Chapter 14
CHAPTER 14
“ I have to do something about my mother,” I told my best friend, Mei. We were in the kitchen supposedly doing homework. She’d asked who Max, the stranger, was, and I’d updated her, but I was focused on the bigger picture. “She has no life.”
“She seems cheery enough,” Mei said.
“That’s an act,” I said.
“Pretty good act,” Mei said.
It is a good act, but I could see through it: My mom needed help. She didn’t talk about the past much, but Ozzie told me that my father turfed her out when he found out I was on the way and then got her arrested for the stuff he’d done, and she escaped and ended up in Rocky Start as a good place to hide out for a while, and then she met Coral and Ozzie and had me and stayed, and I think she’d just been scared and grateful for so long that that was her default now. But it’d been worse the past year; she used to dance and sing along to music on one of our million iPods and then she just stopped. She stopped making art, too, after the saints, which was worse. She just . . . stopped. I think maybe she’d been grateful for so long that it took her down and she finally gave up everything else but making other people feel good. Cheery Boost 24/7.
I hated it that she gave up.
Mei tapped her pencil on her notebook, deep in thought, which is why she was so good to talk things through with. She paid attention and asked questions until she understood the problem. I loved Mei.
“Why doesn’t she date?” Mei said. “My mom dates all the time. I think it keeps her from going crazy.” She shook her head. “Always younger guys, too. I told her when she starts dating guys my age, I’m leaving. She said by the time she started dating guys my age, I’d have my own place anyway.”
Mei didn’t use to date, she studied, but she said it was just because she hadn’t met the right guy. Then she met the right guy. Then she thought everybody should date.
“She went out with a couple of guys when I was too little to remember it,” I told her, “but Ozzie said they were all losers, and she had me to raise and the store to run and Ozzie and me to feed, so she just gave up on the whole dating thing, and by then half the town was stopping by the shop to chat and get a Cheery Boost from her smile. She was stuck.”
Mei tapped her pencil thoughtfully some more. Then she said, “There’s nobody in town that’s worthy of her except for Darius’s father. Maybe you and Darius could fix them up.”
Darius was my boyfriend, and his father, Luke, was great but . . .
I shook my head. “They’ve known each other forever. If there was going to be a spark, it would have flamed by now.”
“Are you and Darius okay?” Mei said.
That was a surprise. “We’re fine.” I wasn’t sure what that was about, but I took a guess anyway. “You and Marley okay?”
She was silent, and I thought, Uh oh.
“The thing is,” she said slowly, “he just wants to be a mechanic. And that’s fine, it really is, but . . .”
“But?”
“But I want the Supreme Court.” She met my eyes. “I know it shouldn’t matter, but it will.”
“Maybe.”
“No.” She looked miserable. “I was just going to let it go, but I talked to my mom, and she pointed out that if I wasn’t serious about Marley, maybe it would be good to tell him now so he could find somebody staying in town.”
“I don’t think he’d feel that way.”
“It’s not about how he’d feel now, it’s about what the right thing to do is.”
Mei had very rigid ideas of right and wrong, which was why she was going to be an excellent lawyer and probably a stellar Supreme Court justice.
Just not so much of a girlfriend. “You know,” I said. “It’s his life. You shouldn’t be making decisions for him. Tell him what you’re thinking and talk about it.”
Mei shook her head. “He’ll just want to go along as we are. He just drifts, he doesn’t think.”
Okay, I knew that wasn’t right, I’d seen Marley working on the Pathfinder’s engine for Ozzie, and he was intense in his focus.
Then the back door opened and Darius came in carrying a box of brownies from Coral, perfect timing as always. I love Darius.
I thought that maybe I should talk to Darius about Mei and Marley and then decided, no, Marley had enough people messing with his life with Mei and Lian making decisions for him. Darius and I were staying out of it.
“Where’s this stranger?” he asked. He was very protective of me, which is nice sometimes and sometimes not. Most of the time, it was great. So I’d texted him the latest and he’d shown up, bearing food, which, really. He’s great.
“Mom is showing him Ozzie’s room where he’ll be spending the night.”
“You’re okay with that?”
“Yes,” I said firmly.
“Lock your door tonight.” He kissed my cheek. “You got any milk?”
I got the milk from the fridge while Mei got glasses and Darius unloaded the box from Coral’s.
“Do you think your dad and Poppy’s mom could hook up?” Mei asked him as she handed him a glass .
“No.” Darius took the carton from me and poured milk all around. “Why are we talking about this?”
“Because,” I said. “I’m leaving for college in August, and Mom won’t have anybody to keep her company, not even grumpy old Ozzie, so that pretty much kills my bliss. I mean Ozzie wasn’t much fun for her to live with aside from the interesting junk he brought home”—really, if you crossed a raccoon with a pack rat, you’d get Ozzie—“but he’d at least have been here. Now he’s gone, and in August I will be, too, and she might not even have a place to stay unless she lets Coral or Pike or Lian help her, and she’d hate that, she doesn’t want to be pitied, she wants to be in control, and things are out of control now, and I’m scared for her .”
Darius put his glass down and put his arm around me. “Chill. I’ll think of something.” He frowned. “Isn’t it about time she got married again?”
I said, “What again? She’s never been married. And she hated dating, according to Oz.”
Darius snorted. “I bet Oz hated her dating and convinced her to stop,” and that was so likely, I couldn’t believe I’d never seen that. Darius was very smart. He got into Harvard like Mei did, which I wouldn’t have as a gift, but he was very proud so I celebrated with him. Darius was the best.
I nodded at him approvingly. “My mother needs somebody like you.”
“I don’t do older women.” Darius took a bite of brownie.
“Your dad is the only hope then,” Mei said.
“Maybe not,” I said. “There’s this new guy, the stranger I told you about. Max. He was scoping out my mother’s butt while she cooked. And she’s interested in him, too; her eyes follow him around the room when she thinks I’m not looking. I mean she tries not to look, but she looks. And he has this great dog, Maggs, who adores him. That has to be a good thing.”
Darius frowned at me. “Stranger comes to town and you’re trying to fix your mother up with him?”
“He’s a good stranger,” I told him. “He threw that guy trying to scam us out of the building into the street. And he got rid of Norman, too. I think my mother just needs a nudge. They’re smiling at each other. The lasagna was excellent. Maggs really should stay off that paw. I think I’m going to invite him to stay in Ozzie’s apartment for a couple of days?—”
I stopped because Darius was shaking his head. “Do not interfere in your mother’s life. That’s her business, not yours. Especially inviting strangers to stay. Bad idea.”
Yes, but she’s not taking care of business, I wanted to say, but I didn’t. Arguing with Darius when he had an opinion was a waste of time. I know I just said it was a bad idea to interfere in Marley’s life, but my mother was different. I knew what I was doing. Max and Mom were both interested in each other, they just weren’t doing anything about it. Darius and I have been friends since we were nine, but then one day we grew up and realized we were a lot more and went for it because why wait when you know? But those Gen X-ers were just slow. Well, they were old.
But they weren’t dead.
And Max looked like the kind of guy who went after what he wanted.
And my mom was the best, so who wouldn’t want to be with her?
So I needed a plan . . .