Page 101 of Hound Dog
The squeakof Aunt Meryl’s knee walker woke me up the next morning at six forty-seven. I smiled against the silk pillowcase as I heard my bedroom door creak open.
Even though Finn and I had an incredible first date last night, he knew I couldn’t stay the night with him. I was here to take care of Aunt Meryl, and I needed to be here overnight.
It was bad enough I’d been going out as much as I had been. If it wasn’t for the fact that Meryl cherished her alone time and was practically shooing me out of the house herself every day, I wouldn’t have gone.
I slid over in my bed, making room for Meryl as she slowly lowered herself next to me.
“You could have taken a year off, you know,” I whispered to her.
She smiled, and I noticed the deeper wrinkles around her eyes and mouth. Not that Meryl cared for even a second. One of the most beautiful things in the world about her was her ability to gracefully embrace aging.
“It’s a tradition,” she whispered and ran her fingers through my knotted curls. “One that I took over after your mom passed away, and I vowed to never miss a birthday story.”
I closed my eyes, sighing into the soft feel of her brushing my hair.
Every year on my birthday, my mom would sneak into my room like this, just before the exact time it was when I was born. The first year that she’d been gone, I was awake and sobbing on my birthday when I heard Aunt Meryl come in to continue the tradition in her wake.
It had been just what I’d needed then. And I still needed it now, all these years later.
Aunt Meryl cleared her throat quietly. “Twenty-three years, twenty-three hours and fifty-eight minutes ago, I was holding your mom’s hand as she cursed your father’s name. I wiped her sweaty brow and pushed her curly hair from her face, just like this.”
Meryl scooped her palm across my forehead as tears burned the backs of my eyes. Every year, I swore to myself I wouldn’t cry. Every year I told myself this would be the time this memory would bring joy… and only joy. Not sorrow. Not regret.
And every year, I was wrong.
“I kissed her on the temple, just like this.” Meryl paused to drop a gentle kiss to my temple. “And whispered in her ear to push. She gave one final scream, and then it was drowned out by the sound of you crying. So much crying. I held your mother and said to her, ‘With lungs like that, your girl’s either going to be a lawyer or a singer like her daddy.’ And you know what she said in response?”
The knot in my throat unwound as a sob-laugh escaped.
“She can be whatever she wants to be… so long as she’s brave. And kind,” I repeated along with Meryl.
Meryl nodded and wiped her palms across my wet cheeks. “Happy birthday, my kind, brave girl.”
She pulled me into a tight hug. “Now before you fall back asleep, tell me, how was your date with the Evans boy?”
I smiled, wiping the final fallen tears from my eyes. “It was close to perfect.” I told her all about the night, leaving out the dirty parts. “I think I really like him,” I admitted. “A lot.”
Meryl chuckled. “You say that like it’s a terrible thing.”
“Isn’t it? I’m leaving in a couple of weeks. My life’s in Rochester, not here.”
“Are you sure about that? Last I checked, you were able to teach lessons virtually from just about anywhere. And now that you and Bozo—”
“Ben,” I corrected her. Even if we were broken up, she didn’t need to be rude.
Meryl rolled her eyes but amended her statement. “Fine. Now that you andBenare over, the only thing really keeping you in Rochester is the house, right?”
I gulped. She wasn’t wrong. But the thought still terrified me. Picking up and moving here for a guy I barely knew seemed irresponsible. It seemed reckless.
It seemed… like exactly the sort of thing Meryl would’ve done in her youth.
“You’ve known Finn a while, right?” I asked. “Have you ever seen him with a girlfriend?”
“Oh, sure,” Meryl said with a wave of her hand.
“I don’t mean on adate. Have you ever known him to be in arelationship?”
Meryl was quiet for a moment before sighing. “No. But I’ve heard rumors that he had a girlfriend once. And that it didn’t exactly go well. He’s been casually dating ever since.”
