Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 137310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
Mom interrupted me. “Apologize?”
“Call the Uber, Maggie,” Gram ordered, still my mother’s mother, and even as shattered as she was, she was trying to stem the flow of disaster.
“I won’t be coming to visit you either,” Mom sniped at her.
Gram’s face fell.
“Christ, you’re a piece of work,” Hugger muttered loudly.
“Like I give a shit what a man like you thinks about me,” Mom retorted.
Uh-oh.
Hugger just shrugged and moved out of the way to her exit.
By the time I got used to the fire burning in my belly and searing its way through my veins, Mom was moving.
“Stop,” I demanded.
Mom turned to me.
“No contact,” I said.
Dad made an alarmed noise.
Hugger started moving to me.
“What?” Mom asked.
“That’s the term they use when you cut yourself off from a member of your family. You go no contact. I’m blocking you on my phone. We’re done.”
Hugger stood at my back as Mom stared and whispered, “What?”
I shook my head. “You don’t get it. None of it. You never will. And your finale was to talk shit to my guy, again, like that’s quite all right. Well, it isn’t. You talked shit to Dad, to Gram, to Big Petey, and I let it slide. Hugger, no. Absolutely no. That was the last straw. Like I said, we’re done.”
Mom’s face grew haggard before she asked, “You can’t be serious.”
“Deadly,” I replied, my stomach sinking and twisting.
But we were here.
This was going to suck. I loved her. I really did. Even with all of this.
But she was by no means healthy for me.
Or anybody.
She kept staring awhile before she straightened her shoulders and said, “You did the same thing with your father, so I don’t suppose this will last.”
“We’ll see in ten years,” I remarked.
Mom went pale again.
“Do you have the Uber app? Because going now would be good,” I prompted.
“I cannot believe you’re doing this to me,” Mom whispered.
“And that’s the problem,” I returned. “I’m not doing anything to you. You brought this all on yourself.”
She looked at me. She looked at Dad. She looked at Gram.
Then she sniffed, and pure Mom, no matter what was going down, she’d perfected the art of the flounce, and that was what she did into the dining room, disappearing.
No one said anything as we waited to hear the front door open and close.
And no one said anything after it did.
I broke the silence.
“Gram, you okay?”
“N-no,” Gram stammered.
I walked to her and gathered her in my arms.
“I’m so sorry you had to be here for all of that,” I said softly.
“I’m sorry for you, doll,” she replied, holding tight. “Your mom—”
“Please don’t make excuses,” I whispered my plea.
“Okay, Di,” she whispered back.
I gave her a squeeze, kissed the side of her head, then moved to her side, still with an arm around her, and looked at Hugger.
“I guess our fun Saturday is a wash,” I remarked.
“Oh no,” Gram mumbled.
But Hugger just stared hard at me.
And then he said, “Don’t know, babe. Your family is here. I think we can figure a way to rally.”
So…
Totally…
Falling for my guy.
I smiled at him.
His beard moved as he blew me a kiss.
First time for that.
And oh yeah.
It was absolutely adorable.
21
CLOSURE
Diana
Hugger got his first brunch a day early.
This was because we all went to Prep and Pastry after Mom stormed off and I calmed Gram down.
One could say, after two decades of Gram thinking Dad was a prick, and now you could tell she felt awful about it, on top of being staggered by all she’d learned that morning, brunch was not all smiles and laughter, mostly because Gram looked and acted like she’d been hit by a truck.
Though, Dad was super cool with her, Big Petey was good at keeping conversation flowing, no matter how stilted it was in some arenas, and in the end, I got the impression Gram was pleased to have the opportunity to start to make amends for something that wasn’t her fault.
Hugger, by the way, was mostly quiet throughout all of this.
Then again, I’d learned the night before that Hugger was just a quiet kind of guy.
Oh, he talked to me and gave it openly and honestly.
But in social situations, he was an observer.
He didn’t seem uncomfortable in this, it was just who he was, and since Hugger was always just who he was, that was it.
Like everything with Hugger, I found it incredibly attractive.
After brunch, it killed me we had three men in our midst, what with Nordstrom’s shoe department only a two-minute walk away from Prep and Pastry.
However, Gram looked like she’d aged five years since she showed at my door that morning, and no matter she was rocking the style of a French tuck, she wasn’t young anymore and that scene with Mom had been crazy. I knew she wasn’t in the mood to try on shoes (or play with makeup at the makeup counters).