Chapter 18
EIGHTEEN
RYKER
The next morning, I stood at the stove cooking a smorgasbord of food for us, flipping bacon and turning sausages while Casey dropped bagels into the toaster.
Wes walked into the kitchen, sniffing the air and rubbing the mussed hair on the back of his head. “Smells fantastic. What the hell happened?” He plucked a slice of bacon from the plate and took a bite.
“I’m making Casey a big breakfast before I send him off for the week.” I stepped to Casey and kissed his cheek. These were the moments I’d miss after Mom came home and everything returned to normal.
“Yeah?” Wes peeked into the scrambled eggs, sitting on a warming burner on the stove. “Damn, why don’t you cook like this every morning?” He smirked at me.
“Maybe I should teach you, and you can cook for yourself.” I bumped my shoulder on Wes’s. It was about time he learned to fend for himself.
“Sure, teach me.” Wes grabbed silverware from a drawer and plates from the cupboard. “I’ll set the table.”
“Great idea, kid.” After the bagels popped up from the toaster, Casey set them on a plate and added more to it. “Put some cream cheese and orange juice on the table too.” He sipped his mug of coffee.
“Okay.” Wes padded around the kitchen, doing what we’d asked. “When do you expect to hear from Mom’s lawyer again?”
“In a few weeks, after her parole hearing.” I set the bacon, eggs and sausages on plates. “I think we’re about done here.” All we needed was the last set of bagels to toast. I brought everything to the table.
Casey joined me at the dinette with a plate of bagels. “Since your mom will be home for Thanksgiving, what are you planning?”
Wes dropped into a chair and poured orange juice into a glass. “Do you think Mom will want to cook?”
“I do. I think she’ll want to resume as normal a life as she can.” Glancing at Casey, I said, “Babe, do you have to go home for Thanksgiving?” His presence would be comforting.
“I have no plans yet. We play a big game the day after, so it makes little sense to go home.” He scooped a mound of eggs onto his plate. “Eli cooks a turkey, and we buy dressing in a box and shit. We try to make it easy.” He ate a bit of bacon.
“Casey hasn’t met Mom yet.” Wes slathered cream cheese on a bagel.
With a shrug, I said, “No, he hasn’t. But Mom hasn’t asked us to visit.” It felt like a long time since we’d seen her. “Maybe she’s waiting to be released?” She knew how much we hated seeing her in the prison yard.
“Is it too much if I’m with you for her pickup?” Casey ate some sausage.
Glancing at Wes, I ruminated on it. It would be emotional, and she might want to look her best before meeting him. “I think we should have a little party after Mom’s release, and you can meet her then.” I focused on Casey. “Does that work, babe? I just…she’s gotten thin and hasn’t cut her hair.”
“You know I won’t care about that.” He poked at his eggs with his fork. “But I get it. It should be a private moment for you, and she’ll want to settle in before meeting me.” He flashed me a grin. “I’ll leave it up to you.”
“You know I’d like to have you there for support.
But yeah, let’s allow her to settle in first.” I sipped my coffee.
Mom knew all about Casey through our phone calls, but she hadn’t mentioned wanting to meet him yet.
Probably because she didn’t want him to see her at the jail.
Maybe that explained why she hadn’t asked for a visit?
She might feel embarrassed. There were so many unspoken things between us.
“Anyway, we’ll figure it all out when we get a release date.” Casey dug into his eggs again.
Almost a month later, I was at the shop with our new mechanic, a nice older man named Ian who had gentle eyes and graying hair, when my cell phone rang in the pocket of my jeans.
I slipped it out and held it to my face.
Gabe scrolled across the screen. Mom had her parole hearing a week ago.
Did they decide already? “I’m sorry, I have to take this call. ”
“Sure, I’ll be here.” Ian planted his hands on his hips and looked around the bay.
“I’ll take over.” Dylan strutted to Ian.
“Thanks.” After strolling into the office, I glanced through the window at Dylan, pointing to where we kept our stock, and answered the call. “Hey, Gabe.” My pulse pounded in my temples. Gabe never called without a reason.
“Hi, Ryker. I have good news.”
“Yeah?” I held my breath. “What is it?”
“Because of the evidence I presented to the parole board, they acted quickly on your mom’s behalf. They’re releasing her in six weeks and reduced her convicted crime to a misdemeanor,” he said.
“Really? Six weeks?” My heart did a happy dance. Her release date would occur a few weeks before Thanksgiving, like we’d expected. “Can you text me the exact date?” Then I wouldn’t forget it and screw it up.
“I will,” he said. “I told her she should call you as well. She wants you to bring her some clothing for her to wear when she leaves.”
