“That dog is so spoiled,” Ollie said when the server left.
“She is. I freely admit it.” His mom grinned and then looked off across the street, where one of the older music shops had displayed a going out of business sign. “We brought you here when you were five and wanted to learn to play the French horn. Do you remember?”
Ollie shook his head.
“I don’t know how you even knew what a French horn was. But you insisted it had to be that or the oboe. Of course, you weren’t big enough to play either of those. The woman at the music shop—Esmerelda, I can’t believe I actually remember her name—she pointed us toward the digital pianos instead. Said that was the best way to start—by learning to read music and play the keyboard.”
“I remember that,” Ollie cut in. His mom looked at him again, her smile softer now. “You bought the piano, and you and Dad set it up in the living room, and then Dad decided to learnwith me. He insisted that he wasn’t too old to learn something new.”
“That was him.”
“I still... play sometimes. I don’t know if I ever told you.” Ollie ducked his head and then looked off down the street, pretending to be interested in a small group of musicians setting up their instruments to play outside of one of the other shops along the sidewalk. It was one of the many things he loved about Issaquah—at nearly any time of the day, all year-round, music and art were on display. It was a fantastic small town. He’d been so excited when he’d gotten hired at Camden and then found his apartment.
“No, you didn’t tell me. I’d love to hear you,” his mom answered quietly.
He turned back to look at her and nodded. “Next time I come over.”
Her eyes twinkled mischievously. “You can set up the living room like you used to. Put the kitchen chairs out, put on a concert. Make little tickets to sell, and a program and everything—”
“Mom! I was what, eight?”
“Seven.”
“Seven then. And you and Dad totally bought tickets and watched me. What did I even play?”
“Oh gosh, I don’t remember. Some Bach piece, I think. You were brilliant.”
Ollie shook his head. Underneath the table, JoJo fidgeted a bit, and both Ollie and his mom looked up as a server brought out their food. It looked great, as always. This was one of his favorite restaurants along the strip, which was probably why his mom had chosen it. But today, as he picked up his fork and pushed around the ingredients piled high on top of the crispytortilla, he just felt his stomach turn. He set his fork back down and instead lifted his coffee cup.
His mom handed JoJo a piece of chicken under the table and then cut into her burrito and took a bite. “Mmm, just what I needed,” she said. “Been too long since I’ve had a good breakfast burrito. Do you remember the ones we had at that taco truck in San Diego?”
Ollie chuckled as he set his coffee down. “You mean on that trip we took before I left for Kansas?”
“Yeah,” his mom said. She took another quick bite, still nodding. “Yeah, the trip I had to nearly bribe you to join me on since you ‘still had experiments to run’ and didn’t want to take a week off from Dr. Wang’s lab to spend time with your mom before leaving me forever.”
“Gosh, you and Sam both, you’re so dramatic!” He smiled now as he watched his mom’s eyes light up with laughter. “I’ll just remind you—again—that you’re the one who taught me to always see through anything I start, and those experiments needed to be finished before I left for grad school. And also”—Ollie reached over and squeezed his mom’s shoulder gently—“I did end up coming back home.”
His mom seemed to hold her breath for a moment, studying him. Then she dropped her eyes and cleared her throat as she handed JoJo another piece of chicken. “I’m so glad.” Her voice was quieter now, and Ollie frowned as he watched her let out a shaky sigh. “When you told me about Sam... Don’t take this the wrong way, Ollie! I was... so scared. I could hear it in your voice when you spoke about him. I knew he was different, I could tell... there was something special about him from the way you talked about him, right away, even after your first date.”
“. . . Mom?”
She hurried on, a small but genuine smile on her lips as she looked up at him again. “That very first time you called totell me about him... You probably don’t even remember. You told me he was from Boston. And my only thought was... how far away Boston is, because I could hear it in your voice. I think I knew before you did.”
“Knew... what?” he asked slowly. He actually remembered that phone call. He’d been so... smitten, so head over heels after their first date, that he’d called his mom early the next morning, forgetting all about the time difference between Kansas and Washington. And he’d woken his mom up at 5:00 a.m., not even realizing his mistake until later in the day. He’d had to call her back and apologize.
She watched him now, her smile soft and her eyes bright. “I just... knew, sweetie.” She let out another shaky breath, then took a small bite of her burrito before continuing, her voice quiet. “And I was so incredibly happy for you. But at the same time, I worried that meant... you might not come home after grad school. You might... go to Boston instead. Or, somewhere else. I mean, I know you’d always wanted to work at UDub. You’d already planned whose lab you wanted to join and what you wanted to study and... But I heard it in your voice, and I knew... there was a good chance you’d be heading east when you were done with your degree, instead of coming home.”
Ollie closed his eyes briefly and shook his head. “Sam had no intention of going back to Boston. His parents—”
“Oh, I know that now,” his mom cut in, and Ollie looked toward her again to see her still smiling gently. “I know that now, but that first time you talked about him...”
They fell into a comfortable silence, and Ollie managed to eat at least a little bit of his tostada while his mom polished off her entire burrito and fed JoJo the rest of the grilled chicken. When his stomach couldn’t handle any more, he flagged down their server and asked for a to-go box, despite his mom’s quiet look of concern. Then, while his mom dug a few bills out ofher purse to settle the bill, Ollie packaged up the rest of his tostada, leaned back in his chair, and closed his eyes, enjoying the warmth of the summer morning.
After another moment, he heard his mom clear her throat. He looked over at her, and she was watching him again with another gentle smile.
“You...” She seemed like she wanted to say something important, he thought, but then she blinked and started over, giving him a silly grin. “Before you two leave for wherever it is you’re going on Thursday, be sure you stop by? I’ve got a gift for you, for your birthday. Since you’ll be gone.”
“Sure, Mom,” he said, and they both pushed back their chairs. JoJo jumped to her feet and circled around twice as though she expected them to start out on another adventure. Ollie smiled at her antics and shook his head. “That dog of yours...”
