“Guess who’s home?” I let myself into my parents’ home. “It’s me, your only daughter.” I answer my own question before dropping the bags I’m holding near the door. I walk into the living room and grin wide. There’s a mixing sound coming from the kitchen.
Mom is already at it.
She can whip up a batch of freshly baked muffins as fast as other mothers serve toast. My money is on tonight’s dinner. I bet she already started to prep for it.
“Where is everybody?” I make sure my voice carries.
The mixing sound stops.
“Mother of God. Oliver, she’s here. Carina is here. Let me wash my hands, cupcake. I’ll be out in a sec?—”
“What’s she doing here so early?” My father is upstairs.
“Does it matter, Oliver?”
“It does, Vanessa,” Daddy says. “I’m still getting dressed. It’s not like I’m going to receive my baby girl half naked. She said lunch. Eight o’clock in the morning isn’t lunch. Is she on London time?”
“Oh, stop your complaining, Oliver. Our baby is here. Get down here.”
This whole conversation goes on while they’re in different parts of the house.
I can’t help but laugh.
Home. Sweet home.
Soon, footsteps trample down the stairs and another set against the wooden floor, coming from the kitchen. The next thing I know, I’m caught in a Callahan sandwich.
“Carina. Cupcake.” Mom sobs, kissing me all over.
“Baby girl.” Daddy is also sobbing and hugging the hell out of me.
“Mom. Daddy. You guys are suffocating me.”
They only hug me harder.
“You guys,” I say, twisting out of the bear hug.
“It seems like an eternity since you’ve been here,” Daddy says.
They both wipe away a few tears, their blue eyes are still teary.
I may do a better job at hiding it, but I’m just as emotional.
Family.
You can’t live with them, you can’t live without them.
I readjust my outfit. “I was here not long ago.”
“Not long ago? Not long ago?” Mom crosses her arms over her ample chest. “You mean last Christmas?” There’s no mistaking the indignation in her voice. She turns to my father. “Oliver, did you hear that? She leaves New York and comes back ungrateful? Did we use to feed her every eight months when she lived under our roof?”
She can be so dramatic.
“Mom.” I roll my eyes, with an amused smile stretching my lips.
“I miss you so much, cupcake,” she says, pinching my cheeks. She takes a step back and pins her closed fists at her waist in amotherly way. “What happened to you?” She waves her chin at me as if it were a finger.
I glance down at my body. “What do you mean?”
