Page 126 of Take My Kiss
But it’s my window to face this head on, so I’m taking it.
“I’ll come,” I tell her. “But I’m not bringin’ my kids.”
“Oh.” She sounds genuinely upset. “Maybe another time, then.”
“Yeah,” I agree, although that won’t be happening.
“It’d be nice to have someone to help with the funeral arrangements. Maybe you could go with me to pick out his casket and stone.”
I’m halfway surprised they haven’t already done that but shrug it off. “Sure, I can do that.”
Whatever it takes to get her alone.
“Great, thanks.”
A small,very small,part of me feels for her at losing someone she’s spent the past thirty years being married to and sharing a life. It can’t be easy, even for a cold, soulless person like her.
“I’ll see you soon, Mom,” I tell her before hanging up.
Although we’ve never really had a relationship, it hurts to think of her having an ulterior motive for wanting me there.
But at least I’m not going unprepared and vulnerable.
Not this time.
chapter twenty-eight
Amelia
Walkinginto my childhood home after over a decade is a weird experience.
Everything’s the same and somehow different.
It’s amindfuck.
Mom’s hair is shorter and she has more wrinkles, but she’s as familiar as I remember.
“How was the drive?” she asks as we walk toward the sitting room at the back of the house.
“It was good. Beautiful views in the summer. My driver got us here in under three hours.”
“You have a driver?” she asks over her shoulder.
“Mm-hmm. Mostly for longer commutes so I don’t risk fallin’ asleep,” I say, purposely neglecting to mention her dead son is one of my drivers.
“You shoulda told me that. I could’ve sent Raymond.”
She did know. It’s a condition I’ve had since I started driving, but no one could ever figure out why.
“It’s okay, mine didn’t mind.”
Samuel and Maddox are parked down the block, waiting for when I suggest to my mother they take us to the funeral homeappointment instead of her. She assumes they dropped me off and left.
She directs me to a small table in the sunroom, then we sit across from each other.
“You still drink tea?” she asks, pouring some into a cup.
“Mm-hmm. Thanks.”
