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After snagging her car keys from the dish on the table, Evie and Kendall disappear out the front door without so much as a wave. I watch them go, Evie’s hands flailing in the air as she bitches to Kendall about whatever has her on edge.
“She so much like you it’s ridiculous sometimes. I can almost predict her next move,” Mom says from behind me. When I turn, I find her drying her hands on a dish towel, her apron already around her waist. “Scrub in. We have food to make.”
“What? No hello, how are you? No, I missed you?” I tease as I follow her into the kitchen and turn on the faucet.
“Hello, Lo. Nice to see you. I missed you so much. Now, are you ready to work? Because this is going to take all day with those two not helping.”
“It’s not that much. Last year you did it alone,” I point out.
“No, last year I recruited Mary’s help, but her and Chris are out of town until tomorrow.”
Mary and Chris, Finn’s parents, have been best friends with my parents for as long as I can remember. Because they were always around, so were Finn and his younger brothers, Declan, and Micah. We all got along, the boys acting like my brothers and all three of them protecting me and Evie like the sister they never had.
Declan even tried to convince Max to trade one of us for Finn one year for Christmas. Said he would rather have a sister than an older brother who terrorized him. I volunteered Evie. Instead of trading his little sister for his best friend—something I was more than willing to do since I was ten and didn’t realize what was really happening—Max threatened Declan’s life. Something about cutting his hands off if he ever touched her. We all laughed, but I feel like the older we’ve gotten, the more serious Max’s threats have become. It’s probably a good thing Evie never showed any of those boys any interest.
“Will they be here?” I ask. Really, I want to ask if they’ll be witness to the announcement Finn and I plan on making.
“Yeah. They’re coming back tomorrow morning. It was a last-minute trip just to get away for the weekend.”
I’m not sure whether to be relieved they’ll be in attendance or upset. It means not having to go directly to them and make a statement. I love Chris and Mary. They’ve always been like second parents to me, and I don’t want to do anything to make them look at me differently. Will they be happy about this?
“Happy about what?” my mother asks as I turn the faucet off. She hands me the towel she was using to dry my hands, holding onto it as she waits for me to answer her.
“What?” I realize I’ve said the words out loud but maybe she’ll let it pass. Judging by the look of curiosity on her face the answer is no.
“What are you worried about telling the Grahams?”
“Uh,” I start, not sure if Finn would be okay with me telling my mom without him here. It’s not like I’m being given a choice, though. “So, you might want to sit down for a second.”
Finally releasing the towel, my mother turns her body back toward the counter, picking up a knife. Her eyes finally leave mine as she begins dicing the onion on the cutting board in front of her.
“I’m good standing right here, Willow. What’s going on?”
“Can you at least put down the knife?” I ask, not wanting her to cut herself.
“Talk,” she demands.
So, I do. I tell her everything. From falling in love with Finn when I was only a teenager to our night last summer, leaving out details I know no mother wants to hear from her daughter, right up until the last few weeks. How he’s helped me cope with the loss of Dad. That we’ve been sneaking around, lying to all our friends. Lying to Max. Mostly, how I’ve fallen head over heels in love with him.
The entire time I talk, my mother continues to chop her onion, moving on to dicing garlic, and finally cilantro. She nods her head in understanding from time to time, but her eyes never meet mine. And when I’m finished and she lays the knife down, I’m afraid of what I’ll see when she finally faces me.
Tears.
Lots of tears.
If she were still chopping the onion, I’d assume they were from that. I can’t seem to make it more than five seconds before the sting causes tears to well in my eyes most of the time. But that was at least fifteen minutes ago. These tears are fresh, not from the pungent smell of an onion.
“Baby,” she croaks out, opening her arms for me to wrap me in a hug. As soon as I step into her embrace, I relax. “I’m so happy for you. I always thought you two would end up together. So did your dad. He would be happy for you, you know that.”
“You’re only saying that because Dad knew Finn. I doubthappyis the word he would use right now. He’d say something sarcastic like, ‘I need to give that boy another talking to,’ or something.”
“Of course he would, and that talk would be scary for Finn but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t love Finn. We’ve always seen the way you two love each other. From the time you were little. The first time you two were in the same room together it was like you migrated toward each other and it’s been that way ever since.”
Has it really?I don’t remember the first time I met Finn, but I do feel the magnetic pull between us. I have for years.
“We’re done keeping it a secret. We’re planning on telling everyone tomorrow at the party. Figure it’s our best chance at keeping Max from killing Finn.”
“Don’t worry about your brother,” she says with confidence as she releases me from her hug. “He’ll be fine, in time. It might take him a minute to get used to the idea, but I guarantee he’s been mentally preparing for this for a long time. He’s not blind, Willow. He’s seen it, too, though the one time your dad tried to talk to him about it he denied it.”
“Really?”
My mom laughs, a true carefree laugh, for the first time since my dad passed. It’s like a knife straight to my heart. I’ve missed the sound of her laugh.
“Yeah, it went something like, ‘Did you know Finn’s in love with your sister?’” My mom imitating my father’s voice has me holding back a giggle of my own. “And Max said something about killing Finn and locking you in your room until you were thirty.”
“Wouldn’t that be Dad’s line?”
“You’d think, but your dad loved Finn. And he loved you. If Finn makes you happy that’s all that would have mattered to him. Believe me, all he ever wanted was to make sure his kids were happy. Everything else was icing on the cake.”
