28. Opportunity To Run
28
OPPORTUNITY TO RUN
“W hy am I not surprised it didn’t take you long to call?” Foster asked on Sunday when he noticed his mother’s picture pop up on his phone.
“I wanted to call yesterday,” his mother said. “But Laken told me to give you time to get home. I probably ruined a chance to meet Charlotte today, huh?”
He looked at his girlfriend sitting on the deck smirking at him. Marco was lying by her feet.
“Are you in town?”
“No,” his mother said.
“Then how did you plan on meeting her?”
“Really, Foster. King of technology? The same way I met everyone else the first time. Video chat. Is Charlotte there?”
“I’m not sure I want to answer that,” he said.
“Which means she is,” his mother said, getting excited. “I’m calling you back via video. Answer me or I’ll call you all night long.”
She hung up on him before he could tell her no.
Not that he had the courage to do that.
“Sorry. My mother wants to meet you.” The phone rang in his hand. “I can just tell her you said you didn’t want to meet her.”
“No,” Charlotte said, laughing. “I don’t want to get on her bad side.”
He slid the button to answer. “What took you so long?” his mother asked.
“I was checking to make sure Charlotte wanted to talk to you. I gave her an opportunity to run.”
“She wouldn’t run,” his mother said. He knew Charlotte could hear his mother at this point. “Not after what I heard last night. She is going to stick by you.”
He let out a sigh. Foster didn’t need his mother stirring things when he was feeling guilty over the fact that he couldn’t get the words of love out of his throat on Friday night.
At least it wasn’t awkward between him and Charlotte.
Though after this call it might be.
“I’m not so sure about that,” he said. “Depends on what you say to her. You’re scary.”
Charlotte laughed when his mother said, “I love her already. You’re cracking jokes and not being sarcastic about it either.”
“Don’t be so positive,” he said. He turned his phone around. “Aileen Carlisle, meet Charlotte Moore.”
“Oh,” his mother said. “You’re so pretty.”
Charlotte blushed. “Thank you. Can I say you’ve raised a bunch of great kids? At least the ones I’ve met.”
“They had a lot of nice things to say about you last night,” his mother said.
“How many of them did you talk to?” Foster asked. He expected Laken. Maybe even Nelson, but not Braylon and West.
“I talked to all the women,” his mother said.
“Which means Nelson too,” he said.
His mother laughed. “I won’t tell him you said that, but yes. I got in touch with him today at the airport. I think he only answered because he was bored sitting there waiting for his flight.”
“Or he missed his Mommy,” he said.
“Charlotte, you are a miracle worker through and through. You have to be to have him joking this much.”
Foster didn’t think it was anything different than he normally did around his siblings. But maybe his mother didn’t see it as much anymore.
“I’m not so sure anyone has ever thought I was a miracle worker,” she said. “But it’s nice everyone thinks so.”
“Could be her age,” he said.
Charlotte’s jaw dropped. His mother scolded him. “Maybe you need an older woman to keep you in line when you say things like that.”
“I’m not that old,” she said.
He burst out laughing. “I’m in the doghouse,” he said. “I know it.”
“You’ve been in it enough,” his mother said.
“Not as much as Rowan,” he said.
“Rowan just didn’t care enough and got in trouble because you could dare him to do anything.”
“So Foster was an instigator?” she asked. “I wouldn’t have expected that.”
“Not really,” his mother said. “It was more Foster’s way to get Rowan to leave him alone. Rowan could be a pain in the butt as a kid. We all knew it. Thankfully he outgrew it.”
“We think he did,” he said. “We don’t see him enough.”
“I’m surprised you weren’t the one that wanted to move away from the rest of us,” his mother said. “But I’m glad you stayed close to some of your siblings. He’s the one I worried about the most, Charlotte.”
“Why is that?” she asked. “He seems pretty grounded to me as long as you give him space when he starts to pace or his eye twitches.”
He was stunned that she knew those tells of his. “And that is why everyone said what they did about you, Charlotte. You see those things with my son that many didn’t. Or can’t see. As long as you don’t let him stay away too long, you two will be fine.”
“I don’t need dating advice, Mom,” he said. Talk about embarrassing.
“Everyone needs advice,” his mother said. “And we know I love to give it.”
“We are going now,” he said. He hung up on her before she could say bye.
Charlotte was laughing. “That was rude.”
“She’s used to it from me. She’s probably laughing on the other end. I’m sure she expected it.”
“I just find your family dynamics so different but refreshing.”
“We aren’t what people think. That’s a good thing,” he said.
“I think it is.”
“I told you how my mother tricked West into taking a vacation that led him to meet Abby. Well, she started a fight with Laken and Jamie too.”
Charlotte’s jaw dropped. “Why would she do that?”
“Because she wanted to put doubts in Laken’s head to get her to come clean about a past relationship to Jamie. After my sister got all worked up over nothing, she realized she’d been played and gave my mother hell. That was how my mother first met Jamie too.”
“How did Jamie react to it?”
“He took it in stride. Like you, he doesn’t have that great of a relationship with his parents.”
Maybe they were all destined to find someone who needed a family like the one he had.
Which was funny because as a kid, he couldn’t wait to get away from his.
“Everyone seems comfortable enough around the other. I appreciated your siblings making me feel welcome last night.”
“They are good about those things if they want to let you in. I know you needed me to give you something months ago. I hope I have.”
“You have, Foster. More than you realize.”