“Did I ever!” He started bouncing, but I had to nip that in the bud, for my ball’s sake.
“Hold still, crazy.”
“Sorry, Daddy.” He looked up at me backwards, and I kissed him.
“Gross. Save it for later.”
Joey giggled, but I flipped Grant off, making him laugh.
After we hung up with Grant, I squeezed Joey harder. “I want to call my folks and introduce you. Is that alright?”
“Uh…I guess.”
“We are living together now, right? So, you should meet them.”
He nodded and pursed his lips together.
“You okay?” I rubbed my thumbs over his cheeks.
“No warning.”
I kissed the tip of his nose. “They’re really nice. Mom’s a bit overbearing sometimes, but only because she loves me, and over video it will actually be easier.”
“Okay.” He didn’t look sure, but I knew it would be fine.
I reached around him to fiddle with my laptop and start the call. Soon enough, my mom answered. “Vince?”
“Merry Christmas, Mom.”
“Oh, Merry Christmas to you, too. And who is this you have with you? Is this your Joey?”
“Yep. Joey, this is my mom, Darlene.”
“Hi. Nice to meet you, Ma’am.”
“Oh, none of that. Please call me, Darry. Everyone does.”
“Okay, Darry.”
“My, my. Now I know why you moved to Florida. They grow them cute down there.” She winked at Joey and smiled.
I could feel his soft chuckle as his body vibrated against mine. The rest of the call was short and sweet. Dad was napping, so we didn’t get to talk to him, and Mom thanked me for the presentsI sent and made us promise to visit soon before hanging up. I’d had some nice things sent since I wouldn’t be there. I did it any year I wasn’t there, so they were used to it.
“Want to call your family, Joey? Or they live locally, so we can go—”
“No.”
“No, what? They don’t live locally?” I was confused. He’d said most of them lived only thirty minutes or so away.
“Local enough, but no thank you to any of that.” He stirred his finger around in the air.
“Why? What’s going on?” I feared the worst. They abused him, hurt him. I had no idea, but they were stupid if they had.
Joey huffed. “I haven’t really even spoken to them since last year. So…fuck them.”
“Joey? Talk to me. I know you said you weren’t close with them, but they’re still family. Right?”
He slid off my lap and stretched out beside me on the sofa. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
