AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Hello, Mother. To what do I owe this pleasure?” I try to keep the sarcasm out of my voice but fail miserably.
“Why have you been ignoring my phone calls?”
“I’ve been really busy at work. We have a recruit reporting for duty soon, and I need to get all the training material and everything together for them to start next week. And with Waylen on leave for his honeymoon, we’ve been swamped.”
I’m a horrible liar, have been ever since I was a kid. That’s why I went with something that was as close to the truth as possible. There is a recruit coming who I have to train, and we have indeed been swamped since Waylen got married. She just doesn’t have to know that all these changes in plans only happened two minutes ago instead of the two weeks I’ve been ignoring her.
“Save it. You’ve been ignoring me because you didn’t want me to find out that Finn Buckley has been sending you secret notes and lunches for the last two weeks.”
Damn. Busted.
“No, Momma. R-really—” I stammer before she cuts me off.
“Save it for someone who doesn’t know you. How do you think he knew that fried green tomatoes are your favorite? But that’s not why I’m calling. Your father and I would love for you to come over for dinner tonight. I’m making chicken and dumplings.”
“You play dirty, Momma.”
“I have to if I want to see my daughter for more than a few hours at church.” She laughs loudly. “I already talked to Dolores, and she said you get off at five today. I expect you to come right to the house. Dinner is at five-thirty.”
“See you then. Love you, Momma.”
“Love you, too, sweetheart,” she responds as I hang up the phone.
“Sorry!” Dolores pops her head back into the room as if nothing happened. That’s one of the many things I like about her; she rolls with the punches. “She promised muffins for the weekend shift next week if I told her.”
“I understand. She’s also making me some chicken and dumplings.”
“I don’t think I could convince you to bring me some, could I?”
“You think right. Only one bribe per transaction. Now, get back to work.” I chuckle as she flashes me a bright smile and disappears, pulling my door shut behind her.
I work for the next few hours, focusing on getting the last bit of my paperwork done before diving into organizing the training material for next week. I have plenty of time, but I hate waiting till the last minute. You never know when life is going to throw you a curve ball. Thankfully, I manage to get most of it organized, but when I log in to our personnel server, I can’t seem to find any information on the recruit coming next week.
“That’s strange,” I mumble to myself before logging out of the system for the night and heading out of the office.
“Enjoy dinner at your mom’s place tonight,” Dolores says as I head toward her desk from my office.
“I’ll try. She probably wants to give me a hard time, wanting to know when I’m going to settle down and give her grandbabies.”
“Ha. Has she not met you?” She laughs loudly. “She has a better chance of getting grandbabies from Sutton than you.”
“I know! That’s what I keep telling her,” I respond before stopping in front of her desk. “I tried to get the paperwork set up for the recruit coming next week and couldn’t find it. Can you remember to ask Colt to put his information in when he gets a moment?”
“No problem. He’s on a phone call with an officer from Birch Cove right now, and he’s off tomorrow, but I’ll write myself a note so I don’t forget to ask.”
“Thanks, Dolores.” I wave goodbye to her before heading out the door to my SUV.
It doesn’t take long for me to make my way to my parents’ house on the other side of town. My parents have lived in the same house all my life—a few streets over from the Buckleys, in a charming ranch-style home that sits on nearly an acre of property in a cul-de-sac and has a huge backyard.
“Here goes nothing,” I mumble to myself as I pull into the driveway and shut off my SUV.
This dinner with my parents is going to go one of two ways: Either my mom is going to nitpick at me for every little thing until I end up storming out of the house, or she wants to tell me something and isn’t sure how I’m going to react.
I love my parents, and I know they love me, but sometimes, my mom doesn’t do the best job at showing it. It’s one of the many downfalls of being the youngest child. People say that being the youngest child means your parents go easier on you and spoil you rotten, but those people are probably older siblings. Sure, I got away with murder when it came to my dad, but my mom was a different story. She was a little lenient with me when I was younger, but now, it seems as if I’m constantly living in my sister’s shadow. My mother is constantly comparing the two of us, wanting to know why I don’t have X, Y, or Z like my sister. Most people would just ignore their phone calls, only dealing with those nagging family members when it’s unavoidable, but it’s almost impossible for me. My parents know where I work, all my friends, and have a key to my apartment.
“Hello, sweetheart,” my mother says as I walk into the house, closing the door behind me.
“Hey, Momma.” I give her a kiss on the cheek as she walks past me into the dining room. I turn to the right and see the table set to perfection.
