Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 58051 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 290(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 194(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58051 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 290(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 194(@300wpm)
I nodded. “She knew and loved your mom, and she was thrilled that I was the one picked to take care of you. Once you meet her you’ll see what I mean.” I realized in that moment that I had done Everest a great disservice by not going to visit my parents since he and I became a family. But I wasn’t ready to see Dad yet, still wasn’t, and I hadn’t wanted to invite mom and ask her to come without him. True to her ways, she’d found a way to do it on her own.
“Are you guys close?”
“Not as close as we used to be, and that’s my fault. I’m hoping to change that moving forward.”
He snickered. “You have to set a good example for my impressionable young mind.”
“Funny,” I told him as I came to a stop at the curb where Mom would emerge at any moment.
“Thanks, I wasn’t even trying that time,” he shot back and we both stepped out of the car.
Mom breezed through the automatic doors as if on a conveyor belt, her long dress brightly colored as it floated on air behind her. She spotted us and her hazel eyes widened, her lips spread into a big, welcoming smile.
“Bella, my sweet girl!” She wrapped me in a tight hug and kissed both cheeks about one hundred times. “You’re a knockout,” she said with tears in her eyes. “I haven’t seen you up close in too long.” She hugged me again, squeezed even tighter the second time around. “By the way, your photos don’t do you justice, well except for the ones of you and one Derek Gregory, which we will talk about. Later.” Without another word she turned a smiling face towards Everest, who looked nervous as hell.
“Uh, hey. I’m Everest.”
“You’re Everest,” she said with a beaming smile, her voice shaky with emotion. “You’re one tall drink of water, young man, and handsome to boot. Yes, Everest is the perfect name for you,” she murmured and pulled him into a tight hug, complete with dozens of kisses for both cheeks. “Bella, you are going to have your hands full with this heartbreaker.”
“Not me,” he said with a teasing smile. “I’m a delight.”
“I’ll just bet you are,” she told him and looped one arm through his. “But I raised two boys of my own, so you’re not fooling me with that sweet face. In a few years you’ll have a chiseled jaw covered in stubble, and Bella will have to stock condoms in every room of the house.”
“Mom!” I laughed at her brazen talk and shook my head while I got her two giant suitcases settled in the back of my truck, securing them with bungee cords for the drive back to Carson Creek.
“What? It’s the truth, and you should have that talk sooner rather than later.”
She was right, of course. “I will, but right now he’s refusing to make friends, so there’s no need to traumatize either of us with that talk just yet. Now load up so we can get home before the sun sets.”
Everyone settled in the truck and we made our way out of the city and back towards the farm. Mom kept up a steady stream of conversation for the whole ride, leaving me to my own thoughts about my siblings and their children, about Derek and our fake relationship.
“You have two aunts and two uncles and nine cousins that I can’t wait for you to meet Everest. Some of them are very young of course, but family is family,” she told him in a sing-song voice.
He was quiet in the backseat, but a quick glance in the mirror told me he wasn’t anxious about the prospect of meeting his extended family, but in awe of the sheer number of words Mom managed to cram into the hour long drive. It was probably more words than the both of us combined spoke in the past week.
“Wow. You have five kids?”
Mom laughed. “I know, seems like a lot these days, and they were a handful, but I love them all. And they’ve given me nine grandkids to spoil, ten now that I have you,” she said and turned to him with a smile as she squeezed his knee.
“Um, you don’t have to spoil me,” he stammered out.
“Nonsense. It’s my God given right as a grandma to spoil all of my babies, and that includes you. Now Everest, you can call me Angelea, Grandma Angie or Mama York. If you have something else in mind, we can test it out. Honestly, my favorite is just grandma.”
He smiled affectionately at my Mom and I knew then and there, she’d won him over. “I can do Grandma,” he told her with a hint of excitement. “I’ve never had a grandma, how does this work?”