Page 1 of Ask Your Mom If I'm Real

Part One

DIXIE + MARY

Chapter

One

We’re going to be an epic love story.

—Mary to Dixie

DIXIE

Present

Everything hurt.

Then again, that was pretty normal when you were the age that I was.

“Papaw.”

I looked over at my usually quiet grandson and sighed. “Bayou. I’m fine.”

Bayou looked at me skeptically. “You’re not fine.”

I would’ve pinched the bridge of my nose had my arthritic fingers not hurt so bad.

That was the bitch of getting old. Things stopped working like they used to.

But here was my thinking on the matter, the older and more uncomfortable I got, the closer I was to dying.

I wasn’t wishing my life away.

I loved my life.

I loved seeing the kids grow up and become one of the best accomplishments of my life.

I had four children, ten grandchildren, and thirty great-grandchildren.

Mary and I couldn’t have done any better.

And, like it always did when I thought of her, my heart started to ache.

She was my reason for continuing on with this life.

I just knew when we met up again, if I hadn’t given it my all, she would’ve had my ass.

And though I would’ve loved her having my ass when we first saw each other—because her temper was one of the things that I missed the most—I wanted her hug more.

God, I missed those hugs.

I missed the way she used to run her fingers through my hair.

I missed the way she used to hug me tight when we rode on my bike.

I missed the way I used to find her hair on my clothes.

Hell, even years after she died, I still found the stray hair or two inside a shirt sleeve, or buried deep into a blanket I hadn’t used for a year.

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