"Of Bo?"
“No, Tyler."
She nods. She's been waiting for that one, too.
"He's going to come home," I say. "Eventually, and he's going to have something to say about the two of us. And I don't know if he and I will survive it."
“You and Bo?”
“No, Tyler and me.”
She is quiet for a second. Then: "Did I ever tell you about Tom Hitchens?"
I rack my brain. "No."
"Tom Hitchens," she says, settling back in her chair, "drove a red truck and played guitar badly and with tremendous confidence." The corner of her mouth goes up. "I was dating him when I met your father."
I stare at her. "I didn't know that."
"There's a lot you don't know." She raises her eyebrows. "The relevant part is that my sister Clare liked Rick first. Had liked him for two years. When your father asked me to dinner, I almost said no because of Clare. I’d broken up with Tom a few weeks prior, and Rick had been waiting."
"What happened?"
"Clare was furious." She winces. "Six months where she barely spoke to me. It was the hardest thing I'd ever done in our family." She pauses. "Then she met Gerald Patterson at our wedding. They've been married twenty-seven years. She calls me every Sunday."
I laugh. How had I not known this?
"Tyler loves you," she says. "He loves Bo. He's going to be angry, and he's going to say things he'll have to apologize for, and it's going to be rough." She meets my eyes. "But your dad and I will be there. We both know what it’s like, and we have both seen the way you and Bo have skirted around each other for years. The two of you deserve a chance; don’t let Tyler stop you. If he loves you, he’ll understand.”
My throat gets tight.
"You're not Tyler's little sister to Bo," she says. "You haven't been for a long time." She looks around the kitchen, at the shelving I built, the chandelier light coming through from the entryway, the mean I’d made, the table I'd set for four, because that's just what it was now. "You're a woman who's been holding everything together quietly for a longtime." She looks back at me. "It’s about time we see it for what it is. You're showing your true colors.”
I blink hard.
Outside, I can hear Dad's voice carrying from the back yard and Rowdy barking at the squirrels.
Mom reaches over and squeezes my hand once. Then she picks up her fork and goes back to her cake. How did moms do that? Say the right thing at the right time? It was like a superpower that only moms had.
The back door opens, and Dad and Bo come in. Dad goes straight for the coffee and the cake I’d already cut and plated. Bo looks at me across the kitchen.
I smile at him.
He smiles back and nods.
Mom says nothing. Which, from Melodie Williams, said everything.
Later, after they'd gone and the dishes were done, I sit on the porch steps with Rowdy while Bo locked the barn. He comes across the yard in the dark and stops at the bottom of the steps.
"Good night?" he asks.
"Really good night."
He sits down beside me, placing his hand over mine. The stars are out, the big Montana sky stretching out above us, stars you didn’t see in the city shining overhead.
I think about Clare calling every Sunday.
I think about Tyler coming home.
