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“It was a pleasant day. How was yours?”
For all of two seconds, I considered telling her about my day, but I didn’t want to waste good moments with her by sharing horrible things. Instead, I grinned at her. “It was a great day. I ran into an old friend.”
“You did? Did I know them?”
I dug around inside the box and grinned as I pulled out the photo album dedicated to one, Gregory Blaire. “Yep, you sure did.”
She blinked at the album I held out for her to see. “Oh, I remember that. You were madly in love with him in high school. He was a nice boy, and then he went away someplace, and he broke your heart. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes,” I replied as I moved the box and took a seat on the bed, patting the space next to me to invite her to join me. “He joined the military and went to war.”
She sat beside me, and I opened the album to the first page. I hadn’t looked at this in at least sixteen years, and the sight of us together on the front page stole my breath away.
“My, he is handsome, what was his name?”
“Gregory Blaire.”
My mother smiled at our photo. “Is this who you ran into today?”
“Yes, I ran into him while I was getting coffee today.”
Her eyes sparkled. “Tell me everything. Was Greg happy to see you? Is he still as handsome as he was? Did he give you butterflies in your stomach? I seemed to recall that he used to give you butterflies.”
I blinked back the tears that threatened to explode into my eyes. My mother could remember how Greg used to make me feel. To be able to share that with her again was a real gift.
“He did give me butterflies, and he is even more handsome now. He seemed taller, but not much, and his shoulders were wider. He has a beard now, not a heavy one, but one of those sexy scruffy ones.”
My mother put her hand on my arm. “Oh, I remember when your father would let his beard grow in; it was so sexy.” She lifted her eyes to mine. “Until it wasn’t.”
We both laughed at the memory of my father refusing to shave for six months and looking like a grizzly old man.
“So how is Greg? Was he visiting his parents? How are they?”
“No, Greg lives around here now. He retired from the military and came home to live here. He works in security or something, but I’m not too sure of the details. We didn’t get much of a chance to talk.”
She stared at me for a moment. “And his parents?”
“They passed, Mom. His mother had breast cancer many years ago, and his father passed a couple of years ago.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that. I think I remember them being nice people.” My mother had met them a couple of times when we were dating.
“They were nice people,” I echoed.
“Are you going to see him again?” She frowned. “Did you break up with him, or did he break up with you? I don’t recall the details.”
“He was going overseas and not sure how long he would be gone. He didn’t want me to wait for him or be tied down either.”
“Is he married now?”
I shook my head as I turned the page. “No, he’s never been married, and I don’t think he ever will be either.”
“Such a shame,” my mother said as she looked over the page with me. For a few minutes, we laughed about a couple of the pictures, and then as if someone had flipped a switch, my mother changed as I went to a new page of the album.
“Look at me in this picture; I was so thin back then, and my hair was so blond.” She pointed at one of the shots, but the image wasn’t her, it was me. I was in my bathing suit, and Gregory was holding me in his arms, getting ready to toss me in the pool at my friend’s house. I was clinging to his neck and laughing. I remember saying if I go in, you go too, and he had.
I swallowed the immediate lump that lodged in my throat. “Yes, it was.” I knew better than to say that it wasn’t her. We looked enough alike at that age that she was easily confused. If I tried to convince her that it was me and not her, it would only upset her.
For the next few minutes, we looked over the photos, and I treasured the memories that expanded in my mind with each photograph. When we were done, my mother made mention of the time and said that she needed to get dinner ready because Dad would be home soon.
