Page 60 of Choosing You

“Yeah. That. I need to practice that. Can you show me again?”

His smile grows. He puts his arms around me. I do the same to him.

“Tighter,” he instructs.

I squeeze tighter, resting my head against his chest. We stay in that position for several minutes, the blue lights twinkling above us. As he starts to pull away, he stops briefly to kiss my forehead, then whispers in my ear, “Thank you.”

Yes! I finally did it. I comforted someone. And it felt incredibly good.

* * *

The next morning,we meet for breakfast again for week two of our Al’s Pancake House tradition. This time I order blueberry pancakes.

“I don’t know what Al puts in these things but they are beyond amazing,” I say, chewing slowly to make each bite last.

“I know, right?” Garret ordered the basic buttermilk ones this time, also an excellent choice. “Are you going to write about these in your English journal again?”

I laugh. “Yeah. Why? You don’t like reading about pancakes?”

“It could get old by the end of the semester. And I think you’re going to run out of things to say.”

“Never.” I close my eyes, savoring them. “These are so good that this week I might even make up a poem about them.”

“Well, that’s something to look forward to,” he kids. “You really like pancakes, don’t you?”

“What’s not to love? They’re basically a dessert but you get to eat them as a meal in giant stacks.”

“You’re funny.” He takes a drink of his orange juice. “My mom used to love pancakes, too.”

I almost choke hearing him mention his mom. I didn’t think he’d want to talk about her again after last night.

“Katherine, my wicked stepmother, can’t stand pancakes. She says it’s poor people food. She won’t even let Lilly have them.”

“Lilly is your sister?” It seems odd that I don’t know this by now, but we’ve both avoided talking about our families.

“Yeah. She’s Katherine’s daughter. And my dad’s. So she’s my half sister. Really sweet kid. Not at all like her mother.”

“So Katherine’s your dad’s second wife?” I know she’s the third but I’d rather let him correct me than try to guess how all these wives fit in relation to his mother.

“Third wife. My mom was his second. His first wife was kind of an arranged marriage so it doesn’t really count.”

“Arranged marriage?”

“My dad was only 22 and his parents made him marry this girl because her family was super rich and connected. Shocking, right? So they got married like they were supposed to, but it didn’t last. The woman didn’t want to marry my dad either so it was doomed from the start.”

“And then he met your mom?”

“A few years later. Her family didn’t have money and definitely didn’t have any connections so my grandparents got really mad when my dad married her. They even took him out of their will. And my grandfather fired him from the company. But they softened up after I was born. You know, first grandson and all. The grandparents wanted to be involved in my life so they reconciled with my dad, but they still didn’t welcome my mom.”

“What was she like? Your mom?” I’m not sure if I should even be asking him that but the words just came out.

“She was funny. She laughed a lot. She liked to play music really loud and drive my dad crazy.” He smiles. “She loved to give hugs.”

“So that’s where you learned it from.”

“Yeah. I really miss her.” It’s almost like I can feel his loss from across the table. “I know if she was still around, my dad wouldn’t be the way that he is now. He totally changed after she died. He became a different person. And he got even worse after he married Katherine.”

The waitress brings the check. I give her an annoyed look for interrupting us even though the woman is only doing her job.

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