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“Ah, so now you know how I feel. You worry for her, don’t you, honey?” Mom’s attitude sneaks out – the attitude she hides from polite company. Turning to Kit, she transforms back into Betty-fucking-Crocker. “Alright, well, you know everyone else here, so why don’t you take a seat with your lovely friend Casey, while Bobby and I get some drinks.”
Mom leads Kit to the couch next to Tink, grabs my arm with a fakeI’m an angelsmile, and steers me to the kitchen.
She’s no weak little housewife.
She’s sassy as shit and strong as an ox. Dropping me, and her sweet little act, as soon as we’re out of sight, she walks to the fridge and grabs beers and a bottle of white wine. Sitting them on the counter, she moves to the drawer and pulls out a bottle opener. I take it from her and start popping the caps off nervously.
Her silence is unnerving. The clink of wine glasses as she pulls them down sends my nerves into overload.
“Speak, Mom. Do you like her?” This is one of the most important questions I’ll ever ask her, and her silence has my gut churning sickly. “First impressions?”
She looks back at me with a wineglass in each hand and a smile on her lips. A real smile. The good kind. “Yeah honey, I like her. She’s very beautiful, and she seems lovely. And she certainly knows how to handle you boys,” she laughs. “The stuff about her parents is so tragic, but she’s handled it with grace and dignity. She doesn’t make a big deal about taking her brother in, she’s not looking for praise. She’s just taking care of business…” Walking toward me, she places the glasses on the counter and cups my cheek. “Taking care of business.I think she’s exactly right for you, plus,” she taps my nose, “you love her. How could I not?”
My breath rushes out in relief. Jesus, I didn’t even realize I was holding my breath. “That means a lot to me.” I hold my chest. “Can you feel that? I thought I was gonna die if you said you hated her.”
She looks at my hand, my chest, and sighs lovingly. “I would never. Even if I didn’t like the girl, I wouldn’t push her away. If you love her, then she holds the key to my son. I’m not gonna piss off the gatekeeper.” I shake my head at her use of ‘piss.’ She’sohhhhso proper in front of guests, but the rest of us know who she really is. “Okay, now tell me about Casey.” Her eyes light up. “Jon bringing her tonight – is that him announcing to the world they’re getting married? Is she cool? Are they an item? Does she love him back?”
I bark out a laugh. I swear, my mom knows everything. “Yes and no. He likes her, she likes him, but neither are admitting it. So, we’re just gonna wait them out for now. It’ll happen eventually. But yes, she’s really cool. She and Kit have been best friends since they were kids, both have wicked senses of humor. Casey – we call her Tink, so get onto that – Tink’s feisty as hell.” I stop and narrow my eyes. “She reminds me of a shorter version of you. Fuckin’ crazy.” She smacks my arm and steps away to hide her laugh. “But she’s cool. She’ll fit right in as soon as Jon takes his head out of his ass.”
“Okay well, we better hurry back or they’ll know we’re talking about them.” She pours three glasses of wine with a smile. “I imagine Kit made you promise not to leave her side tonight.”
“She did, but that only counted when you were in the room.” I meet my mom’s eyes. “She’s terrified of you, Mom. It’s not personal, and I know she’ll come around – especially if you drop the Suzie Homemaker shit and show her the real you. She’ll love the real you. But she’s terrified right now.”
“Oh, well…” Sadness washes over her face. “I’ll be the real me. I’ll let her know I love her. And I’ll make her comfortable in our family. Because she’s family now, isn’t she?”
I nod without hesitation. “She is. And Jack, too.”
She smiles and picks up the glasses of wine. “So, let’s go. I want to spend an evening getting to know my new daughter. Two of them. And another son who’ll keep me awake at night when he fights.”
Simple as that, they become one of us.
We spend a fun evening around the table, drinking, eating, and laughing. My mom cooked an amazing Irish stew with a side of fresh bread with some garlicky rosemary stuff on it. I doubt either myKincaid’s, nor Kit’sReilly’shave stepped foot in Ireland in at least two or three generations, but still, my mom outdoes herself with the food.
“You should’ve seen his face,” Jimmy laughs. He presses a hand to his heart dramatically. “Seriously. She’s up there going Hulk on that other chick, and he’s clutching at his chest and crying every time she took a hit. She was a beast, no way she needed help, but he was ready to jump in and carry her away.”
“Why on earth do you think that’s funny?” Mom scolds him. “Don’t think I don’t notice your own chest clutching during fights.” His face pales and his mouth flops silently like a guppy. “I’m your mother. I know everything about my family, so stop teasing your brother or you won’t get dessert.” She turns to Kit with a kind smile. “Did you enjoy yourself?”
Finally relaxing into the evening, her smile is breathtaking. “Yes, it was exhilarating. I was kinda terrified at first, but after she hit me and it didn’t hurt, well, it was just fun after that.”
Mom smirks knowingly. “Hurts a hell of a lot more the next day, huh?”
Kit laughs. “Yup. I was bruised all over by the next day. Especially on my arms and shin.Oneshin,” she snickers. “And mostly only one arm.”
“That just means you blocked well,” Mom laughs. “On one side, anyway. Bruises on your arms and legs is better than bruises on your head.”
Kit laughs and leans into me. “Definitely.”
“What would your dad think about you fighting?” Mom’s face blanches white at the sudden tension at the table. The anxiety comes from neither Kit nor Jack, but from me and my brothers. “Do you mind that I bring him up?” she rushes on. “I don’t want to ruin a perfectly good dinner by upsetting you.”
“Oh no, I don’t mind at all.” She smiles and glances at Jack. “His memory makes us smile. And ah, I’m not sure what he’d think. He never coddled me or treated me like a girl, you know?Anything a man can do, you could do better.”She smirks. “He said that to me a million times. He taught me every single thing he ever knew, because–”
“Anything a man can do, you could do better.”
Kit smiles at my mom. “Exactly. He taught me all the things that a woman should know how to do – just in case. I was changing tires and cleaning spark plugs by the time I was ten. Re-fitting a faucet and re-threading them soon after that. I watched him take out a car engine, pull it apart, and put it all back together again before high school. He sent me out into the big bad world with the ability to not be a little princess who needed a man.”
“You’ll always be my princess,” Jimmy smirks. “I’ll always be your man.” He smacks a piece of bread away when my mom tosses it at his head.
“Hush!”
