back sooner than we talked about."

My eyes tiptoe up to their faces just in time to see them share a knowing head-tip.

"Oh, darlin'," Mama says. "We were wantin' to talk to Nick because we were thinking that we were doing well enough that we might give you that money as a gift, not an investment to be paid back."

My mouth falls open. "What?"

Daddy nods. "She's speakin' the truth, Mints. We were gonna wait to tell you, but seeing all the fussin' you're doing about that money, I think now's exactly the right moment." He reaches over to where I sit and places his hand over mine. "Sorry, but we won't be taking a penny of that back from you."

My heart beats slow and loud in my ears as the deck seems to shift, or maybe those are my priorities. Shit, without having to pay my parents back, the bills aren't feeling as big as they were before. In fact, the whole business thing seems like it's just about snapped right into place.

The corner of my mouth lifts into a smile. I jump up and squeeze them in full Mintaconda hugs one after the other. "Thank you so much. I love you guys."

As much as I want to stay present with them and the conversation they start up about the warm summer weather, my thoughts wander to the fact that this means I might not need to be such a freak about focusing solely on the business. I really do think that being around Kaylee has made me a little kinder and less Judge Jules-y. Maybe all I need to complete my transformation is to listen to my parents and make a go of it with Andrew.

Letting Kaylee in did complicate things, did take my concentration off the business a bit, but everything's worked out okay so far. And I can't help the feeling that I keep coming back to ever since I arrived, that I can't stop thinking of how much I want my parents to meet Andrew and for him to get to know these great people who raised me.