Page 196 of Falling Backwards
“You look amazing too,” she says.“Luke Bramhill in a button-down shirt….”Shaking her head, she tsks.
I’m wild about the brightness in her eyes.
Once again, I’m following in her footsteps and grinning too.
She comes to me and holds out a hand.“Ready to go?”
I take it, my chest feeling warm over these moments and how much I know my mom is going to like her.
“Yep.Let’s go.”
—
“Mom, you arenot,” I laugh out, covering my eyes with one hand.My cheeks are hurting from constant smiles and burning from new embarrassment.
“Of course I am!”She puts the photo album down in front of where Maggie sits next to me; the girl has already eagerly moved her empty plate away.“These pictures aresocute!”
Maggie giggles.“Cute pictures were meant to be shared, Luke!”
I move my hand away and shake my head at the two of them.“The very first time I introduce my girl to my mom, though?Dang.”
She glances at me from where my mom is flipping to a certain page in the album, warmly holding my gaze only long enough to make my heart do a happy little dance.Once she’s looking at the album again, she hunches her shoulders with excited eyes and a grin.
“Aha,” my mom says, ceasing her page-turning.She all but squeaks as she points out the pictures that somehow got brought up as we were all finishing our desserts.
And damn it, Maggie’s face fully lights up with joy at little-kid me wearing a t-shirt, a Halloween costume cape, and a pair of swim trunks with every fake weapon I owned sticking out of them.
“Oh my God!”She presses a hand to her chest and lets out a delighted laugh.“This is….”
I prepare for her to poke some fun at me.Instead, she pores over each picture while my mom talks about how much I loved any movies with battling in them: superhero ones, ninja ones, fantasy ones.Maggie’s laughter doesn’t continue and no jokes come, even when a couple pictures feature me having messily drawn a superhero eye mask on myself with a marker—her mouth just falls open in amusement that honestly looks sweet.
“I love all of this!”she announces.“Oh, Luke, Ilovethis!”My mom is on the other side of her, so I can’t see Maggie’s face when she turns it her way, but I’m sure she’s smiling.“Thank you for showing these to me!”We all exchange smiles now, and Maggie keeps talking.“Oh my gosh, it reminds me of when I was about seven and I was obsessed with the Care Bears.I loved them so much that I insisted on being called my own kind of Care Bear name depending on, like, my outfit or even my mood.If it was time to eat and I was hungry, I wanted to be called Hungry Bear, or if I was wearing a lot of purple, I wanted to be called Purple Bear.”
My mom and I laugh, and Maggie joins right in.
“Really?”I ask.
She nods.“Yes!”
My mom puts her hand on Maggie’s back and says, “That is precious!”
I have to admit, “Yeah, that’s funny and cute as hell.”Then I laugh again as I think to ask, “Did you come up with your names yourself or did you rely on, like, your parents seeing you in a dress and deciding to call you Dress Bear?”
“Both!”Maggie says, and something about that really cracks us up.
My mom looks back and forth between us with an expression that screams she couldn’t be happier to see us laughing so much together.
I couldn’t either.
Our little gathering has been awesome.Maggie started out shy and quiet, which had me realizing I’d kind of forgotten that’s her natural state—I’ve gotten so used to spending time with relaxed, lively Maggie that I’ve come to seethatas how she always is.I could tell she was worried about what my mom would think of her.But Mom was welcoming and excited to be around her and talk to her, and it wasn’t long before Maggie was loosening up.Since then, she has managed to stay graceful and put-together even as she does things like laugh this way with me.And I’ve been able to tell that my mom likes her a lot, just as I knew she would, even so soon after meeting her.
Plus, all the food has been damn good.My mom’s turkey and couple of side dishes are always perfect.This time, we also had my and Maggie’s mac and cheese and chocolate cake instead of whatever store-bought stuff I usually bring, which paid off so well.They were hits.I think this just might have been the best Thanksgiving meal I’ve had.
I’msohappy.
Once Maggie calms down a little from laughing, she tells us, “It always made me happy to be called my own Care Bear names, and I remember being really upset when some of the kids at school started making fun of me for it.They called me Stupid Bear!It made me cry!”
I’m torn between being mad on small Maggie’s behalf and amused because adult Maggie is still grinning.She nods in agreement with how my mom has gasped and said the kids were mean for doing that, but she doesn’t look terribly hurt about it anymore.
