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“And I don’t think anyone else would work in exchange for clothing and movie nights.”
“Probably not.” I cleaned up the countertop, stacking my tools to return to the garage. “Ready to go?”
She nodded and then pressed the heel of her palm to her forehead. “Crap. I forgot to bake a side dish. I said I’d do that, didn’t I?”
I laughed. “I knew you forgot.”
“You were supposed to remind me!”
“I did. Yesterday.”
“You know I can’t keep anything in my head that long. I needed a reminder today.”
“I cooked a side dish, just in case,” I said. I pressed my hand to the small of her back, stopping to grab the casserole out of the microwave before moving her to the front door.
“But your mom will know!”
“You left a dish at my house,” I admitted. “I used that.”
She gaped at me. “So smart! How did you get so smart? What did I bake?”
“Potatoes Au gratin.”
“That even sounds like something I’d cook,” she said, her smile contagious.
We walked across the street to my parents’ house. I didn’t bother knocking, opening up the side door into the kitchen.
“Hey, Mom,” I greeted her backside as she pulled a ham out of the oven. She set the dish on the oven and shucked off her oven mitts.
“My babies!” She pulled us into a messy embrace, tears smudging her makeup and probably ruining Thea’s dress. “I can’t believe I had to miss your birthday! I missed you both so much!”
She didn’t “have to” miss our birthday, but the cross-country road trip had been years in the making. They’d planned the trip for after the holidays and to escape New England for at least a month during the depths of winter. Hard to blame them after a lifetime of snowstorms.
“We missed you and bought so many presents. Your father finally told me to cut it out, but then I found a fabric store and, well, I might have gone a little overboard.”
I craned my neck over her into the dining room, spotting the mound of presents taking over the corner of the room. Dad claimed she’d always showered everyone with gifts, even before Thea’s mom died. Afterward, though, the gifts and trips and attention doubled, tripled even.
“We don’t need anything. We’re just so happy to have you back,” Thea gushed. “And I want to see more pictures.”
I suppressed a groan. “Or you could just tell us a couple of stories over dinner?”
“Thea showed me how to hook up my phone right to the TV,” my dad said, joining us in the kitchen. He gave Thea a giant hug before patting my back. “Good to see you, kiddo.”
I smiled at my father, more than ever tracking the similarities between us: dark brown eyes, tall, lanky build, faint hint of a mountain accent that made our R’s disappear. I’d never really considered our similarities growing up, but as I careened through my twenties, I gauged my progress based on him more and more. And rapidly falling behind.
Like Thea, this latest birthday just highlighted how far I’d drifted. Sure, my dad had never touched the trading post back when it belonged to my grandparents. He’d gone to a coastal school for his teaching degree, returning to Franklin Notch to marry my mother and start a family. A smaller family than they imagined, but a happy one, nonetheless.
“How’d the RV hold up?” I asked.
Thea had fielded most of the phone calls from my parents while they traveled. My father and I weren’t really talkers, so my mom called Thea when they were away. Thea, in turn, told me all the pertinent information: when they’d be home, whether they were having fun, and how bad my dad hated traveling.
“Good. Finally figured out how to turn the damn thing around. Your mother was about to kick me out and find a new co-driver.”
“I only threatened you a few times. And I only meant it in Colorado.” Mom shook her head. “Those mountains are no joke. I told your father he had to get over his fear of driving the thing so I could get a nap or we weren’t going past the Rockies.”
“So, did you kick him out?” Thea poured us both a glass of wine, handing me mine and sitting at the breakfast bar while my parents finished cooking.
“I met a nice trucker at a diner we stopped for dinner at who was looking for a co-pilot and suddenly Tim was super interested in driving the RV. I didn’t want your birthday surprise to be finding out that I’d left your dad for a man with a tattoo that said ‘Easy Rider’ on his knuckles.”
