Page 57 of Marriage and the Midlife Crisis

“Oh, for God’s sake, bro, she said I only speak a little Spanish, son.”

“I knew that,” Tanner bristled. “It just took me a second to switch my brain over from English.”

Garrett rolled his eyes and shouldered past him to get to the kitchen. He opened the refrigerator and bent down to look inside, then peered up over the top of the door at me.

“Mom, the fridge is totally empty aside from a container of coffee creamer, a bottle of sweet tea, and a half-empty container of chicken lo mein from The Golden Wok. Where is the food?”

I had to chuckle at his horrified expression and then explained that I hadn’t bothered buying groceries yet since I wasn’t sure how long I’d be staying here.

He and Tanner exchanged glances, then Tanner asked, “Are you going back home this weekend?”

“No,” I admitted.

He turned and reached into the closet, grabbing the coats he’d just hung up and tossing one to Garrett.

“C’mon, man, we’re going shopping.”

I sighed, then told them to give me a second to get changed.

“You don’t have to go, Mom. We can handle it.”

I arched a brow at Garrett. “If we’re going to have food, I’d like it to be something a little more nutritious than Pop-Tarts and frozen burritos.”

Tanner gave me an affronted glare. “Give us some credit, Mom. We would have grabbed some vegetables, too.” He couldn’t keep a straight face though, when he asked, “Potato chips do count as a vegetable, right?”

I laughed as I headed to the bedroom to get dressed because apparently, my boys were determined to take care of me this weekend whether I needed them to or not.

Later that evening, after I’d made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner – using store-bought sauce and pasta because I wasn’t about to buy all the ingredients needed to make my own as I usually did – they cleaned up the kitchen while I tried to find a movie for us to watch on TV.

My phone rang, and I stiffened as I saw Ryan’s name on the screen. He’d sent me two texts earlier to ask if I was OK. I’d ignored the first one, which had been sent while I was soaking in the tub. The second one came in while we were in the cereal aisle, and I’d responded with a thumbs up emoji, which I figured was better than the middle finger emoji I was tempted to send.

He’d send a third text while I was cooking, asking if we could talk. I’d ignored that one too, but apparently he couldn’t take a hint.

I let it go to voice mail, then sent him a quick text.

Me: Can’t talk. The boys are here for the weekend.

Ryan: Call me if you need anything. I’m doing a grief counseling session with Kim on Monday afternoon. If you want to make Tuesday’s session a joint one, I’d like that. If you would rather talk to her on your own, I’ll understand.

The boys came and plopped down on either side of me, Tanner carrying the package of cookies we’d bought and Garrett carrying a can of mixed nuts.

“We just finished dinner,” I chided with a chuckle.

Garrett shrugged. “We’re growing boys,” he said as he popped a handful of cashews into his mouth.

“Wanna cookie?” Tanner offered, mumbling around the cookie he’d just shoved in his mouth. He held the package out for me, but I shook my head. He grabbed another one and ate half of it in one bite, then brushed a crumb off his sweatshirt.

I rolled my eyes at their antics, then set my phone down and tried to focus on the movie I’d found. There were lots of explosions, car chases, and gunfire, but it was sufficiently distracting and by the time it ended, I was ready to call it a night.

Tanner and Garrett decided to stay up to watch the sequel, and as I was sliding into bed a few minutes later, the faint smell of microwave popcorn filtered into the bedroom.

“Some things never change. Those boys are still bottomless pits,” I muttered, smiling into the darkness. It was good to have them here, even if I had spent a small fortune on groceries.

By the time they left Sunday afternoon, I’d proofread Garrett’s English paper for him and quizzed Tanner on the material for his Spanish test. I’d talked to them on Saturday and encouraged them to stop by to see their dad before they headed back to campus, so they made plans with Ryan to meet him for an early dinner at the Mexican restaurant we all loved.

I had dinner plans myself. Jen had checked on me Saturday and had invited me over for pizza at her house Sunday evening. Mark and Cody were going to see some new sci-fi movie that had just come out, so she said we would have the house to ourselves.

I didn’t even get a chance to take my coat off before she asked how our counseling session had gone.