29. Riley
Riley
Riley's Parents' House - Southern Highlands, NSW
Epilogue
“Are you seriously nervous?” I ask Mabel as she fusses with her hair in the front seat.
“Yes, of course I am! This isn’t just your parents, it’s your whole family I am meeting tomorrow!” she exclaims, applying some lip balm on and continuing to inspect herself in the sunshade mirror.
Mabel had enough of her parents’ negative attitude, so she refused to go home this summer break.
Works out just fine for me. She can stay with me as long as she wants.
My parents insisted we stay with them from Christmas Eve for a few weeks over the summer break, and I am thrilled to share the farm and my hometown with Mabel.
“Do you think your mum will like the gift? Not too obvious?” she worries, looking over at me.
“It’s perfect. She’ll love it,” I reassure her, reaching across and putting my hand behind her head to draw her closer for a kiss. “Let’s head in. ”
We take in a few of our bags and open the door. The property is far away from the main road in a small community. No one locks their doors.
“Hello? Mum? Dad?” I call out.
The pitter patter of Mum scurrying from the direction of the kitchen gets louder coming over to us.
“Hello! I’m so glad you both came early!” Mum throws her arms around me and then Mabel.
“Thank you so much for inviting me,” Mabel says, balancing Mum’s Christmas gift in one hand.
“Open invitation. Don’t even ask, just come.” Mum steps back and puts her hand on Mabel’s cheek.
“We got you this!” Mabel announces. “But you have to open it now.”
“Now?! But it’s not Christmas Day?!”
“Trust us, Mum.” I wink at the both of them.
Mum takes the offered gift from Mabel and tears into the paper. “Oh, stop it! That’s fantastic!” And laughs. “Oliver! Get in here! The kids are here.”
Dad comes around the corner and gives us both a hug, and then gets Mum’s gift shoved in his face. “Oh, goodness. That might be the best one yet.”
Dad takes it from Mum to inspect. Mabel found someone online to make a Riley gnome in my leathers, along with a little helmet and my name and number on the back. It’s pretty fucking cute .
“Okay, now you have to open one of yours,” she announces and runs away.
“It’s okay! I can wait until…hang on, one of mine?” Mabel asks, looking between Dad and me.
“Cami just got a few things,” Dad explains.
I look back at Mabel, and she has tears threatening to spill.
“Hey, what’s up?” I hug her.
“Your mum didn’t have to get me anything, let alone more than one.”
“That’s Mum, though. She loves spoiling those she loves.” I kiss her temple.
“She’s just made me feel so welcomed in the first five minutes of being here than five weeks with my parents,” Mabel breathes out. Mum arrives back triumphantly, offering up the gift to Mabel. “I hope you like it!”
Unwinding my arms from around her, Mabel unwraps the gift and smiles widely. “Oh, my goodness. That’s so freaking cute.”
Raising up a gnome with a coffee mug in its hand, she says, “The start of my own collection!”
“Oh no. Now there’s two of them,” I remark and laugh with Dad.
We take our bags up to my room, and Mabel looks around.
“So, how many girls did you have in this room?” she teases as she inspects the books on the shelves. Not finding anything incriminating.
“Not sure.” I shrug, sitting on the bed, watching her .
“Not sure because the number is low and you don’t want to say, or high and you can’t keep a tally?”
She walks close enough to me that I can grab her arm and cast her onto the bed, hovering over her.
“The former in that statement.” And I lower my lips to hers. “I’m really glad you’re here.”
“I’m glad I’m here too.” She smiles at me.
“Riley! Can you come help me with something?” Mum calls out from the bottom of the stairs.
“Ten bucks she actually just made us lunch. No help required.” I wink and help Mabel up.
“Why wouldn’t she just call ‘lunch’?”
“She doesn’t want anyone to say no, but you can’t say ‘no’ to a little old lady needing help.”
We head downstairs and into the kitchen. “Yes! You owe me ten bucks!” I exclaim to Mabel.
“What are you scheming?” Mum asks me with squinted eyes on the other side of the kitchen island.
“That you actually called us for lunch, not to help.”
“No, I need help.” She turns to her walk-in pantry and points to the top shelf. “Can you grab me those platters, please? I don’t want your father dropping them.”
“Aww, so no lunch?” I tease.
“After the platter getting.” Mum smiles at me, waving her hand towards the pantry.
I retrieve the platters as Mum motions for Mabel to sit on the opposite side of the kitchen island .
“Near the sink so I can wash them,” Mum instructs from behind me.
“What’s on the menu for tomorrow?” I ask once I sit next to Mabel.
“Breakfast waffles, of course.”
“Of course!” I repeat.
“And then the usual. Meats, salads, sides. And I’m trying my hand at some mini Reubens.”
“Mabel’s favourite!” I exclaim.
“Oh, is it? I just had an urge to make them. I hope they will remain your favourite once I give them a go.” Mum smiles with a scrunch of her nose and starts washing the platters.
Glancing over at Mabel, I catch her eye. “That’s funny.”
“You didn’t tell her?”
“Nah. Spooky.”
“No. Just nice.” Mabel smiles and sits up a little straighter, relaxed.
We spend Christmas Eve with my parents, helping where they let us, preparing food and the house. Mum and Mabel sat together watching a Christmas film after dinner and chatted the entire way through it.
Christmas Day with my whole family, Mum introduced Mabel to everyone and proudly announcing what Mabel does in Javi’s team. But she didn’t leave Mabel on her own too long with people she's still getting to know.
I had a lot of empathetic conversations about narrowly missing out on taking the championship back from Javi, but that's the nature of this sport. He raced a phenomenal season and took out the top spot. Next year is going to be tight again. Cole and Fleur were right there with us.
Mum and Mabel are in the kitchen with my aunt, pouring glasses of wine for the three of them as they laugh and continue to chat. I love the sight of Mabel relaxed, smiling, laughing. Mum the same.
“Camilla, let’s go see which husband has fallen asleep.” My aunt sticks a thumb towards the outside deck. They pick up their glasses of wine and a full bottle, giggling all the way outside.
“Haven’t seen you all day.” I wrap my arms around Mabel’s waist as her arms circle around my neck.
“Starting to miss me?” she coos as she kisses my lips.
“Immensely.” I deepened the kiss. “I have something for you. ”Taking her hand, I lead her upstairs to my bedroom.
Settling on the bed, she looks at me sceptically. “Is this just a ploy to get me up here and fool around?”
“No. Hang on…maybe.” I smirk at her rolling her eyes.
Digging into my bag, I pull out a small wrapped box and present it to her.
She looks at it dubiously, and now it’s my turn to roll my eyes and sit next to her. “Calm down and just open it.”
She continues to look at me and takes the box from my hand and unwraps it.
Flipping open the lid, her lips spread into a smile. She picks up a set of keys and looks over at me.“I bought a property here, and I would love it if you would move in with me. Would you be my roomie, not just during the season, but on the off-season, too?”
“Yes, I would love that. I couldn’t think of anything better I would love to do.” She throws her arms around me and straddles me, crashing her mouth on mine.