convince him to stay(go to 67)
go back(go to 33)
I love being home.
I love my parents.I love that I know Larry’s daughter wants to be a teacher and that Mrs.Davies is going stir-crazy, recovering from hip surgery.I love sitting in Alice’s kitchen, hands cupped around a hot cup of coffee, while she rolls out dough and makes me laugh until I cry.
I love the wide spaces and thin roads and being able to see the stars at night.
But right now?I’m nervous as hell.
Not because of Huey—oh, no, that became clear as soon as we stopped for gas.There he was, two pumps over, back turned, smiling to himself, unaware that I was only a few feet away.I stared at him, waiting for anger, tears, betrayal to bloom within me, but there was only relief.
He’s happy here, and I’m happy in Chance.It’s better this way.
That aside, I did point him out to Lucky and Sterling and got a wicked thrill at how much they instantly hated him, smiling as Lucky came up with ways to pay him back somehow.
“Brilliant decision, this,” Lucky says as he pops a piece of pork in his mouth.
We made it to my parents’ house in time for dinner, and he was given strict instructions to stay out of the kitchen.Ma quickly slaps his hand away from getting a second, but she’s smiling back at him when he tells her how good it is.
“Go make yourself useful.”
Lucky’s laugh follows him out the kitchen, and even Sterling’s smiling until Ma rounds on him too.
“You too.Come on.Out.”
He nods with all the weight of a man given a royal decree, and I’m so immensely thankful to have them both in my life that I forget I’m not alone until Ma’s hustled so close to me that it’s like she’s trying to mind-meld with me.
No, the reason I’m nervous has nothing to do with Huey and everything to do with the two men I’m certain I’m falling in love with.
Ma took one look up at them when she opened the door, her thick auburn hair piled high, and said, “I see trouble has arrived.”
She knows.In that Ma way of knowing, I know she knows.And from the way she’s looking at me now, she knows I know she knows.
Thisis why I’m nervous.
“Honey, are you sure you’re eating enough?”
“Yes, Ma.”
Jean Finnegan is a smile, wrapped in a hug, stuffed into a person.She talks loud and sings louder and doesn’t care that she’s never been in tune.She also has as much tact as a donkey.
“Because I know you don’t like cooking?—”
“Don’t worry; Lucky always makes sure I have at least one home-cooked meal a day.”
Ma squeezes my shoulder.“He’s a sweet boy.”
Here we go.
“Yes, he is very sweet.”
“And handsome.”
Oh my God.
“He’s here with his boyfriend.”
