Chapter 23
Mia
‘We should be going,’ my mom says, getting up from her chair.
We’ve been with my dad in his hospital room for the last half hour. He has a broken arm and some bruises and a cut on his lip, but other than that, he’s okay. He was lucky. The doctor said his injuries could’ve been a lot worse.
‘Mom, before we go,’ I say. ‘Jason and I want to talk to you both.’
‘Let’s do it later. You dad needs his rest.’
‘I don’t need rest,’ he says. ‘I’m wide awake.’ He looks at Jason and me. ‘What is it? You having twins?’
I smile. ‘No. It’s not about the baby. It’s about you and Mom.’
‘What about us?’
Jason takes my hand. I told him he could tell them, knowing my dad would like it if he did. It’s the whole man-taking-charge nonsense that’s sexist and outdated but how things were done when my dad grew up.
‘We want you to move to Haydon Falls,’ Jason says.
We wait for my parents to respond. We could list out all the reasons why they should move, but we decided to let them think about it before we try to sell them on the idea.
‘You two aren’t moving here?’ my mom asks.
‘We could,’ I say, ‘but we’d rather stay where we’re at. We both like Haydon Falls and you guys liked it when you were there. I know it’d be a big change but—’ I stop when I feel Jason squeeze my hand. We said we’d be quiet and let them decide.
‘We’ll be right back,’ Jason says, pulling on me to leave with him.
We go out to the hall.
‘They were really quiet,’ I say.
‘Is that a bad sign?’
‘It might be. I’m worried they’re going to say no.’
‘Then we’ll go over all the reasons why this is a good idea. Mia, the more I think about this, the more I’m convinced this is the right thing to do. We’re having a baby soon. Taking care of a baby and your parents is a lot. We’ll need help, which we’ll have in Haydon Falls.’
‘Mia?’ My mom comes out to the hall.
‘We’re here, Mom.’ I walk up to her.
‘Your father wants to talk to you.’
Jason and I follow her back into the room.
I walk up to my dad. ‘Mom said you wanted to talk to me?’
‘I want to talk to him first.’ He points at Jason.
Jason comes up beside me.
My dad moves so he’s sitting up more. ‘Those tractors your father’s got.’
‘What about them?’ Jason says.
‘You think he’d let me drive them?’
Jason smiles. ‘Of course. Whenever you want.’
‘What about that workshop of his, the one in the old barn. You think he’d let me use it, just to tinker around, maybe do some woodworking?’
‘He’d do it with you if you didn’t mind hearing his stories. He’s got a lot of them.’
Dad smiles. ‘I do too. I could use someone new to tell them to.’ He glances at my mom, then back at me. ‘I guess we could move. But you’ll have to find us a house.’
‘We already did.’ Jason pulls up the listing.
‘Mom, look.’ I motion her to come over to see Jason’s phone. ‘You’re going to love it!’
She’s in love the moment she sees it. She loves it even more than her current house.
That night we go home and my mom and I start going through what she wants to keep and what she wants to get rid of. It’s going to take time to go through everything so I’m going to stay here and Jason will fly back tomorrow.
I’m thrilled we’re all going to be together in Haydon Falls. I love it there, and I know my parents will too.
* * *
Two weeks later, I’m getting off the plane in Madison and run into Nora at the airport.
‘What are you doing here?’ I ask, giving her a hug.
‘Picking you up.’
‘Jason’s picking me up.’
‘He just said that so he wouldn’t ruin the surprise.’
‘What surprise?’
She smiles. ‘Your baby shower. Surprise!’
‘We’re doing this now?’
‘Yes. We’ve been planning it for a month.’ She looks down at my belly and her eyes widen.
‘Yeah, I know, I’m huge.’ I laugh. ‘And no, I’m not having twins.’ We walk to the baggage claim area. ‘Where’s the shower?’
‘In Haydon Falls, at some store downtown.’
‘Kate’s store?’
‘Is she related to Jason?’
‘She’s dating his brother, but I’m sure they’ll get married.’
‘Then yeah, that’s her. She closed the store and has it all decorated in blue and white. She sent me pictures. It’s adorable, like something you’d see in a magazine.’
‘She’s a decorator. She’s really good at it. She decorated the house Jason and I are living in.’
‘I’ve got it,’ Nora says, racing ahead of me to grab my suitcase. ‘This is heavy. What do you have in here?’
‘Some of my mom’s stuff. I had room so I threw some of her things in.’
We head to the parking lot.
‘I can’t believe your parents are moving here,’ Nora says.
‘I can’t believe I didn’t even consider it until a couple weeks ago.’
She stops and sets my suitcase down. ‘Seriously, Mia, what is in here? Did you pack bricks from their fireplace?’
‘Need some help?’ a guy says.
Nora turns to the guy. ‘Steve.’
It’s the guy from the sandwich shop. The professor Nora was hitting on the day we had lunch.