“Oh, yeah.” Shit, I hadn’t thought of that. We had so much to prepare for, and I had to decide about living with Casey. I paced across the office. “Anything else?”
“She’ll probably call when she’s able, and you can figure things out from there. But you’ll be picking her up from an intake and release facility.”
“Okay.” I had a few phone calls to make myself. I glanced at the clock on my phone. Wes was still in school, so I’d let him know tonight after practice.
“Contact me if you need anything else, but this case is pretty well closed.”
“Thank you so much, Gabe. I can’t tell you how much this means to my family.” I sniffled as my eyes stung. Finally, everything would fall into place, and we could move on from this nightmare.
“No problem. It was my pleasure.” He chuckled. “You take care now. Bye.”
“Bye.” I ended the call and dialed Casey. Would he be in class or at practice? The call rang a few times and picked up.
“Hey, babe. Everything okay?” He breathed into the phone.
“It’s great. Where are you?” I hoped I hadn’t disrupted his class. I stepped to the window.
Dylan and Ian were laughing over the open hood of a Honda SUV I’d bought and was fixing up for Mom. Those two would get along fine. They had the same sense of humor.
“I’m at the gym. Eli is making me lift a shit ton of weight, as usual.” He snickered as clanking filtered in through the connection.
“Oh, well, I have good news.” My chest fluttered with warmth. “I heard from Gabe, and they’re releasing my mom in six weeks. He’s texting me the exact date.” It was still hard to believe.
“Yeah? That’s fucking awesome, babe. I can’t wait to meet her,” he said.
“I know. I can’t wait either. She’s supposed to call me soon, and I’ll let you know the details.” My cell phone rang again, the jail number on the screen. “Shit, I think that’s her.”
“I’ll let you go. Love you, babe. Great news.”
“Thanks, love you too.” I hung up with Casey and answered the new phone call, accepting the charges. “Hey, Mom?” This was all happening so fast.
“Ryker, honey, did you hear from Gabe?” she asked in a cheery voice.
“I did. They’re letting you out.” It hit me all at once, and a lump climbed my throat as my vision hazed. I sucked in a breath and with my voice cracking, I said, “Tell me what you need from me.”
“Oh, baby, don’t be upset.”
“I’m not upset. I’m happy.” With a blink, a hot tear raced down my cheek. I couldn’t lose it now. “I’m crying happy tears.” Fuck it, no way to hide anything from her. I swiped my cheek and sniffled as I paced toward the desk.
“I should hope so.” She giggled. “Anyway, can you set up an appointment with our hairdresser and bring me the flowered dress in my closet along with my white cardigan? I don’t know how cold it will be that day. It’ll be November already.”
“Yes, Mom. I’ll make it happen.” I thought for a moment. “Mom, I want you to meet Casey. He’s…we’re…I think I’ll move in with him after you and Wes settle.”
“Oh, you’re that serious?” she asked in a teasing tone.
“I am. We’re in love, and we’ve been dating since the start of summer.” I’d only told her bits and pieces when she’d called, since most of our conversations focused on legal shit or were cut short.
“That’s wonderful, Ryker. I can’t wait to meet him. He’s helped Wes, too.” She inhaled. “Listen, I have to go, but you should know Gabe set me up with a program for ex-inmates to help me find work. So, I should be back on my feet quickly.”
“Shit, he did?” My eyes widened. It seemed there was no end to the help Gabe had given us.
“He did,” she said. “Ryker? How is the shop doing?”
“Great, Mom. Casey has the whole ASU football team bringing their cars to us and then some. So, I hired a new mechanic this week and…” I glanced through the window again.
I should get back to work. “And I’m training Dylan to manage the shop, so I can have time off.
” I wouldn’t tell her about preparing to leave the state if Casey asked me to.
“I’m so happy to hear it, Ryker. I knew you could pull this off.” In a muffled voice, she said, “Okay, I’m almost done.” She huffed. “I have to go, but I’ll be in touch.”
“Sure, Mom. I’ll get everything set up for your release.” I breathed in deeply. “Don’t worry about a thing.”
After six weeks of football games, cozy evenings at Casey’s house or my apartment, the day came for Mom to be released.
Since Halloween landed on a weekday, I’d spent it at Casey’s place playing video games with his roommates and handing out candy to the neighborhood kids.
His buddy JJ had moved all his things out, and Casey now had the primary bedroom.
Today was a Saturday in November, and the summer heat was long gone.
Casey was traveling with the team for a game in West Virginia.
It was funny how these things worked out.
I didn’t have to feel bad about Casey not meeting Mom right away since he was out of town.
Dylan and Ian managed the shop, so I had the morning to take care of this.