“Wait until I send you a picture of him.”
“So he’s hot.”
“Yes. Scorching. And I thought that when I first saw him. But he makes me laugh, Lenny. He thinks I’m funny. I don’t know…”
It was late.
I was in my bed in the main house, papers and my laptop and my cats (Prue’s, but yeah, mine, and Baby Blue had taken to hanging with me with Battle gone) strewn across the coverlet, but since I was at a loss for words, I fell back onto my pillows.
And admitted, “I could probably talk about him for the next three hours and not explain how amazing he is.”
“You’ve only been there a few weeks, honey.”
“When did you know with Alex?”
Heavy pause then, “Point taken.”
I grinned to myself because she called me the day after their first date and announced she was going to marry him.
My sister was an engineer. She was STEM. She got her jollies from quadratic equations (or whatever).
She was not a romantic like me.
But she knew with Alex immediately.
And she was right.
Just like I knew it was with Battle.
“Would Mom like him?” she asked.
Instantly, I said, “Yes. She’d spend five minutes with him with his sisters, and she’d know what I was going to get for a lifetime and be very happy for me.”
“This is really cool, Viv. Alex and I were talking about taking the kids out there in June or July. It’s expensive, and they’re too young to remember much of such a momentous vacation, but they miss you, and Alex and I do too. Maybe we need to talk about that more seriously, when it comes time to meet him?”
It was already time, as far as I was estimating.
Though, I should probably give it more and talk to Battle about it.
Even so, I said, “Yeah, maybe talk seriously with Al. But I don’t think I’ll have to try too hard to get Battle to fly home to visit me when my visa runs out. You can meet him then.”
“Let me share this news with Alex. I’m really happy for you, Viv. You sound…” She let that lie for a spell and finished, “Like before Mom died.”
Yeah.
Ugh.
“Life will never be the same without Mom,” I replied. “And sometimes, I think about the fact she’ll never meet Battle, or Prue, Tempie, Chassie, see this gorgeous house, meet the kitties and Bartholomew. And that hurts. But, yeah. I feel lighter here. I feel comfortable here. This house is beautiful, but it wouldn’t be half as pretty if there wasn’t so much love here. Even the staff seem like family. So, I guess…yeah.”
“I love that,” she whispered.
“I do too,” I agreed.
“I’ll talk to Alex. So, how’s the book going?”
We chatted book, Alex, Matty, Rayray, her work, Alex’s work and grandparents. And when we hung up, I was glad I called, I was glad she knew, I was glad she sounded good.
And I was glad I could call Battle before I went to sleep.
