Page 29 of A Game-Changing Christmas

Adeline arched a brow with a smug look on her face, lifting her full head of jet-black hair as she looked at her daughter. Seeing her mother’s aging eyes narrowed on her, Claudia knew she was about to get a mouthful.

“I said I’m not getting in that. You won’t have me in the middle of freezing to death when the streets become impassable. I remember a few years ago when it snowed, and cars were sliding, trucks were stuck, and we had to navigate the streets like playing one of those crazy video games I see those young fellas playing in the movie theaters.” Adeline shook her head, and her glasses slid down her nose. “No, thank you.”

“Do you remember who got us out of that mess?”

Adeline twisted her lips. “You did good, I can admit, but that don’t mean I want to repeat it.”

“Come on, Ma, it’s going to only take me a few minutes to get what I came for.”

“Which was what exactly? Rarely do you pull me out of the house to hang out.” Adeline shifted in her seat with a slight pucker to her lips. “But you don’t hear me complaining.”

On the contrary, that was exactly what Adeline was doing. Claudia traipsed to the front of the bench and sat down next to her mother. She crossed her legs and adjusted the denim of her jeans and linked her fingers together in her lap.

Eyeing her mother head-on wasn’t easy since Adeline was avoiding her contact.

“Mom, you know, if you ever want to go somewhere, all you have to do is say the word.”

“Or you could offer to take me somewhere,” Adeline passed back.

“True.”

“But what?” Adeline said assuming there was more.

Claudia smirked. “I didn’t know you wanted to get out. You seem to complain a lot when we’re out. Like now. We’ve been in this store for thirty minutes before you decided you were ready to go.”

“It’s not that I’m ready to go home, but my ankles get swollen when I’m on my feet too long, so I have to sit down.”

Claudia thought for a minute if she should leave well enough alone instead of speaking the real truth to her mother.

“Why don’t you try and walk with your cane? You carry it instead of using it for what it was meant for.”

“I don’t need this thing. Y’all make me carry it.”

“Okay, let’s try this on for size. Why don’t you alternate. Walk a little ways without your cane and walk a little ways with it. You may be surprised of the pressure you’ll relieve if you just give it a chance.”

Adeline huffed. “I’m not that old of a woman, you know.”

Claudia lifted her shoulders and angled her head at Adeline.

“Mom, nobody thinks you’re a dinosaur. Is that what you think?”

Adeline cut her eyes between Claudia and the window. “Well.”

Claudia pulled her mother in for a hug. “What does Dad think,” she whispered in her ear.

Claudia’s mother and father had reunited after being separated for ten years. After thinking she’d never see him again, Clifford Stevens came back in her, Claudia’s and her sister Desiree’s lives, and they’d been repairing their broken relationship ever since.

Adeline and Clifford grew closer in the span of the last twelve months, and Adeline still wondered if her daughters knew Clifford spent the night from time to time. No one ever said anything about it, and neither had she.

Adeline’s cheeks warmed as she blushed from the mention of her old now new flame.

“Why are you asking me that? I don’t know.”

Claudia leaned back and pierced an eye at her mother. “You don’t know?”

Adeline avoided Claudia’s eye contact. “Are we going to get what we came here for or not? You said it yourself, we can leave before it gets bad if we hurry.”

Adeline shook Claudia off her, and Claudia gawked and drew back.

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