Page 24 of Jam and Jingle Bells
I nodded, my eyes hooded. “Maybe. Considering I have a bunch of weddings coming up, I think I’ll leave it alone for now. Oh!” I exclaimed, nearly jumping off the couch. “Did I tell you?”
“Tell me what?” he asked, holding his hands out to keep me from falling over.
“That my mom and Stan got engaged at Thanksgiving dinner!” I clapped happily, my excitement still at top tier level about it.
He grasped my hand and ran his thumb over the top of it. “That’s wonderful, Addie. Stan sounds like a great guy.”
I nodded eagerly. “He is. He’s older than my mom by a few years, but she’s been alone since before I was born. My dad ditched on her when she was six months pregnant with me. She never dated or got involved with men when I was growing up.”
“Why do you think that is? Was it because of your dad?”
I leaned back into the couch again while he held my hand. “No. Well, sure, I guess maybe his desertion was part of it. They met in Saginaw when my mom was training to be a nurse. My dad was Irish by way of Britain. They moved here to Bells Pass after she finished her nursing degree. She had gotten a job at the hospital here and before long, she found herself pregnant. He promised to marry her and they started a life here, but something in him couldn’t handle the idea of a wife and kid. He ditched one day while she was at work.”
He frowned and brought my hand to his lips to brush a kiss across my knuckles. “That doesn’t reflect on you, Addie.”
“I suppose not since I wasn’t even born yet, but it does reflect on his character, which is part of me. After he left it was just Mom and me. She worked full-time and took care of me the rest of the time. She didn’t really have time to date, not that guys didn’t try. By the time I was old enough for her to think about it, I was too old.”
He shook his head in confusion. “Say that again?”
“I guess what I mean is, by the time I was old enough for her to feel comfortable dating again, I was too impressionable. I was a young lady and she didn’t want a parade of guys coming through the house. I can’t say for sure she didn’t have someone on the side somewhere, but I never saw him. She had activities she would do a few evenings a week, but she was always a lady and never brought anyone home. Now, in hindsight, I appreciate that a lot. I know I’m luckier than a lot of kids with single parents who have those awkward morning-after breakfasts.”
He grimaced and nodded. “Yeah, I had a few friends who often dealt with that situation. I’m glad your mom understood the importance of keeping you sheltered from it.”
“It was hard, you know. She was raising me as a single mom with no male influence in my life. I didn’t even have a grandpa or an uncle to go to. Mom had some work friends who always invited us to dinner and we were good friends with a few of them. I knew I could always go to them for help, but that wasn’t the same as going to them for advice.”
“I’m sorry, it had to be hard growing up and feeling excluded from something most kids had.”
I stared at his hand holding mine rather than make eye contact. “I never wanted for anything. Mom worked as a nurse for a few years and then went on to school to get her Bachelor’s in nursing degree. Once she had that, she worked a few more years and eventually she became a nurse anesthetist.”
“A nurse what now?” he asked, chuckling at the look on my face.
“A nurse anesthetist. She works with an anesthesiologist in surgery.”
“Oh, right. That’s pretty high up the ranks of nursing, right?”
I nodded and shrugged. “Mom’s a go-getter. I didn’t luck out when it came to brainpower the way she did.”
“What does that mean, Addie?” he asked, resting my hand on his knee. Heat radiated from under his khakis, and his sinewy muscles were corded and tight. I forced my mind to halt that train of thought before I started drooling.
I sighed and rested my head on the couch, fatigue setting in after a long day. “I guess it just means I’m not wired that way. I struggled in school with math and science. I can do basic everyday stuff, but you start asking me to do anything too complicated and my brain stops working. I love cosmetology, but I also love business. They were both something I was good at.”
His hand came up to stroke my jaw tenderly. “We all have our strengths and weaknesses. That doesn’t mean we’re less than someone else. It just means we have different strengths. That’s what makes the world go ‘round.”
“Maybe I take after my dad instead of my mom,” I pondered.
“Do you spend a lot of time with him now?”
My double D chest jiggled as I giggled sarcastically.
“So that’s a no,” he answered for himself.
I held my hands out, palms up. “Ellis, I don’t even know his name. I have no idea who he is. He’s not on my birth certificate.”
His brow lowered. “But your mom knew who he was. Why wouldn’t she list him, or at the very least tell you his name.”
“She didn’t want anything to do with him after he left. By leaving him off my birth certificate, he wasn’t required to pay child support or be part of our lives. Also, I would never know who he was.”
He turned and grasped my knee with a tender firmness. “I guess I can see that, but why wouldn’t she tell you his name?”
