She gasped again at the sight of him; a smile lit up her face. “There he is!” She pulled him into a hug and held on, almost cooing: “My boy. I missed you so much.”
“Hey, Mom. You look great,” Emmett said.
Some new diet, she told him. “You have to try it.”
It was always a new thing with her.I’ve gone pescatarian, she would say, then the next time he saw her,I’m on paleo. I’m back on Weight Watchers. I’m doing Noom.Even more annoying was that they all worked, at least at first. It didn’t sit right with him, the ease with which she adopted new lifestyles and cut out entire food groups. Given the way she brought him up eating, how deeply ingrained those habits still were, he wished she would struggle just slightly.
Abby sipped a plastic cup of red wine she had probably brought herself, rail-thin and beautiful in a buttoned-up navy dress. “What about me, don’t I look good?” she said, hugging him hello.
“You look like you came straight from court.”
“Client meeting, actually. Mark says hi. He’s running a ten K.”
“Surprised you didn’t join him.”
“Is that sarcastic?” Abby snapped. “You know I’m a runner too now. I did the half marathon last month.”
“I know, Abby, Jesus Christ.”
“I’m just saying. I thought you were making fun of me.”
“We all know better than that,” Joanna muttered, adding brightly as Abby’s head whipped around, “Just kidding!”
Abby stewed and drained her wine, the one remaining holdover from the “dirty eating” lifestyle she’d given up when she started dating Mark.
“How was your interview?” she asked. It didn’t sound like a jab. She really wanted to know.
Emmett looked at Joanna. “You told her?”
“I didn’t say anything!”
There was no point arguing; once his mom had decided on a truth, there was no wresting it from her.
“Tell me,” his mom said. “You got it?”
“Nope.”
She gasped again. “You’re kidding!”
“That was quick,” Abby remarked.
“Thanks, Ab.”
“They say why?” Joanna cooed.
“Just not what they were looking for, I guess.”
“Well, they’re idiots. Fuck ’em.” Abby tried for another sip, but her cup was empty. She stalked off for a refill and paused to talk to Chris, possibly to gossip about Emmett’s bad news.
Joanna stroked Emmett’s arm consolingly, her eyes gushing love and adoration. “You’ll find something.” He knew what was coming before she even said it: “There’s somethin’ special about that boy.”
Three-quarters of an hour later the party moved inside. Joanna shouldered forward to join the camera-wielding mama-razzi at the front while Emmett and Abby skulked at the back.
“This one’s from Uncle Emmett,” Chris announced, reading the label on the gift-wrapped package.
Emmett dreaded Harper’s reaction. She was on a rampage, a gift-opening gladiator in a tutu, performing for the entertainment of her feral admirers. The crowd oohed and aahed as she savaged the paper.
Pausing not one second to look at the forty-dollarFrozentea set, she discarded it on the floor and reached for the next.
