“Were you watching me sleep?”
“I was. Can’t take my eyes off you.” This earns me another smile, but that’s not why I said it. I literally mean I can’t take my eyes off of her – she has mesmerized me.
“So, today is our standard family get together day and my parents want you to come. Want to go with me?” I ask tentatively, knowing how the last visit went.
“I’d love to come with you.”
And there’s no denying the double meaning in her response and I definitely don’t have the heart to deny her. So I pounce on her once again in the bed. Then again in the shower.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
ANDI
I’m really having a hard time focusing on the catalog of outdoor furniture Linda is showing me. I can’t stop thinking about last night and this morning with Luke….mainly because I’m delightfully sore from our bedroom acrobatics. I mentally chastise myself and force myself to pay attention. She’s showing me the set she wants for the garden area around the pool. It sounds so simple, but I’ve never had a mother who asked for my opinion and she makes me feel like a part of the family.
Linda finally settles on one the one she wants just as Sam walks in the room. “Honey, I’ve decided.”
“Wonderful. On what?” His bored, semi-listening tone indicates he’s heard this a few hundred times from her.
“The patio set I’m going to get.”
This gets his attention. “Hmm…let’s see,” he says as he walks over to the kitchen table. Linda shows him the page and Sam whistles low and serious as he looks at the price. “It’ll have to wait, babe.” Linda nods her head and says, “I was hoping to get it on sale at the end of the season if there are any sets left over.”
Linda and I cook while Luke and Brandon are outside helping Sam with some heavy work in the yard. Linda is very witty and her dry, sarcastic humor is hilarious to me. We spend the majority of our time together laughing at her stories of Luke and Brandon growing up, all the trouble they got into and how they were with Alicia.
I could listen to her talk about their family life for hours. She’s teaching me how to cook some of Luke’s favorite dishes. I furiously blink back the tears when she puts her arm around my shoulders and squeezes me to her for no apparent reason.
Sam, Luke and Brandon all come piling in the kitchen – sweaty, dirty and hungry – from putting down concrete pavers for Linda’s extended patio. Linda sends them to clean up before we set the table. Once we’re all gathered back in the kitchen, we take our seats at the table. The conversation eventually turns to stories of Luke and Brandon growing up, which leads to questions about my childhood.
Questions and answers Luke and I haven’t even discussed yet. And I feel bad about talking about it now, in front of everyone, but I don’t really feel like I have a choice.
“Andi, do your parents live nearby?” Sam asks in between bites of food. I see Luke’s fork freeze in mid-air as he looks at his dad then at me.
“Dad, I don’t know if-“
I touch his arm and say, “Its fine, Luke.” Then I turn my gaze to Sam and answer him, “They used to live in the area, but they died when I was six.” I try to keep my tone casual and light, as if this is a question I answer every day. The truth is I never really talk about them because that leads to more questions.
“I’m so sorry, Andi. We had no idea,” Linda doesn’t look at me with pity and sympathy, which is the worst. She looks at me with understanding in her eyes.
Sam continues, “What happened? If you don’t mind me asking.”
Linda gives him a disapproving look before turning to me, “If you don’t want to talk about this, we won’t push.”
“No, really, I’m ok. That’s if Luke doesn’t mind – we haven’t really gotten around to all this yet,” I say, looking around the table at the people who I’m beginning to think of as family before turning to Luke. His face softens at my statement directed towards him and nods.
I continue, “They were killed in a car wreck. I wasn’t with them but I’m told they died instantly.”
“Who did you live with?” Luke asks, and I notice he isn’t eating anymore.
I clear my throat to try to expel the emotion building up. Here we go. “My mom’s cousin Jean and her husband took me in for a little while. But…when Jean found out she couldn’t get to my inheritance, she didn’t want me anymore so she gave me up to the state.”
“Foster homes,” Brandon states, obviously disgusted, “Shewillinglyput you into the foster care system. Your own blood kin.” His indignation on my behalf is blatant towards Jean. I can’t look up at them even though I feel all eyes on me, willing me to look at them and finish my story.
“Yes, I stayed in foster care until I was 16 and I contacted my parents’ attorney. He had been a friend of theirs for years before they died and he remembered me. He helped me gain legal emancipation from the state. I met Mack soon after.”
“Did you move in with Mack?” Linda asks, hesitantly.
I shake my head and laugh a little, “No. Mack is a career bachelor and I was a teenage girl. He was afraid of how it would look – for both of us.”
