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“Luna!” Lo yelled, cursing under her breath. “If you don’t stop using the fence to stop your bike, I’m coming over there and taking it away from you. Unless you’re going to pay your own hospital bills?”
Luna’s bike had veered dramatically to the right, going into the fence, but at her mom’s words, she hopped off and turned it around, glaring at Lo as she did.
“I saw that, my child who I love so much but can’t protect against your own recklessness. You hear me? I’ll love you more if you’re all in one piece!”
Luna moved the bike to the gravel and hopped on it. She yelled over her shoulder, just before she tore off down the road, “Love you, Mom!”
I was at Lo’s side now, and she lowered her arm, sighing, “It’s karma coming back to kick me in the ass. I was just like her. Mom was ready to wring my neck at the same age.”
“Just at that age?”
Her eyes shifted to me, and she gave me a slight grin. “Touché.” She smoothed her hand down her pants. “Walk and talk?”
“Walk and talk.”
I dove right in as we started. “Friday night was a whirlwind. I should’ve texted you, let you know I was leaving, but Travis said he would tell you. I apologize for that, though I’m aware you checked my tracker four times, the last time after I got home.”
Her mouth tightened.
“And I didn’t call yesterday because I wanted a day of him to myself. I knew you’d be coming here today, and I was planning on telling you. I wasn’t trying to keep you out. I just wanted some time to myself. It wasn’t about you.”
That was my spiel, though I wasn’t apologizing. I was explaining. I eyed her as she was quiet for a few seconds.
A few more seconds.
And still more.
We’d walked a quarter of a mile, with Luna speeding past us twice, before Lo griped, “Goddammit. I can’t even be mad at you because you’ve twisted it to where now I have to apologize.” She gave me the side-eye. “I’m sorry for being self-centered.”
Luna chose that moment to zoom past us and overheard. “Mom! You’re self-centered? I’m telling Dad.”
Lo groaned. “That’s going to bite me in the ass too. Karma. Just karma.”
Luna was doing a circle around us and caught the tail end. “What’s karma, Mom?”
“It’s where everything you do will be done back to you.”
Luna braked suddenly and stood, lifting herself off the bike seat. “What?”
“Yeah.” Lo laughed. “Think on that, my beautiful one. How you treat others is the way others will treat you.”
She considered that before starting to pedal again. “Dad must’ve been a real good kid because everyone loves him.”
“Hey! What about your mother?”
Luna’s eyes twinkled. She had a little smirk on her face. “Everyone’s scared of you, so you must’ve been a scary kid. You know, back in the day. Like, a looong time ago.”
“Okay. We don’t need to talk about your mother’s age. I’m young at heart,” Lo countered. “You got that? I’m always young at heart. That’s the only age that matters.”
“Except when you’re telling us how ‘we’re going to understand when we’re older’,” Luna noted. “Then you’re all about how old you are, Mom.”
Some laughter escaped me as Luna used that as her parting shot and sped back to her sisters.
“We should’ve waited to take off her training wheels. She got her smart-aleck attitude when she got her freedom.” Lo gave me another side-eye glance, seeming to deflate. “You must like him.”
We were back to Brett. I nodded, smiling. “I do.”
She let out a dramatic sigh, shaking her head. “Then I’m going to have to give him a chance.”
