“Yeah?” she asked, a grin spreading across her face as relief suffused her.
“Yeah!” he exclaimed. “That’s actually so perfect for you. Because, no offense, Mom, but you’re kind of a nerd about books.” The teasing was warm.
“Yeah, yeah.” She feigned irritation. “Anyway, yes. There’s no bookstore in town here, and this house ended up having a lot more space than I needed, so I thought, why not?”
“It’s a great idea,” he said encouragingly. “Why did you act like you were going to tell me that something terrible had happened?”
Ninety-nine percent of the time, Eleanor was grateful to have such an observant, kind, thoughtful, caring son. The other one percent of the time was when he wasn’t letting her get away with her nonsense.
“I might have been a little nervous,” she admitted. “I didn’t want you to think that I was taking on a foolish risk. I’m your mom! I’m supposed to be the steady figure you can rely on.”
He laughed, not unkindly. “Mom, I can still rely on you. But consider it this way. You’re also showing me how to do something brave and scary. Did you ever think of that?”
“Whoever let you get so smart?” she asked with mock sternness.
“Oh, you know,” he said airily. “I had this great mom. And, don’t tell her, but I’m really, really proud of her for doing something for herself. That takes guts.”
Eleanor couldn’t answer right away, not without giving away the tears that had come to her eyes at his words. She cleared her throat.
“I love you,” she said with feeling.
“I love you too, Mom,” he said. “Now, give me more details on this book thing.”
Eleanor felt like a great weight had lifted off her shoulders as she explained her vision to her son. He enjoyed a good laugh at the tale of her trying to fix the sink, just as she’d intended.
“That handyman sounds like he’s more than earned his fee,” Jeremy joked.
“Oh, it’s worse than that,” she said, blowing out a huff of air. “He was just doing it to be nice. He didn’t even charge me!”
“Oh?”
The note of curiosity in her son’s voice made Eleanor hurry on. She and Jeremy were close, but she wasn’t about to explain that she had developed the teeniest, tiniest crush on Garrett.
“Yeah, everyone here is so nice,” she hastened to add. “Anyway, how’s everything on your end? You’ve let me blather on enough.”
Fortunately, this distracted her son, who shared his own tales of classes, friends, and extracurriculars.
“I’m going to have to break it to Dad that I think I’m going to major in Engineering, not something that will set me up for law school,” he said. “He’ll be cool, I think, but he’ll also do that secret sad thing where he pretends that he’s fine but suddenly has tovery urgentlygo mow the lawn, even if it’s, like, ten at night.”
Eleanor barked out a laugh.
“You have the two of us totally pegged, don’t you?” she asked fondly. “Well, let me know if you need any help breaking the news. Just because your dad and I split up doesn’t mean we can’t have family conversations.”
“I know, Mom,” he said. “But I’ve got this.”
The confidence in his voice nearly made her tear up again. How did her baby get so grown?
They chatted until Eleanor saw Garrett’s truck pull into her driveway. She quickly bid her son goodbye, which made him tease her about how her social schedule was far more packed than his, these days. Even so, she could tell he was happy for her.
Eleanor was feeling pretty darn happy for herself too, as she opened the door for Garrett.
“Hi!” she greeted. “Thanks again for coming.”
He gave her one of those looks that wasn’tquitea smile.
“You know,” he told her, “if you keep thanking me, I’m going to take offense. We’re friends now, aren’t we?”
“Friends can say thank you,” she said primly, struggling to hide how pleased she was at the idea that he considered them friends.
