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They’d have a free weekend before her parents came for Thanksgiving. A free weekend to hang out, sleep and recover. Then they’d be okay. Trying to hold on to the thought, Mina closed her eyes. Sleep came immediately.
* * *
MINA HELD LEVI’S hand tightly as they stood in the baggage-claim area of the airport waiting for her parents. People exiting the terminals in a steady stream were all variously dressed for the weather, and she almost overlooked her parents. Her mom was dressed for an arctic expedition, her thick coat complete with a fur-lined hood. Clearly her mother hadn’t been kidding when she’d said that she wanted to visit at Thanksgiving instead of Christmas because she was nervous about the weather. Her dad was dressed more reasonably in the same winter coat he wore in Virginia in February.
“Hi, Mom,” Mina said, the fur of her mom’s coat brushing against her cheek as she leaned in for a hug and kiss. “I’m so happy you could come.”
Tension flowed out of her in a rush as soon as she said the words and felt her mother’s arms wrap around her. The anxiety she’d felt in anticipation of this meeting disappeared completely when she embraced her dad, and he gave her his usual hesitant pat on the back. While she knew that her mother’s gushing worries came from a place of love, they often felt like a tsunami that knocked Mina off her feet and didn’t let her get back on her feet long enough to recover her balance.
As a kid, her dad’s more hands-off approach to parenting and praise had left her wondering if he even noticed his children. Now she was old enough to understand that his hesitancy was directly related to her mother’s overbearing nature. The more her mother overflowed with worry, love and affection, the more her dad pulled back, as if he knew he couldn’t compete, so why even try.
But the cool, dry skin of her dad’s cheek felt as good against the top of her hair as a cool pillowcase on a warm summer’s night. And Mina felt his love for her in the way his fingertips lingered on her arms as they pulled away. All her anxiety dropped to the floor the instant her dad’s fingers lost contact with her.
“Mom, Dad. This is Levi.” She looked back and forth between the people she loved most in this world, her face beaming with so much pleasure that she was afraid her cheeks would crack. “You’ll be seeing a lot of him this weekend.”
“Nice to meet you,” Levi said, shaking hands heartily with her father and more delicately with her mother.
“Come on,” she said, the fabric of Levi’s coat crinkling as she slipped her arm through his. “Let’s get your bags and head home. I’ve got the slow cooker going, so dinner is waiting.”
The cold night air felt good after the heat and milling bodies of the airport. As they walked to the car, her mom talked about their flight, the people they’d met and what they were doing in Missoula. There were college students home for the holiday, some parents visiting their children, also for the holiday, and a couple of “crazy”—her mom’s word—people for whom spending a cold weekend camping in the wilds of Montana was their dream vacation.
“Why’s Levi driving your car?” her mom asked as she climbed into the passenger seat beside Levi. “Not that I mind you driving,” she said, leaning over and patting his leg, as if to reassure them both, “but Mina has always been very independent.”
“I’m still independent, Mom. But I’ve been tired, recently.” She put all the excitement she’d felt at seeing them in the airport into that sentence, and still it came out halfhearted to her ears. When she smiled—to cover up the frailness in her voice—that came out weak, too. “Dinner is split-pea soup with smoked turkey, and that will make everyone feel better.”
And it did. Mostly. Though Mina went to bed almost immediately after dinner, leaving Levi to entertain her parents with information about Montana and Missoula.
* * *
“SHE SEEMS MORE tired than normal,” Peg Clements said to Levi as Mina dragged herself up her stairs to her bedroom.
“She’s been working a lot,” he responded, brushing off Peg’s concerns as easily as Mina had brushed his off over the past month. Because Mina had brushed off his concerns. She’d bristled every time he’d mentioned how tired she seemed and how busy she was. Mina didn’t want him to worry; and, every time she spoke on the phone with her mother, she complained that her parents worried too much, so he’d tried not to add to it.
