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“That was very sweet of Ivy to do.”
“I picked out the scents. It’s not sweet that I did it?”
“You’re lucky you’re still not on my shit list over the way this all went down.”
He sighed. “I figured.”
“What are you so worried about?” his mother asked quietly. “Do you think we’ll embarrass you?”
“Never.” He didn’t want his parents to ever think or worry that he didn’t think they were enough. “I told you some of her upbringing.”
“No, you didn’t,” his mother said.
“I didn’t?”
“No. Was it bad?”
He quickly explained about Ivy’s father’s job and how they traveled the world. That Ivy never felt she fit in anywhere and missed out on so much in life.
“It’s just different.”
“It is. But it seems to me that though she is younger than you she has a better appreciation of the important things in life. More so than many of her generation.”
“Yeah,” he said. “She does.”
“And that scares you,” his mother said. “Don’t let it.”
“What can I bring out?” he asked. No way he was having a heart-to-heart with his mother while Ivy was in the other room. It’s bad enough they were whispering and he felt that was rude.
“I made all your favorites,” his mother said. “I’m just so thankful you’re okay and that everything worked out fine with your job.”
When it was all said and done he got recognition for his heroic efforts put in his personnel file. He hadn’t done it for that. He did it because it was his job and what many others would do.
“It seems as if a lot is working out the way it should,” he said.
His mother lifted her eyebrow at him, but he brushed it off. She was reading more into it.
He brought the snacks out to the dining room table. Stuffed sausage bread sliced on the cutting board like she always did. There were meats and cheeses on another dish and then fruit. More than enough snacks in his eyes.
“I’ve got pulled pork and chili cooking,” his mother said. “Easy dishes that you love and everyone will have plenty to take home.”
“You’re the best,” Brooks said. “Come and get some food,” he told Ivy.
She stood up with his siblings and came close to him to make a plate. “This is always the best part to me,” she said.
“What is?” his mother asked.
“Food. We moved so much and there were things I don’t even remember the names of. Some were good, some not so good. But my mother tried to keep things familiar for us with spices. I wondered how she did it and my sister Dahlia finally told me that my mother had spices shipped from America so that no matter what meat or protein we had, she could doctor it as close to the same as always.”
“That sounds like something my mother would do,” Raine said.
“Sometimes it’s the simple things that remind people what family is all about.”
“To me it’s just family,” Ivy said. “They get on your nerves. You get on theirs. But in the end, you still love and understand each other more than anyone else.”
“Amen,” his father said.
“Sometimes someone outside your family will understand you the best,” Brooks said. He wasn’t looking at anyone as he said that and realized there was dead silence. “What?”
