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been renovated since then, but the carpeted floors and outdated kitchen
never bothered Romi’s mom. She made it perfectly homey. Romi didn’t like
pink stucco exterior, but she would never tell her parents that it would have
been better done in gray or white or something. She supposed that her
mom’s flower gardens, which bracketed the small front porch, traced each
side of the driveway, and swirled around in a kidney-shaped structure in the
middle of the small patch of grass, made up for the dusty rose of the house
itself.
“Romi!” Her mother, Deb, pulled her into a furious bear hug the second
Romi stepped into the house. She still rang the bell, because she always had
and always would. The house wasn’t the one she grew up in, and while she
didn’t feel like a stranger, she did think knocking was appropriate.
“Hey, Mom.” Romi’s voice came out muffled against her mother’s chest.
Her mom was pretty much built like a stick. Between her mom and her dad,
Romi wasn’t sure who she got her height from. Her mom might be slight,
but her bear hugs were the real deal, and Romi was nearly stifled.
“Oh my god, your feet! What happened?” Deb gasped as soon as she
pulled back.
Romi dropped her eyes to her feet. “It was a work incident. I wore some
hiking boots that didn’t exactly fit right. Without socks. For a few hours. It
wasn’t great.”
“I can see that! It looks like you stuck them under a running lawn
mower!”
“Mom! It’s not that bad. Come on.” Romi inhaled deeply, desperate to
change the subject because she didn’t want to talk about work. Or Kiera.
Her family was like a pack of bloodhounds and she didn’t want to have to
fend off a bunch of questions that she had no answers for. “That smells
really good. Chicken?”
“Chicken, pork, steak, you name it. Your father went all out since
everyone was coming.”
