Sweeter Than Fiction

Chapter Thirty-one

Don

“You don’t need to be nervous,” I tell Abby as I watch her gnaw her fingernails down to nothing more than nubs.

“Don, we just got off a three-and-a-half-hour flight where there was nothing but turbulence, and now, we are on our way to meet your family. Literally, everything going on right now makes me a giant ball of anxiety.”

“Are you okay? Do you want me to stop for a coffee or something?”

She sighs. “No, I think that coffee right now would make me literally combust.”

“Alright, then. How can I help? Do you want to stop for breakfast?”

She shakes her head. “Let’s just head to your mom’s. Once we are there, I can settle down a little. I just very rarely even leave my apartment. Going on a cross-county excursion is out of my comfort zone.”

I reach over to take her hand in mine. “I know, baby. I’m so happy you’re here with me, though.”

And I mean it. I love that she cares about me enough to come all the way to Nebraska just to spend Thanksgiving with my family. I know the trip wasn’t easy, and I vow to make it up to her.

“I’m happy, too,” she says with a small smile.

We drive down the country road, and she looks out the window at the cornfields we pass by.

“Look at this,” she says.

“Yeah. Pretty lowkey compared to New York, huh? Not a whole lot to look at out here.”

She snaps her head around to look at me. “Are you kidding? Look, I love New York. I love the big city, but seeing all this is like a whole different world. You know, most places around the city, you can’t even see the sunset unless you are in some sort of penthouse or high-rise. I bet it looks beautiful here.”

I glance over at her, knowing that she’s more beautiful than any sunset I’ve ever seen. But while we are here, I’ll make damn sure she sees some gorgeous views.

We drive in silence for a few minutes before she says, “Do you realize something? We haven’t seen another car for the past five miles.”

That gets a laugh out of me. “Yeah, the further out on these back roads you get, the less cars you are going to see.”

“This is wild. Absolutely wild.”

“Just wait until we get out of the truck, and you smell the air. Totally different than New York.”

Her eyes get big, and she rolls down the window to stick her head out the window like a dog.

“Not what I mean, Abs.”

But she’s not listening. She’s enjoying every moment of this. And I think that maybe her anxiety has quieted down a bit.

Thank goodness.

I didn’t want this trip to be something that she was stressing over the entire time we were here. I want her to have a good time.

Finally, her face gets cold, and she comes back inside the rented truck. Mom offered to pick us up, but since I had Abby with me, I thought us having our own vehicle was a good idea. We can go do whatever we want without having to worry about how to get there.

We drive on the country roads for about twenty more minute before hitting the town limits of Wyling. As we start passing the tiny shops, Abby stares out the window in awe.

“You didn’t tell me that you grew up in a little town like the one in Gilmore Girls.”

“Eh, I don’t know that it’s quite as picturesque as that one.” I smile over at her. “And I don’t know that Wyling has all the cooky, fun characters. It’s just a farming town where people work hard to earn a living.”

“You didn’t want to be a farmer?” She asks.

“Nah. Most of the farms around here have been handed down through generations—from fathers to sons. Or sometimes, newbies will buy an already-established one. I had no interest in that life. I decided on construction because I’ve always been good with my hands.”

She wiggles her eyebrows up and down. “Don’t I know it?”

After another pause, she asks, “Did you go to any type of schooling or anything?”

“When I first got out of high school, I started doing some handyman type stuff around town. It took me awhile to get my foot in the door with a bigger company out of Omaha. I started learning as much as I could and slowly worked my way up. I’ve never done any actual college or anything, but I did take the time to get all my licenses.”

“How did you go from just being low man on the totem pole to big boss man?” She asks.

“The owner of the company I work for is named Phil, and he kind of took me under his wing. He eventually asked me to be foreman for some projects in Omaha. If you want, while we are here, I’ll take you and show you some of the buildings I worked on.” She smiles and nods in return as I go on. “When he branched off into New York, he needed a superintendent, so he asked me to do it. As much as I love it here, it was too great of an opportunity to pass up. And fuck, I’m sure glad I went,” I say, pressing a kiss to the back of her hand.

“I probably should have asked this question before this exact moment, but what exactly do you do as a superintendent? Is it like a project manager or something?”

“Kind of,” I begin, trying to think of how to describe it without boring her half to death—or mansplaining it. “I am on the jobsite pretty much all the time. A project manager does a lot of administrative work, too. I’m the go-between guy between the foreman and the project manager.”

“Oh, okay. Makes sense.”

“How did you get into your line of work?” I ask, still trying to get her to relax a bit.

“Well, obviously, I wanted something I could do remotely.” She smiles at me. “Back in school, I had ADHD pretty bad and a mild form of Dyslexia. So, most of the time, it felt like what I was looking at or reading was just a puzzle. But when I looked at computer code, I saw it all clearly. It made sense to turn it into a career.”

“And look at you now—writing programs that the military uses.”

She giggles. “I promise it isn’t nearly as cool as it sounds. Usually, I’m just staring at a screen all day, writing code. It’s not all that glamorous.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, Abs. It’s awesome.”

Her cheeks blush a little. I wonder if she will ever get used to someone giving her compliments. I guess I’ll just have to keep doing it and find out.

A minute or so later, and we are pulling into my mom’s gravel driveway. I put the truck in park but don’t take the keys out just yet.

“Listen, baby, I know you said you were okay with staying here, but I’m warning you now that this house is pretty small. I can’t guarantee how much privacy we will actually get. At any time, if you want to go stay at the local town inn, we can.”

“Don, I highly doubt that there will be room at the inn on Thanksgiving.”

“Then, we could go stay at a hotel in Omaha. It’s not all that far.”

She squeezes my hand. “Thank you, but I think I’ll be okay.”

We step out of the truck and head inside. Before we even hit the front door, though, my mom is already rushing out onto the porch.

“You’re here!” She cries.

“Yep. We’re here,” I reply, walking over to hug her.

One thing about my mom—she gives the best hugs. I remember her telling me one time that as our mom, she will never be the one to end a hug first because she never knows how bad one of us might need that hug.

“How are you doing, darlin’?” She asks.

“Pretty good.”

When I let go, she’s able to get a good look at Abby. Walking over to her, she gives her a hug. I worry a little about how Abby will take it. She told me hugs from strangers weird her out a little, but she seems fine with the gesture.

“I’m Denise.”

“Hi, I’m Abby.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Abby. I’m so glad that my son finally found a decent woman he could bring home.”

Without missing a beat, Abby says, “He’s quite the catch.”

That gets the biggest smile out of my mother. “Well, come on. Let’s go inside. I’m making breakfast, and I don’t want the bacon to burn.”

Abby nods. “Lead the way.”