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I return my attention to the fridge, deciding to indulge her. I might not tell my mother all my secrets, but I don’t mind her knowing who Ruby is and the story behind how we met.
“She’s Ken Bellow’s daughter.”
“Ken doesn’t have a daughter,” she interjects, and when I turn to give her a look, her mouth drops open. “Shut. Up.”
I laugh at her very youthful reaction.
“You can’t say anything—to anyone. I don’t know who knows, but it seems like it might be a secret. She’s staying in their guesthouse for a little while.”
“Oh, yeah. I won’t say anything.”
I believe my mother when she says that. As much as the woman enjoys the local gossip, she knows when something is important enough to keep to herself, especially when it isn’t her secret to share.
“So you just met her in town?” she asks.
I close the fridge, having a pretty good idea of what I’m going to do food-wise, and turn back to my mother, taking a seat across from her on a stool at the bar.
“No. I met her on the plane actually.”
“And she’s here in Cedar Point? What are the odds?”
I take the next ten minutes to fill my mom in about our plane ride and how I left her my number, finding out she was at Ken’s, and then our ‘date’ at The Mitch.
“She’s coming over this morning, just so you know. She’s going to lead me in a yoga lesson on the deck.”
My mother pins me with a look. “I’m sure you’ve always wanted to do yoga, too. It doesn’t happen to have anything to do with the fact that she’ll be wearing tight clothes and getting all bendy?”
I let out a somewhat embarrassed chuckle, my hand on my face at my mom saying ‘getting all bendy.’
I could lie down and die right here.
“You said it yourself—you don’t know what life in Boston is like for me. I could be a closet yoga enthusiast.”
“Son, the minute you become a yoga enthusiast will be the day I shave my head,” she says.
We both share a laugh at that image.
Looking at the clock on the wall, I realize I only have a few minutes before Ruby gets here, and I still need to find Briar’s old yoga mats, which I think are in the garage.
“I’m gonna be honest, honey,” my mom says, before I can leave the room. “I’ve never seen you talk about someone like this before. Do you think you’re getting a little too intense about it when you’ve known her such a short time?”
My mom’s question isn’t anything I haven’t already thought about myself, though hearing it from her directly has me retaking my seat at the counter.
“I just don’t want you to get overly involved with someone you might not ever see again after this little trip of hers, you know? This might be her…what do kids call them? Bangcations?”
I bark out an uncontrollable laugh at my mother’s choice of words. She is a serious spitfire once she’s had her second cup of coffee.
“Mom, I appreciate the concern—really—but you’ll meet Ruby when she gets here and you’ll really like her.” I lift a shoulder. “Besides, if both of us want to enjoy each other while we’re on this trip, why not?”
Her hands fly up and she closes her eyes. “Okay, that might have been a little more information than I needed.”
I hop out of my chair and round the counter, wrapping her in my arms and placing a big kiss on her temple.
“Don’t worry—you’ll always be my favorite mom.”
“I’m your only mom,” she sasses.
I kiss her head again before heading out to the garage. It takes a few minutes of digging, but eventually I find the yoga mats stuffed behind some fishing gear that has seen better days.
