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My lips are about to touch his… “Cadie, sweet girl, is that you?” A voice I would know anywhere asks, causing Marrow and me to pull away from each other as if we’ve just had a bucket of cold water thrown on us.
In a way, we have. “Hi, Mom!” I squeak from both excitement and embarrassment. I turn to look at the screen and smile. “Hi, Daddy.”
“Baby girl, it’s so good to see you,” my dad sniffles, which we all ignore, he’s the emotional type at times. “I have missed you so much.”
My heart shatters and puts itself back together instantly, feeling more whole than ever before. “I’ve missed you guys too, so freaking much,” I hiccup through my tears.
My mother shakes her head and tsks at me. “Darling girl, what have I always told you? If you are going to curse, go for the gold, we don’t do anything half assed in this family,” my mother says in a prim and proper voice that hides the fact she could make grown men blush with her vocabulary.
Marrow starts chuckling beside me, I’ve somehow forgotten he was here, making me look up at him with a sheepish smile. “Mom’s vocabulary is quite colorful.” I give a tiny shrug.
“She cusses more than a drunken sailor home on leave.” My dad shakes his head, his eyes filled with love as he looks at my mom.
Marrow looks at me, his eyes filled with mirth and a warmth I can’t place, or just don’t want to right now. “She’d fit in well around here. Dee would love her,” he states and he isn’t wrong. I think that’s why Dee has always put me at ease when it’s the opposite for most people, because she reminds me of my mother. He’s right, they’d get along a little too well honestly.
“And who is this handsome young man standing next to you?” My mom’s eyes light with interest. Good grief, it isn’t like I’ve been hiding from a man or anything.
“This is Marrow,” I say at the same time he goes, “I’m Jacob, ma’am.” We both look at each other for a moment.
“Nice job, Sweetheart. Much better than Dominic the dick,” my mother states making me blush and stutter.
My dad just nods his head approvingly. “Yes, he looks like he could crush that pissant with his bare hands.”
I look up at Marrow and see that he looks like he’s two seconds away from losing his shit and falling to the ground laughing. I look back at the computer screen and grit my teeth at my loving and well-meaning parents. “Mom, Dad, have you forgotten why I haven’t been able to see you?”
My mother narrows her eyes letting me know to brace myself for what she’s about to say. “Cadence, dear, just because you are running from one man, doesn’t mean that you can’t run into the open arms of a very large man who could squish that other one like a bug.” She looks over at Marrow before looking back at me. “Besides, he’s the reason I’m actually getting to see your beautiful face. He has my vote. Any man who will give you your life and family back is all right with me.”
“Me too,” my dad chimes in unhelpfully.
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Has it occurred to either one of you that he may just be a nice man that wanted to help me? That he may not have any interest in me at all?”
My dad gives me a smirk, making his weathered, yet handsome face look downright mischievous. “Sweet girl, considering what we saw when the screen turned on,” my face is probably redder than a damn lobster, “I would say that line of bullshit you just fed us couldn’t be further from the truth.”
“Has it occurred to you both to act your age and not curse so much?” Distract, distract, distract dammit.
My mother primly places her hands in her lap. Oh boy. “Cadie, what the hell is the point of getting to our age and not saying whatever the hell we want? That’s one of the only benefits of being old. Getting to say what you please and no one being able to say a damn thing about it. There are not many perks in getting old, so stop trying to piss in my Cheerios, thank you very much.”
Marrow loses his battle and starts laughing, full on belly laughs so deep the floor around us begins to vibrate. I can feel myself shaking in the chair as he continues to laugh.
I swear, I love my parents more than anything in the world, but they have absolutely no filter. At their age, I suppose they don’t really need to. They’re way over the need to impress anyone so that they like them. My parents have had their core group of friends for as long as I can remember and that’s all they care about, though, their friends are just as bad as they are.
“Ah, Shit, Darlin’,” Marrow says while wiping his eyes, “you need to make sure they come and visit. I can’t wait to see what trouble they could get in, especially if they joined with Dee.” His dark chuckle makes other parts of me vibrate that are completely inappropriate considering my parents are looking at me. “Hell, I’ll even post bail for all of them.”
I give him a frown and try to make my voice as stern as possible. “That is exactly why they will not be hanging out with Dee,” I sniff while sitting straight as a board. “I have no need to see my parents on the show COPS.”
My mother claps her hands and I try to give her a fierce glare that does nothing. “Excellent. I absolutely want to meet her.” She gives me a questioning look. “Is this the woman you were talking about whom everyone is afraid.”
“Yes,” I hiss through gritted teeth. I’m going to kill Marrow for bringing up her name.
My mother nods her head with a serene smile on her face. “Yes, I’m sure we’ll be fast friends. I must thank her for being so kind to you all this time as well.”
I see Marrow’s head swivel to me. “I didn’t know that you knew Dee well.”
I give him a wry smile. “About a year now. She kind of showed up one day like a whirlwind and forced her way into my life. By the time I realized what she was doing, it was too late; she was fully a part of my life,” I say with a groan, but truthfully, I am beyond thankful for her and her crazy antics. She filled a void for me when I needed it the most. I’ll never be able to repay her for her kindness, even if she would never let me.
“Which is why I plan to thank the wonderful woman properly for taking such good care of my baby girl. People like that are rare in this world today.” My mother sniffles before composing herself and putting on a wicked grin. Dear Lord, please help me. “Now,” she eyes me and Marrow with a mischievous grin on her amazingly wrinkle-free face, “when do your father and I get to meet this hunky man in person? We need to see if he’s asbigin person as he seems on the screen.”
I can hear Marrow choking, and I turn about a hundred shades of red, probably ending up on purple. “MOM!” Kill me now. I really need to find that cave.