The guy smiles at her. ‘It’s been awhile.’
‘Yeah. What are you doing here?’
‘Just back from a conference in London.’
‘London. Great. Well, I need to get going.’
‘Can I help you with the bag?’
‘Sure!’ I say, knowing Nora won’t ask for help.
She glares at me. She says she doesn’t like the guy, but every time I talk to her, she brings him up. She never went on that coffee date with him. She couldn’t get over the tiny spoon thing on their yogurt date.
Steve picks up the suitcase and walks beside Nora as we head to the car. ‘Are you going to introduce me to your friend?’
‘Oh. Yeah. Steve meet Mia. Mia meet Steve.’
‘You teach at the college?’ he asks me.
‘No, but I’m working for a professor there, just compiling data. It’s not too exciting.’
‘She just finished grad school,’ Nora says. ‘She’s going to be a school counselor.’
Actually, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’ve decided to hold off on applying for jobs until after the baby arrives, but when I’m ready for a job, I don’t know if I’ll find one in Haydon Falls. The schools don’t have any openings. I don’t know where else I could work.
We get to Nora’s car and Steve puts my suitcase in the trunk.
‘You open to going for that coffee we never had?’ Steve asks Nora.
‘Oh, I don’t think so. I’m really busy.’
‘C’mon. Just one coffee?’
She gives him a slight smile. ‘Sure. Maybe tomorrow. I’ll send you a text.’
‘Sounds good.’ He waves at me. ‘Nice meeting you.’
‘You too.’
When we’re in the car, she takes off, going faster than she should. ‘Did you really have to do that?’
‘Let him take my suitcase? Yes. As slow as you were going, it would’ve taken an hour to get to the car.’
‘I told you I’m not going out with him again, and now I somehow got talked into having coffee with him.’
‘You need to let go of the tiny spoon thing. He’s smart. He seems nice. And he’s handsome.’
‘And weird. I want a normal guy. Is that too much to ask for?’
‘Hey, there he is.’ I point to him waiting at the stoplight. ‘Nice car.’
It’s a black luxury sedan.
‘Would you stop trying to sell me on him? I agreed to get coffee with him.’ She glances at me. ‘Let’s talk about you. Did you and Jason pick a wedding date?’
‘Not yet. I told him I just want a simple wedding, maybe at the orchard. I’d like to get married before the baby arrives, but I don’t think Jason is ready.’
‘I don’t know about that.’
‘What do you mean?’
She darts into the other lane. ‘Why is everyone driving so slow today? Hey, did you need to get something to eat before we leave town?’
‘No, I brought snacks.’
Nora seems more distracted than usual. It’s probably because of Steve. Seeing him again got her all flustered.
A little over an hour later, we’re in downtown Haydon Falls. There’s a light blue banner outside Kate’s store saying it’s closed today for a special event. It’s so nice of her to do this.
We go into the store and find everyone waiting for us—Martha, Kate, Gina, Lyndsay, some of my friends from Madison, and Lacey, my friend from college. She’s the one who got married the night I met Jason.
‘Lacey!’ I race up to her. ‘I haven’t seen you since the wedding!’
She hugs me. ‘I couldn’t miss your shower, especially since my wedding was kind of the reason for it.’ She laughs.
I hope nobody heard her. Only Nora and Jason’s family know that Jason and I met at the wedding. Everyone else thinks we met last fall at the orchard, the fake story we told as part of our fake engagement.
‘I can’t believe you guys did this,’ I say as I look at everyone. ‘And that you kept it a surprise.’
‘It helped that you were gone the past couple weeks,’ Kate says.
Looking around, I notice a table topped with desserts on white pedestals and jars filled with blue candies.
In the middle of the room is a long rustic wood table lined with blue and white floral arrangements.
White wood folding chairs are along each side of it and at the end is a plush white chair with a blue pillow on it that has ‘mom’ embroidered on it. I guess that’s where I’ll be sitting.
‘The store looks beautiful,’ I tell Kate.
‘Thanks! I had so much fun I’m thinking of hosting more showers here. It could be a side business.’
Lyndsay walks up to us. ‘Mia, someone wants to say hi to you.’ She brings me over to the long table where a laptop is set up.
I see my mom’s face on the screen. ‘Mom!’
She waves at the screen. ‘I didn’t want to miss your shower.’
‘Mom, you’ve got to see how Kate decorated the store.’ I pick up the laptop and walk around to show her.
‘Oh, it’s lovely. I wish I could be there.’
‘You will be soon.’
The day after my dad got out of the hospital, my parents put an offer in on the house Jason and I showed them and the sellers accepted the offer that night.
Their house in Boston is going up for sale next week.
We’re hoping it’ll sell quickly, but even if it doesn’t, they plan to move here within the month.
This is going to be a huge change for them, but they’re excited about it.
The baby shower goes all afternoon. Around four, my friends from Madison get up to leave, saying they need to start driving back.