Page 12 of Sunsets & Slow Dances

Buzz ate the same thing every day—Quaker Oats plain oatmeal with a dash of honey for breakfast. A peanut butter and banana sandwich for lunch. And chicken and veggies for dinner.Sometimes, for dessert, he’d have strawberry ice cream if my mom made it. But that was it. He never branched out; never tried new foods. It didn’t matter what else my mom cooked; that was all he ate. It didn’t matter if we went out to dinner; he ate before we left or when we got home.

His diet wasn’t the only thing that stayed consistent in his life. The man wore overalls and a t-shirt every day. Even to church. He had ‘church’ overalls, which were the ones without stains or holes in them. In my thirty-three years, I couldn’t remember a day I’d seen him dressed in anything else, not even at my dad’s funeral.

Out the bay window above the sink, I could see Buzz and Matty feeding the chickens with Bandit and Betty circling around them. Every day we’d been here, Matty had been getting up before dawn with Buzz. He loved working on the farm. It looked like he was already dressed for school.

“Did Matty eat?”

“Yep. I made him his favorite, blueberry pancakes. And his lunch is packed.” My mom motioned toward his backpack, which was sitting on the counter by the fridge.

“Thanks, Mom.”

Once I got the kids dropped off at school, I planned to come back and see what I could do to help Buzz. I’d been gone so long I hadn’t thought about him getting older and the fact that he’d need help around here. I should have hired someone. I’d been so focused on myself, my career, my family, and wanting to put this town and everything it represented in my rear view that I hadn’t taken care of the people in it that I loved.

“How was the cruise?” I walked over to the coffee pot.

“Good.” My mom dipped her chin in a nod.

Never in my life had my mom described anything in only one word. She was a talker. She overshared—never under shared. Our interaction may have only been a few minutes, but typicallythere wouldn’t have been a moment’s silence between us in that time. She would have filled it with a question, anecdote, observation, story… anything.

Something was off. I wondered if something had gone wrong or if maybe having Chloe here was affecting her more than she was letting on.

“Are you sure this is okay? Us staying here. I can get an Airbnb.”

Without skipping a beat, she grabbed a tea towel from the counter and swiftly swatted my arm with it. “Don’t you dare think about staying somewhere else and taking my grandbaby away from me.”

“I’m not.” I grinned as I rubbed the area she’d just struck, pretending it actually stung. “I just..” I lowered my voice. “You know, I don’t want it to be weird with Chloe being here.”

“Why would it be?” Her eyes lifted to mine. “That girl had nothing to do with anything that went on. And she just lost her mama. Plus, she’s half of your daddy. She’s family. This is where she should be. With family.”

I still couldn’t believe how well my mom was taking all this. Even though I knew that she’d known about Danielle and Chloe for a decade now, it still blew my mind that she’d handled the situation with so much grace. Even at the time, she’d never, not once, been mad at him. At least, not that she’d shown me. Although, in fairness, I left two days after finding out and hadn’t been back since.

If Chloe wasn’t what she was acting strange about, then it had to be something that happened on the cruise. I realized then that I hadn’t asked her too many questions about it. I’d just assumed that she’d gone with her two closest friends, but she never actually said that.

“So the cruise…” I poured coffee into my mug, then turned around and leaned against the counter. “Did you go with Shelly and Carol?”

“No, I was with just…you know, friends…a friend…you don’t know them.”

As she stumbled over her words, I noticed she was wearing a gold bracelet with a diamond on it that I’d never seen before. She’d been to visit over the summer, and she hadn’t worn it then.

“Did thatfriendgive you that bracelet?” I grinned.

She picked up the tea towel and swatted me with it once more. This time it actually did leave a little bit of a sting. I could see that she wasn’t ready to talk to me about her ‘friend’ yet, but I was happy that she was seeing someone. Or, at least, I was happy if he was a good guy who treated her right. If not, there would be problems.

“Does yourfriendknow that your son is an MMA light heavyweight world champion, and if he hurts you, he’ll be getting a visit from me?”

“Stop,” she warned, her brows lifting as she poked me in the chest with her finger, indicating she meant business. “Don’t.”

“What?” I lifted my hands, palms facing her in mock surrender.

“Sit down and eat your breakfast.”

“Yes ma’am.”

It was funny how quickly my mom could make me feel like a kid again. I couldn’t stop smiling as I crossed the kitchen and sat at the table. My butt had barely touched the seat when a plate filled with four strips of bacon, scrambled eggs, and two pieces of toast on it appeared in front of me. I’d never been a big breakfast eater, but I wasn’t going to argue with my mom about eating it. It was an argument I’d never won in my life, and I didn’t think I’d have any better luck now.

My mom continued preparing the bacon, dabbing it with paper towels before placing it on a separate plate. “So what’s your POA today?”

I didn’t know if she was speaking in riddles or if I was just too tired from all the life-altering events of the past few days. I’d found out I had been named as guardian to my thirteen-year-old sister, packed up in the span of one day, and driven across the country, only for her to run away on my first night of being responsible for her.

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