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“Mom,” Blaine said, shaking his head.
“She has no right to treat you like that.” She picked up the apple she’d been slicing and started hacking at it. “How dare she? Who does she think she is? Little Miss Rich and Famous?” She scoffed and dumped the unevenly sliced apples into the bowl with the others. “Please. That commercial she was in wasn’t even that good.”
She pinned Blaine with the sharpest look he’d ever seen—and Mom had been plenty upset when she’d found out Blaine had broken up with Alex in the first place.
“Tell me I’m wrong.”
Blaine shook his head. “You’re not wrong, but Mom—”
“I can’t believe her. And all this time, she said nothing to me about it. Did you know I sat beside her just three months ago at that equestrian military event? She even had the audacity to ask about you. If I’d have known, I’d have shoved that flute of champagne right down her throat.”
“Mother,” Blaine said, somewhat surprised, but not really. His mother carried fire in her spirit, and no one crossed her. “I’ve wanted to shove stuff down her throat too, I guess.”
She met his eye, and the two of them burst out laughing. As quickly as that started, her laughter morphed into tears and sobs, and Blaine stared at her in horror.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, gasping for breath. She rounded the island, and he stood to embrace her. She was easily a foot shorter than him, maybe fifteen or sixteen inches. But she carried such strength in her frame, and she held him with such love that Blaine’s eyes pricked with tears as his heart opened to his mom again.
“I should’ve asked you what was really going on,” she said. “I should’ve listened to you more. You’re a good man, Blaine, and even if she hadn’t cheated, and you just didn’t feel right about marrying her, that’s valid.”
Her shoulders shook for several long seconds, until she calmed and stepped away. She wiped at her eyes, and everything in Blaine’s head felt too hot.
“You’re smart, and you’re handsome.” She cradled his face in her hands and smiled fondly at him, her eyes watery again. “Out of that mess of boys, God gave me a son with a heart of gold, and a mind to know how to use it.”
“Mom,” Blaine said, because he sometimes hated his heart of gold. “I love you.”
Tears spilled down her face again, and her voice sounded pinched and tinny as she said, “I love you too, my precious boy.” She hugged him tightly again, and Blaine stood in her arms though he was much bigger than her, and felt all the cracked and jagged pieces inside him start to mend.
After another several seconds, she stepped past him and went to the sink. She washed her hands and splashed cold water on her face. She covered her face as she dried it with a towel, and then took deliberate seconds to dry between each finger.
With a big sigh, she turned to face him again. “Let me get the pie in, and then we can talk more about you and Tam.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Blaine said, though he sort of did. He hadn’t mentioned the relationship to anyone but Spur, but everyone had to know. Maybe they didn’t, though, as Blaine had dropped things in his life to go help Tam in the past.
“Okay,” Mom said, her voice pitched too high. “You can talk about whatever you want.” She finished the pie, and Blaine just watched as she laid the top pie crust she’d already prepared over the filling she’d mixed with butter, sugar, cinnamon, and salt.
With that in the oven, she took out a pan of sausage links, and one full of bacon. “Should I go see if Daddy can get up and join us?” She looked at Blaine for permission, and he gave it. She bustled off to do that, and Blaine snuck three or four pieces of bacon while she was gone.
Her phone started to ring just as he heard Daddy’s slow, thudding footsteps start to come down the hall.
Alex’s name sat on the screen, and shock traveled through Blaine. Had his mother texted her when he wasn’t looking? He dismissed the idea. He’d been watching her the whole time.
“Who is that, dear?” she called from the mouth of the hallway. She did not let go of Daddy, though, her devotion to him pure and strong. Blaine watched them for a step, then two, his desire to have a good, strong woman at his side when he was seventy-six-years-old growing and growing.
“It’s Alex,” he said, and Mom looked up quickly, her eyes widening.
“Don’t answer it,” she said as the last ring died.
“I wasn’t going to.”
“When I call her back…” Mom clicked her tongue and shook her head. “She better start prayin’ right now.”
“What’s this about?” Daddy asked, looking from Blaine to Mom.
“I can’t tell it again,” Blaine said. “Mom will fill you in.” He went around the island and retrieved the spatula again. “How many pieces of toast do you want, Daddy?”
* * *
Blaine pulledhis phone from his back pocket as it started to ring. Cayden’s name sat on the screen, and Blaine resisted the urge to break into a jog. “I know,” he said instead of hello. “I’m literally on my way.”
