Page 3 of Promised Summer
Karla hesitated, her small head tilted up at me, and sparkling blue eyes filled with questions. I swept back the flyaway hairs out of her face. Even after these few months together, I still couldn’t master the art of doing hair.
“Let’s go see your new room?” I asked, and after a second, she gave me a small nod.
She slid back to her feet and took my hand. It was giant compared to her tiny one, but her grip was surprisingly strong as we followed my mom inside our new home.
“Your gigi is taking her afternoon nap, so we’ll say hi to her later, okay? She’s going to want to meet your cute little puppy,” Mom said with a wink.
Karla looked beyond pleased at the compliment to Puppy, and she held her dog plushie even tighter. Kassy had taken Karla to make the plushie on her birthday last year, and Karla had been obsessed with it and named it Puppy. She became even more attached to the plushie after her mother passed four months ago.
We followed Mom down the hallway to the first door on the left. She paused with her hand on the doorknob, another infectious smile on her face, when she asked, “Are you ready?”
Karla must have already been quite taken with my mom since she didn’t even look at me this time. She seriously considered the question, her face squishing cutely, before nodding again.
Mom’s smile softened, and she opened the door to let Karla and me inside. The entire room was painted a pale yellow color. It was Karla’s favorite color because it was the color of Puppy’s fur. All sorts of yellow flowers were scattered around the room, creating a field that stirred up a long-forgotten memory ofmine.
A hot summer, playing in the mountains and watching the golden sunset across the field of yellow flowers. A boy, turned man, who had my heart fluttering in a way I couldn’t understand back then, but it was too late to comprehend now.
Like I’d said. A long-forgotten memory.
Karla turned slowly, looking around the room, her big eyes taking it all in. The yellow wall, yellow flowers, big yellow sun in a corner of the room, and the stick on glow-in-the-dark stars pasted all over the ceiling. All the yellow should have been too much, too overwhelming, but somehow it wasn’t.
Karla did one more slow turn around before her eyes landed on the toddler bed pushed to one side of the room with the white comforter that had cute drawings of puppies all over it. Mom was going to win the best grandmother award.
She looked at the comforter longingly before turning to me with clear hesitation.
“Go on,” I said with a gentle nudge. “It’s your new bed.”
She took slow, slightly wobbly steps toward her new bed. Her tiny palm made a smooth slide over the comforter. She moved like she was petting one of the cartoon dogs, and a beautiful giggle filled the room.
It had been too long since I last heard Karla’s laugh that a soft emotion threatened to bulldoze through me. And fucking hell, someone was cutting onions in here.
Mom placed a hand on my shoulder, her browfurrowed in concern. I just shook my head and pulled her into a tight hug.
“Thank you. You didn’t have to do all this,” I said when the hug broke. “We’ll only be staying here for a little while, just until we can find our own place.”
Mom placed an authoritative hand on her hip. “Now, Ryan Malcolm Edgson, you better not think my little baby won’t be spending the night here even after you find a place of your own. She needs her own space here.”
I freaking loved this amazing woman, even if she did just middle name me.
“I’m sorry we weren’t able to fit a bigger bed in here for you,” Mom added and waved to where a twin-sized bed was tucked against the innermost wall of the room.
I laughed and shook my head. My six-foot-one self was going to be cramped on the twin mattress, but I was willing to sleep on the floor if it allowed Karla to have a place where she felt safe and happy.
“I’m already more thankful than you can imagine,” I replied. “Thank you, Mom. Really.”
Mom smiled and patted my chest. The action was filled with so much love that she didn’t even have to voice it.
“Oh! And if you want privacy, we have this partition here.” Mom opened said partition to show me. It was faded from the years but still in good shape.
“When Russell and his kids next door heard we were in need of one, they came over right away withtheirs. Such good people, they are. You haven’t met them yet, have you? His grandson recently moved back to town to help his sister and her newborn son. Such a cute boy he is. The baby. Well, Sam too. I’ll bring you two over to see them later,” she rambled.
“That sounds good, but let’s unpack the car first,” I said with a laugh, flinging an arm around her shoulder. My mom really was the best, but she wastheworst gossip. If I let her, she’d tell me the history of every single one of her neighbors without running out of breath.
“All right, all right. You don’t want to hear all the amazing intel I have on our townsfolk,” Mom said with a dramatic roll of her eyes.
I laughed as we collected Karla to return to the car and started unloading the trunk. It took a couple of trips, but we eventually got everything inside just in time for dinner.
“And son,” Mom said, turning around with the last box in hand. “I’m so happy you and Karla are home.”
