“Well, what did you do to her to make her react this way?”
I chuckle.
“I tossed her in the lake.”
“Then she should have shaved them both, all the way off.”
“Thanks, Ma.” I sit down at the table and pick up the sandwich she’d made me when I first walked in. “I see where I rate.”
“I’m married to an older version of you, I know how you men work. So of course I’m on her side.”
She’s not lying. Us O’Shay men can be hard to handle.
“She is good for you,” my mom announces as I take a bite and pause looking up at her. “There is a happiness in your eyes that wasn’t there before.”
“She does make me happy,” I confess. “I asked her to move in with me, but she says she needs time. I’m trying not to take it personally.”
“She’s an independent woman, there is nothing wrong with that.”
“I love that about her.”
“Advice?”
“Of course.”
“A woman like Kendall needs to feel like it was her idea. She will never be happy with the idea of doing something you wanted her to do, you have to give that to her. You have to let her lead, let her come to you, and she will.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I was once just like her,” she confesses before standing and getting back to the cookies she was making when I got here. “I’ll admit, she wasn’t what I’d imagined for you.” I feel like my chest tighten and I can barely breathe until she continues. “She is so much more.”
I look up to find her watching me and I offer a smile. “She is Ma, she really is.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Kendall
With my truckidling in the driveway I walk up to the front door of Aaron’s parents’ home and feel my hands shake. I don’t know if Maggie was being serious or only attempting to make me feel better when she asked for a ride in my truck several weeks ago. I know I could be able to make a fool of myself.
Or her and I could have a great day, with lots of laughs.
I’ll admit being around her does fill a void. One my own mother left when she decided money meant more to her than love. Family was never enough for her and Maggie is the exact opposite. Yes the O’Shay’s have money. But I honestly think that if the choice was left where she had to decide between money and her family, her family would win every single time.
When I knock on the thick double wide door, I step back and fist my hands nervously before me.
When she opens it up and her face lights up, it’s like all the nervous energy I felt on my way over here disappeared.
“You ready to go for that ride I promised you?” I point over my shoulder and her eyes light up with excitement.
“Now?”
“If now works for you then, yeah, right now,” I tell her with a laugh and can’t help feel joy at how excited this grown woman is just to go for a ride in a big ole tow truck with a small bag and a thin sweater tossed over her arm. “Let’s go!” she says almost giddy and jogs down the front steps.
I reach out and pull the front door shut before joining her in the driveway.
“Are we just going for a ride, or do we have someone to rescue?” She rubs her hands together in anticipation.
“For now, a ride, but if a call comes in, I’ll take you along.”
