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I’m about to respond with something snarky when the front door opens to a middle-aged woman with Bodhi’s brilliant eyes, but much lighter, blonde hair.
“Bodhi,” she smiles, pulling him into her and hugging him closely. He towers over her, but still manages to look like a little boy in his mother’s arms.
“Hey Mom,” he says, pulling back and kissing her on the cheek.
Then her eyes settle over me, and where I anticipated disapproval, I’m met with warm tenderness.
“And you must be Keaton,” she smiles, reaching out to pull me into a hug much the same as the one she gave her son. “I am so pleased to finally meet you.”
“I’m happy to meet you as well,” I say, stepping back to Bodhi’s side when she releases me.
She looks me over, pressing a hand to her chest before reaching out and whacking Bodhi on the arm.
“You said she was beautiful, but my goodness, Bodhi… she is absolutely breathtaking,” she exclaimed, and my face flushes with heat.
“I know, Mom, but I think you’re embarrassing her.”
She has the decency to look a little sorry before collecting herself.
“You’ll have to excuse me, dear. You are the first girl Bo has ever brought home, and I’m just delighted,” she says, looking so very proud of her boy.
We follow her into the house, Bodhi guiding me with his hand on the small of my back. Just as I’d suspected, the interior of the house is designed in a very clean and modern style.
“Keaton, honey, you just make yourself at home. Dinner should be ready shortly,” she says as she leads us through her home. “Your father had a phone call, but should join us shortly,” she informs Bodhi.
“Sounds like we have just enough time for a tour,” Bodhi smiles, and his mother winks at us before heading back into the kitchen.
“Shall we?” he asks, directing me toward a staircase with a sweep of his arm.
“Lead the way,” I say, and let him take my hand as we ascend the stairs.
Chapter 56
After showing Keaton around, we come to a stop outside of my childhood bedroom. Inside looks as if I never left, and I know that it’s because the staff keeps up with it, but I also wonder why my parents haven’t done something else with the room. It’s not like I’m ever going to live here again.
“Wow, you really have always loved cars, haven’t you?” Keaton says, taking notice of the posters and model cars filling the space.
“My whole life,” I say, the room bringing back tons of memories. Not all of them are great, though. “I literally had to beg my dad to allow me to hang the posters. He said they made the room look tacky but given that they weren’t the type with half-naked girls on them, I won in the end.”
“I cannot imagine my parents ever caring whether we hung posters in our room. It’s like a rite of passage or something,” she says, walking over to a shelf that holds pictures and other little knick-knacks.
“Yeah, well, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, my dad is kind of a dick,” I say.
“Kind of?” she jokes, looking back at me over her shoulder.
I chuckle, coming up behind her to look at the family pictures she’s perusing. So many of them are of me and Tommy. It’s a bittersweet feeling to see his smiling face. I’m reminded of all the times we had together growing up, but it will never feel like enough.
“How old are you here?” she asks, fingering the edge of a frame.
“Ten, I think. We’re at the pond on my grandparents’ property,” I tell her, thinking back on that day and how long Tommy and I sat out there waiting to catch a fish. I miss times like that. When my dad had my grandparents moved into their retirement community, the property started to fall apart, but there wasn’t anything that could be done about it. I didn’t even know who owned that land now.
“You guys look a lot alike,” she says, smiling softly.
“Yeah, he started to take more after my dad as we got older. See,” I say, pointing to another picture of us from about a year before he died.
We’re standing side by side, arms thrown over each other’s shoulders, laughing at something, though I don’t remember what anymore.
“Oh wow,” she says, leaning forward to get a better look. “You still looked so much like one another, even with the little differences.”
