Page 4 of The One

“Is this different than what you were doing at Google?” his sister asked.

“Yes and no. Different end products for sure. I’m a product manager here. Leading a team of developers. They make a lot of medical software. Right now I’m doing more managing than developing.”

“You’ve never wanted to do that before,” Robin said, frowning. “You always said you needed to get your hands in the mix.”

He laughed. “I did. But times change. I get too caught up and lost in it. It paid off in the end. It’s time for a change and this looked like a good opportunity. Once I get on track I’ll be in there working and writing code, I’m sure, but not as often. It’s all good. If I learned one thing working with Dean in the past few years it’s that I’m good at keeping people focused and leading.”

His mother looked at him, her head tilted. She was trying to read him as she had so much, but all he did was put a smile on his face.

“Change is good,” his mother said.

“Very good. And I’m back home. You should be happy.”

“I am happy,” his mother said, moving over to kiss him on the cheek. “Both of my kids are in the same place again. Now we have to see about getting you settled down.”

He laughed. “I could have lived anywhere and you know it. Don’t start in on me or I’ll sell the house and move.”

“You wouldn’t break your mother’s heart like that,” his father said.

No, he wouldn’t, but he’d spent a lot of years not answering to anyone or being watched. He wasn’t sure he wanted it now.

Of course, if they had seen him in the past year more they would have pointed out he was burning the candle at both ends and looked like shit.

Robin had done that when he’d visited the first Christmas she been in this house almost two years ago. He’d brushed it off like he was used to doing.

“We don’t mean to nag you, Rick,” Robin said. “We are so glad you are home and once the newness wears off, we’ll be back to the way it was, just having this time we can stop over and see you when we want and not play phone tag.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said genuinely.

“When we leave here,” his father said, “your mother and I have a housewarming gift for you. We’ll drop it off.”

“You didn’t need to get me anything,” he said.

“We didn’t,” his mother said. “But your house is so empty right now.”

“I’m not used to having that much space.”

He went from a nine-hundred-square-foot apartment to a three-thousand-square-foot home plus a finished basement. He had to be nuts to do it, but he liked what he saw, and it was a fraction of the cost of a house in California that would have been a third of the size.

Maybe he hoped to grow into it. Or he just wanted breathing room that he didn’t feel he’d had for so long.

He had all the space he wanted now and it was full of empty rooms except for his living room, office, bedroom and the eat-in kitchen.

“This won’t take up much space either,” his mother said. “Just another living thing in the house.”

He smiled. “You got me plants?”

“I did,” his mother said. “You know how much I love them.”

“You do,” he said. “And I’ve gotten good at caring for them.”

He hated to not take the ones he had with him when he moved but what a pain to pack them up. He figured he’d buy more at some point. Maybe this would give him the motivation he needed.

Pretty sad that a plant could do that, but then again, looking back, most of his life had flashed past him and all he had were memories of work, little sleep, and a lot of takeout food.

No more.

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