My mother answerson the second ring. I hear clinking cups and a small voice in the background, then the hush of a door closing.
“We’re fine,” she says before I ask. “We ate. We walked. They napped like champions. No visitors. The only wild animal was a squirrel with an attitude.”
My shoulders relax before I do. “Thank you.”
“You have nothing to worry about. Your husband thought of everything. The women here move like a chessboard. I tried to sneak into the kitchen to wash a bottle and three of them beat me to the sink and handed me tea, while another washed the bottle for me. Go enjoy your day.”
“You swear?”
“I swear,” she says. “If anything changes I will call. If nothing changes I’ll still call, because you’re you, and you won’t stop worrying unless I call you.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
“Look, I can’t pretend to know what you’re going through. When I had you, I was worried about everything from germy strangers trying to hold you to whether your dad thought to start the washer, since we were going through so much laundry. I had normal stuff to worry about.” She pauses and when she speaks again, her voice cracks a little. “What’s happening now…this is so far out of my experience that I’m just doing my best to keep up with it all. Thankfully, the women here are more experienced in this bullshit, and they know what to look out for. They’re letting me deal with the boys, while they handle everything else for me. Honestly, I’m feeling kind of…pampered here.”
I snort a laugh. “Then why do you sound upset about it?”
“I’ve never been pampered, Mina. It’s weird, and I’m not sure how to process any of it.”
“Ah.” Her words hit too hard. “Yeah, it’s damn strange here too, as far as that goes. We’re at a resort?—”
“Don’t tell me where. You know the rules.”
“I know, I know. But I get what you mean. The people here do everything for us. Hot food shows up in our room. Clean towels too. Everything is clean, and I didn’t have to do any of it myself. It’s like that at Roman’s house too, and?—”
“You’re married to him, Mina.”
My brow lines at that. “So?”
“It’s your house too, now.”
That thought takes the breath right out of me. Something in my brain breaks a little bit. “Well…not really.”
“Yes, really. Didn’t you read all the paperwork? If something happens to Roman, the house and his money, it’s all yours. Well, yours and the boys’.”
“You know something? I’m trying to make all of that fit inside my head, and it won’t.”
She giggles. “It feels too soon to me too.”
“No, I mean, none of that feels real yet. I keep expecting to wake up and all of this is some elaborate prank.”
“An elaborate murder prank? That might be the worst kind of prank.”
I roll my eyes at my mother from thousands of miles away. “Your comedic timing is flawless, as always. Maybe you could joke about my potential murder a little less?”
“If I don’t joke, I’ll start screaming, and I’m not sure I’ll ever stop. You might be married, but you’re still my baby.”
Something wedges inside my chest that has nothing to do with murder. “I miss you, Mom.”
“Go be with your husband. This might be a sham marriage, but you’re still on your honeymoon.”
“A murder honeymoon.”
“Oh, so you can make jokes, and I can’t?”
“Yes, that’s the rule.”
I hear the smile in her voice. “Alright, newlywed, go be married, and I’ll go be a pampered grandmother, and we’ll see which one of us makes it to the end of the week.”
