“Whoa, there. Where’s the fire?” my mom asked, rounding the corner. My shirt was already halfway off before she stepped in front of my bathroom door, hands on her hips. “No time to talk to your mom?” she asked, eyebrows raised.
“Mom…”
“What a shame. I’d love to know what’s got you in such arush.” She plastered on her best smile, staring up at me like she had all the time in the world.
I tipped my head back in a groan. “Maybe I just smell bad and want to shower.”
She leaned in, nose scrunched as she sniffed the air. “No more than usual.”
“Hey!”
Mom rolled her eyes. “You’re a teenage boy, Grady. Stink follows you wherever you go. Your father, bless his heart, stunk to high heaven until he was eighteen.” She leaned forward, loudly whispering, “He wasn’t a big fan of deodorant until college.”
“I heard that, woman!” he boomed from somewhere in the house. Knowing him, he was likely tinkering with something in the kitchen. Dad was the type of man who couldn’t sit still to save his life. Since we lived in an older house, it worked out, because he saw it as an endless supply of projects to keep him busy.
“You still got the girl in the end, stink and all!” She turned to wink and smile at me before adding, “Which is just a lesson for you before you go off on this big date of yours.”
“What?”
“If she’s the one?—”
“Whoa, Mom. Slow down?—”
She threw her hands in the air. “I’m just saying.”
I cocked my head to the side. “How’d you even?—”
“Know that there was likely a girl involved?” she asked, finishing my sentence. Mom looked at me like I’d suddenly grown two heads. “Good lord, boy. I’m old, not stupid. You’re never this quick to jump in the shower when you get home, and now you can’t wait.”
“Speaking of showering…” I said slowly, glancing behind her at the door she was blocking. I loved my mom, but there were other things on my mind. “I’m kind of in a rush.”
But Mom didn’t budge. If anything, she stood her ground hard. “Where are y’all going?”
I scratched the back of my neck, pausing slightly. I hadn’t given much thought to that, hadn’t had the time. The ride from Black Springs Ranch to home had been a blur. I’d just been riding the high of her saying yes. “I dunno. Figured that was a problem for future Grady.”
She scoffed. “Well, your future and present selves are about to collide, boy. You want to make a good impression, right?” I nodded. Of course, I did. This was Cleo’s first date ever, so it needed to be special. “What about Hardy’s? They have a bit of everything, but it’s a lot nicer than the Burger Shack.”
“I don’t really have Hardy’s money,” I confessed. Hardy’s was a local joint, kind of like a fancy Chilis. It’d been run by the same family since it opened over thirty years ago. It was damn good, but it was more expensive than I’d bargained for.
I’d been working for the farrier for the past week but hadn’t gotten my first check yet. All I had to spend was the little bit I had left from doing odd jobs around the neighborhood or for my dad. Half of that had to go to filling my gas tank, though. Which meant I had even less than I thought. “Maybe I should just cancel. Wait until I can do it right.”
Cleo came from money, even if she never flaunted it. I knew she wouldn’t really care where I took her, but there was this subconscious need to show her I was able to give her what she deserved. A half-cocked date wasn’t gonna cut it.
I sighed, shoulders slumping as I tried to give my mom a smile. “I’m gonna call her really quick and explain. Maybe I’ll say I got stuck talking to Mr. Riley and he wouldn’t shut up in time for me to make it.”
No sooner had I turned to trudge towards my bedroom than Mom called out my name. I faced her, even though I didn’t want to waste any more time. She waited for a beat, her eyes searching my face. “You really like this girl.”
There was no point in lying. Not to my mom. She knew me too well. “Well, yeah?—”
“That wasn’t a question,” she said, cutting me off and stepping forward. “Don’t worry about the money, Grady. It’d be rude to cancel, especially since I’m sure the poor girl is already stressing about what she’s gonna wear.”
There was a reason I was working this summer instead of hanging out with my friends or playing summer sports. We didn’t come from wealth like some of the other families around town, Cleo’s included. Mom and Dad worked their asses off for everything. While we had what we needed, we didn’t always have extra cash to spend on things we wanted.
I still remember the crushing look on their faces when my friends and their parents invited us to join them for lunch at that expensive steak house after Saturday football practices, and they had to politely decline because we couldn’t afford to go. It was burned into my memory, sometimes keeping me awake at night, as I wondered what more I could do to help. I vowed from an early age never to ask for more than what I needed, to do whatever it took to put them in a better position.
“Mom, no,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t want you to do that.”
She held her hand up. “Grady Elliott Wilde, don’t you dare back-talk me. If I wanna do this for you, and also for that girl, then let me do it.” She placed her hand on my cheek, eyes softening. “You’ve never asked your father and I for anything. You work harder than any sixteen-year-old I know. Let us do this for you, baby.”
