Less is more, she reminded herself as she drove home. As usual, she parked in the back lot, then went around to the front of the building to enter. She was about to go up to her apartment when a lone figure standing next to the gallery caught her attention. The woman’s hair was the color of eggplant and she had on shabby jeans, tall black boots, and a worn leather jacket. Was it possible?
“Josie?” Willow called out.
“Mom!”Her daughter turned then rushed to her. “I thought you’d never get home.”
“What are you doing here, honey?” Willow hugged Josie then held her at arm’s length, looking intently at her face. Still pretty and somewhat youthful, but there was a hardness there too. Life had etched itself into Josie’s features.
“Collin’s graduation.” Josie dropped a half-smoked cigarette to the sidewalk, grinding it under her heel. “You invited me to come.Remember?”
“But you said you couldn’t—”
“Yeah, well, I changed my mind.” She jerked her thumb down the street. “And Garth is here with me. He just went to get us some coffee.” She nodded toward the gallery. “And that snob in there apparently didn’t appreciate my presence, so I’ve been hanging out here and feeling like a bag lady.”
“Didn’t you tell her who you were?”
“No. Why should I?”
“Well, it’s just that—”
“So, do you have a place for us to stay? Our junk’s in the rental car parked out back. And I’ll warn you, it wasn’t cheap to get here, but I promised Garth you’d pay him back. Right?”
“Yes, of course.” Willow nodded, trying to conceal her concerns. It sounded like a good idea a few weeks ago to have Collin’s mother at his graduation. But she hadn’t considered the boyfriend. Suddenly she felt unsure. “You and Garth get your bags from the car, and I’ll go unlock the apartment for you. And I must apologize. I didn’t realize you were coming, so the apartment’s not really ready for guests.”
“Don’t worry. We’re used to roughing it.” Josie laughed.
As Willow hurried upstairs, she suspected that was true. Still, she’d hoped to have the apartment in better shape for Josie. She unlocked the door then hurried around to open the windows and let some fresh air inside. She’d stored some furnishings in here, but wanting to do some remodeling and repairs and painting, nothing was in place.
She bustled about, attempting to move some things, make some pathways, create a semi-habitable space. She was just sliding a chair into the living room area, when she heard the sound of voices. “Hello?” Josie called out.
“In here.” Willow waved them into the apartment and Josie introduced her to a tall, skinny man with a goatee and what looked like thousands of dollars’ worth of tattoos. “This is Garth,” Josie said proudly. “The bass player for Black Night.”
“I’m happy to finally meet you,” Willow told him. “I’m sorry this apartment isn’t set up for guests.” She pointed to pieces of a bed leaned against a wall. “Maybe you two can help me get that set up in the bedroom.”
“Don’t worry, Mom.” Josie tugged off her jacket, tossing it onto the chair. “We’ll take care of all this.”
“Sure.” Garth nodded. “We’ll just flop the mattress on the floor. And then we’ll flop ourselves onto it and take a nice long nap.”
“Yeah. We took the red-eye from Florida,” Josie explained as she nudged Willow toward the door. “Then we drove here from Portland. Believe me, we’re exhausted.”
“Well, Collin’s baccalaureate is at seven, but we should probably leave here around six-thirty to get good—”
“I thought graduation wasn’t until tomorrow.” Josie frowned.
“It is tomorrow. Baccalaureate is a different ceremony,” she said from the doorway. Of course, this was all foreign to Josie. She’d missed out on these things by insisting on getting her GED in lieu of a traditional diploma. “Baccalaureate is like a spiritual send-off for the graduates. A blessing of sorts.”
“Well, maybe we can skip that,” Josie told her. “We’re pretty wiped out.”
“Okay.” As Willow closed the door, an unexpected wave of sadness washed over her. Had Josie really come to see her son ... or did she just want a free vacation and a place to crash for a while? Willow didn’t mind so much for her own sake. It was simply good to see her daughter’s face. But she did not want Collin to be hurt by Josie’s callous attitude. Besides that, she knew that her grandson disliked surprises. Somehow she had to break this to him gently—and quickly. He barely knew his mother and it would not go well if he felt blindsided by her unexpected appearance.
Grateful that Leslie and Joel were handling the gallery for the next few days, Willow went into her own apartment and sent a text message to Collin. Not wanting to say too much, she simply stated that a surprise was waiting for him at home. Then she tried to put together some sort of plan—a way to allow Collin some time with his mother and her boyfriend ... a way to break the ice without too much drama. She decided to start with an informal dinner before baccalaureate tonight. Hopefully Josie and Garth would be awake and feeling sociable by then.
As Willow started getting things ready for a simple dinner, Collin called. “So what’s up?” he asked. She quickly explained about Josie and Garth.
“You’re kidding.” Collin didn’t sound the least bit enthused.
“I know it’s kind of a shock,” she said carefully. “I was pretty surprised too.”
“I don’t really want to see her,” he declared.
