“Did you remind Aunt Summer to get someone to cut and serve the cake?” Braden asked.
“No. Damn.” I pulled my cell phone out of my purse and texted my sister to remind her. It took exactly two minutes for Summer to text me back and tell me to let her be.
No different than in the salon.
I rolled my eyes and glanced at the television. The weather report was on. Leave it to Brittany to be keenly aware of the weather patterns movements. She’d always been obsessed with weather patterns.
I had always assumed she’d want to go into meteorology, but nope, not her.
I shook my head at the latest weather update. “Now we’re only supposed to get a couple of inches?”
“They don’t know, but,” Brittany started.
“We know something’s coming,” Braden said, finishing the thought. “And we’d better get packed…”
“So we don’t miss our flight,” Brittany said. Brittany turned to Braden. “Did you?”
Braden shook his head. “But you?”
“Yeah.”
I was almost used to the way they both finished each other’s sentences and talked without talking to one another. They communicated in their own language, this shorthanded speech that only they understood.
I was getting better. They obviously wanted to tell me something but hesitated. An action that always ticked me off, because I was who they always came to talk to about anything. So when they hesitated, they must have thought I’d be mad at them. And unless they were moving to Iceland, I really had no reason to be mad at them.
But wait a minute.
What flight? What were they talking about? Since when did they have to fly back to school? Their school was just 3 hours away or so.
“What’s going on?” I asked, my gaze darting between them both.
“We’re changing schools,” Brittany blurted out, Braden’s voice an echo behind hers, repeating the words.
“What?” I asked as panic hit me. A split-second freak-out rolled through me, and I tried as hard as I could to hold it back. “No, you’re not.” I kept my teeth clenched as I spoke. It would do no good to yell at them.
They had plane tickets, for God’s sake…
Whatever this was, it was done. Whether I liked it or not.
“No, Mom, just wait,” Braden said, stepping next to his sister.
Brittany continued, the words pouring out like she’d released a dam. “I got this internship with Florida Atlantic University at The Center for Ocean Energy Technology, and I get to start there instead of going back to Kansas University, and it’s all taken care of and--” Brittany stammered as she explained.
I blinked, hit with pride for my daughter and her accomplishment. Internships were not easy to get, she’d been trying for a while. “Brittany that’s amazing! I’m so thrilled for you! Why didn’t you tell me?” Okay so it wasn’t Iceland, but it was Florida. Far enough away that I needed a plane ticket to get there if they needed me.
And with the way the world was, the thought of her alone in Florida scared the crap out of me.
Horrible things happened to coeds from Kansas in big places like Florida.
“Because we’re going to live with Dad,” Braden said, jumping into my thought-train.
I turned and glanced at my son. “You’re going too?”
“Sure. They have a great nursing school there.” Braden put his arm around Brittany. “She can’t live without me.”
“And I’m not nuts, Mom. I hate the thought of going there all alone. I’ve never gone anywhere without Braden,” Brittany said.
Which was true enough. They never did anything without the other one.
