Page 9 of Remembering You
“Of course. I’m happy to help.”
Yvonne did a little jump of joy and squealed. “Thank you, Marty. Thank you so much. I’ll bring him by with a cage, food, and supplies later.”
Yvonne put the lid back on the shoebox and with a quick kiss to Steve, she exited the office, leaving Marty and Steve there in his waiting room.
“Okay, Ma… what gives?”
Her eyes widened with his question. “What do you mean?”
“As much as I appreciate the surprise visit with coffee and pastries… this isn’t something you regularly do. Unless you need to talk about something.”
“That’s not true—”
“You’re right. You do stop in from time to time, but there’s a difference about you when you have something on your mind. I can’t place what it is… I just know it when I see it.”
Of all her children, Steve always could read her the best. In some ways, they were the most alike. She sighed. “I was asked out on a date,” she blurted out. She needed to say it fast, like ripping off a Band-Aid.
Steve’s eyes widened and he dropped into one of the chairs in the waiting room, setting his coffee down beside him. “Whoa. I have to admit, I wasn’t expectingthat.”
Marty lowered into the chair beside him. “Because it’s ridiculous. Dating at my age? That’s a young girl’s dream to chase.”
“No, I just meant I wasn’t expecting it because I’ve neverseenyou date. I’ve never even seen you express interest in anyone. Not since Dad.”
She shrugged, feeling her lips slant into a half-smile. “I’ve been asked out before. A lot. For years, I just didn’t have time. My days were filled working full-time and caring for you kids.”
“We’ve all been out of the house for a while, though, Ma.”
“Yep. And I’ve been asked out since then, too. But I’ve never wanted to say yes before.”
Marty stared hard at the linoleum floors, actively avoiding Steve’s gaze. But she could feel it burning into the side of her face. And then she felt his hand slide across hers and give it a squeeze. “Until now?” he asked.
There was a long pause before she could answer that. Even though she knew the answer. And Steve, too, clearly knew her answer. But saying it out loud? It felt like it somehow tarnished what she and Jim had.
Steve cleared his throat and leaned back in the chair, resting one ankle over his knee. But his hand stayed firmly linked in hers. “Last year, you came to me when all the stuff with Yvonne was going sideways. I’m going to propose a scenario to you. Let’s say instead of Dad passing away all those years ago, you had died. And now, it was Dad sitting here beside me, debating whether or not to go on his first date in seventeen years—”
“Eighteen years,” Marty clarified. Not sure why that detail was even important.
Steve nodded. “Right. Eighteen years. You would want him to go on that date. To find companionship… right?”
“Of course.” There was nothing she’d want more than his happiness, even in her death.
“So… what’s holding you back?”
She swallowed the lump in her throat. A million things were holding her back. But if she had to boil it down to one answer… “Nerves. I don’t even know if I rememberhowto go on a date.”
Steve snorted and made apshhhsound, swatting the air with his free hand. “Take it from me, a guy who hadn’t really dated in the decade between high school and reconnecting with Yvonne… it’s like riding a bike.”
Marty rolled her eyes, shaking her head. “That is a stupid phrase. Have you ever tried to ride a bike after years of not doing it? It’s fucking hard, Steven!”
He laughed and squeezed her hand. “I think that’s why the saying works, Ma. I don’t mean that it’ll be easy. It’ll be clunky at first. And there’s a learning curve. You might fall off once or twice. Make a mistake here and there. But you’ll pick it back up quickly and with no more than a couple of bruises.”
“Okay, fine. Let’s say I do get back on that bike and I don’t immediately fall off and bust my head open. How the heck do I introduce him to five kids, three in-laws, and two grandkids? We are a big family and let’s face it… the Tripps are a lot to take.”
“I don’t think you’re really worried about him accepting us. I think you’re worried about us accepting him. And let’s be honest, as long as he’s good to you and makes you happy, that’s all any of us wants. Me, Ronnie, Noah, Callie—”
“Cam?” she interrupted. Her oldest son was the most protective. The most stoic. And the most likely to not accept anyone new in her life.
Steve’s sigh was so quiet, she might not have heard it over her rapidly beating heart. “Even Cam will come around eventually, Ma. You know that. He might have the toughest exterior of any of us, but inside, he’s also the mushiest.”
