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“Addiction is hereditary, so you only have yourself to blame,” she quips, peering at me through the steam.
“So is incontinence. Have fun with that when you’re older,” I tease, and she rolls her eyes.
“Something to look forward to, thanks,” Noelle replies sarcastically.
Stopping for a moment, I take in my kid who is just on the verge of no longer being a kid. Somewhere along the years her face has lost its roundness, and now has a sharper edge. She’s always liked her hair long and refused to let me cut it. Anytime she dresses up, she looks much older than seventeen which worries me, but Noelle has developed a sharp tongue and a quick wit.
Reaching out to touch her dark waves, I ask, “How did you get to be so beautiful?”
“I take after my mama,” she says sweetly, batting her eyelashes dramatically which makes me laugh.
“You’re staring at me with that sappy way that says you’re thinking about me leaving home for college, again,” Noelle teases, moving out of my grasp.
I love her sharp tongue and quick wit – but not when it’s directed at me.
Putting my hand on my hip, I say, “You don’t know everything.”
She gives me a disbelieving look and I tell her, “I can look at you any way I want. I made you, kid.” Raising a challenging eyebrow, I grab my keys from the hook by the kitchen door.
“Are you gonna look at me like that for a whole year?” she asks, jumping down from the chair and dumping her leftover coffee in the sink.
“If I want to.”
She sticks her tongue out at me while I check to make sure I have everything.
“I forgot the present,” I say, and in my haste, I catch my heel in the damaged tile, almost face planting, but managing to grab onto the edge of the counter just in time to save myself from a hip replacement.
“Shit!” I gasp.
“I’ll get it,” Noelle says, running past me down the hallway. “Where is it?” she calls over her shoulder.
“In my office,” I yell back, checking to make sure my heel isn’t damaged. Noelle reappears into the hall with the black and gold wrapped wedding present.
“Miles wrapped this, didn’t he?” Noelle asks as she turns it around in her hands, inspecting it.
Taking the present from her, I admit, “Of course he did. If I wrapped it, it would look like a toddler tapped it together.”
“Does that mean Miles wraps my Christmas presents?” Noelle asks, horrified.
Shutting my mouth, I look away guiltily. “Hurry up, we’ll be late,” I order to deflect the question.
We head towards the garage, and Noelle says, “By the way, I thought we were getting new flooring.”
“We are,” I reassure her. “I haven’t had time to find someone yet,” I admit, “although I’m putting it at the top of my list now.” I lift my heel again, re-checking for damage.
“You said that the last time you almost bit the dust,” she teases.
“Well, if someone hadn’t ruined the tile by roller skating through the house nonstop when they were younger…” I tease and look at her pointedly. The large open floorplan was just begging to be turned into a roller derby rink, especially with the pillar in the middle where she would launch herself off of to make a figure eight through the house.
“You never told me to stop!” she argues.
“How could I when you were so goddamn cute in those lighted skates and a tutu?” I justify, grabbing her cheek as she pulls away, clearly annoyed with me.
Laughing, I lock the garage door behind me.
Noelle hits the opener and looks at me with a megawatt smile, blinking those big blue eyes of hers. “You lookreallypretty,” she compliments me, but I’ve been raising this kid for seventeen years and my radar just pinged.
“What do you want?” I ask hesitantly as I place a hand on my hip, because she knows I have a hard time saying no to her.
