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That happiness lasted as long as it took to drive the fifteen minutes to Ande’s parents’ house.
Her entire demeanor changed when she walked through the door.
We turned left, and there they all were, sitting on the huge sectional couch, watching expectantly.
“Mom, Dad, I want you to meet Keene,” Ande said softly, yanking me up to stand beside her instead of slightly behind.
If meeting the parents wasn’t hard enough, I had to meet them when they’d just gotten home from Germany, where they had picked up their dead daughter’s ashes.
Both of them looked at me with surprise in their eyes.
“You’re the young man my daughter met at the airport?” the older woman who looked a whole lot like her daughter asked.
“I am,” I said, surprised to hear that Ande had told her mother about me.
Hopefully not everything, though.
“It’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot of great things about you.” She smiled. “My name is Garnett. This is Germaine.”
Germaine was an older version of his sons. He had the hard cop eyes down better, which was understandable.
“Hello, sir,” I said as I offered him my hand.
I wasn’t exactly sure of the protocol here.
Did I shake and leave? Did I wait to get dismissed?
This whole situation was something I’d never contemplated happening before.
“Have a seat,” Germaine urged. “We were just fighting with your mother about whether or not she should have her knee surgery tomorrow.”
Ande’s head whipped around, and she narrowed her eyes at her mother.
I paused, thinking I’d just entered into something that wasn’t quite what it seemed. And I could tell this was something that was a sensitive subject, because all of the brothers, as well as Germaine and Garnett, had been tense when we walked in the door.
To say that I was uncomfortable would be an understatement.
“You’re going!” Ande hissed.
I looked back and forth between mother and daughter.
The rest of the family stood back and watched the magic happening.
Meanwhile, I was wondering if I should slip out of the room.
“I’m just going to…”
“You stay right there,” both women said at the same time.
Both of them pointed identical fingers at me, piercing me with this glare that had my heart hammering for no reason.
I held my hands up in peace, then crossed my arms over my chest, leaned my backside against the counter, and waited to see how this played out.
“I’m burying my daughter tomorrow,” Garnett said. “I…”
“We can have the funeral anytime,” Ande argued. “Plus, we haven’t planned a single thing. That needs to be done before you say you’re burying her tomorrow. What if they don’t have any openings?”
They being the funeral service.
