Page 35 of Lines We Cross
“I take it your mother didn’t tell you about Skylar coming to dinner?”
I watched the two women through the doorway to the kitchen. They were either pouring wine or planning world domination. One could never really be sure.
“What would be the fun in telling me ahead of time?”
Dad chuckled and we walked to the dining room where we had a seat and I told him about the things around my new house that needed fixing. The wraparound porch was beautiful, but the wood was weathered. I’d need to sand it down and repaint. When Dad readily offered to come over and help me with the project, I realized something.
I’d missed this.
The sense of community. The way family dropped everything and came over to assist no matter the project. Whether I’d stayed away too long or not couldn’t be decided nor changed, so instead, I settled on simply enjoying that I was able to come home now.
“I hope you brought your appetites!” Mom entered the room with a huge platter of tri-tip, Rae right behind her with a bubbling casserole dish of Mom’s homemade mac ’n’ cheese. My mouth watered at the smell of the good ol’ fashioned food Mom was famous for. That same sense of bone-deep satisfaction hit me square in the chest again.
I looked over at Rae as she put the dish in the middle of the table and had a seat to my left. Her auburn hair was soft around her face. The blue shirt and black jeans she had on only added to her beauty. When we were kids I remembered she refused to wear red. Said it clashed with her hair. I wondered if she still felt that way. I wondered a lot of things about the adult Rae. If she’d let me, I’d find out every little thing about her.
“Max?” Mom’s voice pierced through my thoughts.
I glanced over at her, blinking quickly. “Yes?”
“Where are you at, boy? I asked if you’d say the prayer.” Mom shook her head at me, but there was a smile on her face. She knew exactly where my head had been.
We joined hands and I said the prayer, paying particular attention to the way Rae’s soft hand felt so right in mine. Maybe my mind should have been a bit more on thankfulness, but what I felt more than anything was an urgent need to make Rae mine. To secure the future I had in my head and felt in my soul when I caught glimpses of what it could be.
“I have something for you, Skylar.” Mom hopped up from the table the second the last of the forks were set down and our bellies were full.
Dad raised an eyebrow at me and my stomach gurgled in warning.Good Lord, what was the woman up to now?
“Here it is! Here we go.” Mom hustled back in the room and plopped a huge book down in front of Rae. Poor girl barely got her plate moved out of the way in time.
“Oh no…” I muttered.
Dad just chuckled silently into his napkin while I died a thousand deaths. Mom had my baby book out and if I recalled correctly, there were quite a few naked baby bath pictures.
“Oh, my,” Rae murmured, sounding a bit choked up.
Her face was turning red and she was biting that bottom lip quite hard. Oh, great. She was laughing at me. Just what every man wanted when he decided to woo a woman. His mommy showing his naked baby pictures. Like the blond mullet I wore in second grade would really help her decide that dating me was a good choice.
“Okay, Mom. Dinner has been lovely, but we could do without the slide show.”
Mom swatted at the air, leaning over Rae’s shoulder to get a glimpse of the photos she’d seen a million times. “Oh hush. We’re just having some fun. A woman needs to know what her future babies will look like.”
Rae coughed violently. I leaned my elbows on the table and buried my head in my hands.Make it stop.
“So, Skylar. Tell us how your clinic is doing.” Dad swooped in to save the day.
I had a favorite parent, that was for sure.
Rae closed the baby book and swiveled to my dad. I noticed she was studiously ignoring me, refusing to even glance in my direction. Mom, having realized her moment of glory with the photos was over, had a seat again. I strategized how to smuggle the book out of the house and away from her reckless attempts at matchmaking. Maybe my baby brother, Ryker, had it right: move out of the country and then woo your woman where Mom couldn’t easily get to her.
“Very good, Mr. Duke. I’m in the black and thinking of adding one or two assistants shortly.”
Dad leaned forward, fatherly pride in the way he looked at her. “It’s Roger. You’re practically the daughter we never had. With Emerson over here so much, and you tagging along, we feel like you’re one of us.”
Rae blinked rapidly and I wanted to pull her into a hug. “Thank you. That means a lot.”
Mom interjected. “We wanted to reach out to you earlier, but you’ve just been so busy getting the clinic up and running. We didn’t want to bother you when you were on a mission.” She leaned forward and put her hand on Rae’s. “How are you doing, honey? With Emerson.”
Rae swallowed hard, her eyes filling with tears. I stood up and pulled my chair over to sit right next to her, my arm around her shoulders. Surprisingly, she took the comfort offered and leaned into me.
