a hip-rolling gait that made me think of a cowboy swagger, but Mom told me it was because he had an old injury that flared up sometimes. I’d preferred my story to hers back then, and I want to believe it even now, though the signs of arthritis are in his bony hands too.
His eyes narrow ever so slightly, and my reprieve is over. I’ve practiced this. I know what to say, so I launch into my prepared speech.
“It really is so good to see you, Unc.” I test out the affectionate nickname and he doesn’t so much as flinch. “I don’t know how much you’ve kept up, but my mom and dad are good, driving each other crazy, but they wouldn’t have it any other way. Oakley is as all right as a pain in the ass older brother can be. He’s an accountant, got married last year, and probably has a five-year plan for home ownership, two-point-five babies, and a Labradoodle named Daisy.”
I smile even as I’m smack talking my brother. He’s the sore thumb in our family, rebelling against Mom and Dad’s creative, hippie hearts and souls by going full suit and tie. He even carries a briefcase. Shudder.
“And what about you? Last time I saw you, you were in middle school, wearing paint splattered overalls with your head buried in a sketch book. You still drawing?” Unc seems genuinely interested, but the nostalgia of the image he paints isn’t the warm fuzzy of a happy memory. Those were hard days where my awkwardness made me a weird outsider, Mom hadn’t understood why that was a bad thing, and I struggled to become ‘normal’, whatever that meant. News flash, I failed on that mission spectacularly.
I shake my head. “No, not much anymore. I moved on to photography in high school for the yearbook and never looked back. It’s everything now.”
He asked for me to tell him everything, and photography is my most important truth. I can at least give him that.
“Whatcha take pictures of?” he asks.
Safe territory, thank goodness.
I pull out my phone and show him the picture I snapped of the burger I ate. He grabs my wrist, pushing the phone further away like he should be wearing glasses but refuses to on principle. When he focuses on the screen image, his mouth moves a little as he reads the caption.
“What’s tee-dee-eff? And the little pictures?”
I can’t help but grin. “It means ‘to die for’, because it was so good. The skull is shorthand for dead, the angel for heaven. Just saying it was really delicious, basically.”
He quirks a bushy white brow. “Then why not just put delicious? You kids are taking the nuances of the English language and turning it back into hieroglyphics for no good goddamn reason.”
I shrug, amused at the drawl of his accent. High-ROW-gli-fix. That second syllable lasted at least a full two seconds. “Just how we communicate to keep the old fogies from understanding,” I tease back.
“I’ll show you old fogie,” he scowls before winking, and it feels so easy and right, as if no time has passed. “So, what brings you to Great Falls?”
“Wanted something different than the city, I suppose.” Just keep repeating that as your mantra, Willow.
“City life not treating you kindly?” He sounds irked at the very idea.
“It was. I make money off my pictures, but like to stay busy. Just realized that I’ve never been more than an hour from home and thought this sounded like as good a place as anywhere. At least I have family here.” His jaw tightens, and I rush to fill the moment with chatter before we get off on the wrong foot. “I considered a beach in Mexico too, but you won out, so feel special,” I tell him with a smirk, hoping to ease those questions in his gaze.
“You picked this shithole over a beach? You are stupid, ain’t you?” There’s no heat in the insult, more that he’s laughing with me at the joke.
And it’s okay. We’re okay for the moment. Too bad it’s time to pick at the sloppy stitches of family that are barely holding us together.
“Stupid enough to pick up with no notice and drive across the state to a town I’ve never been to with only a few hundred bucks to my name and approximately no plan past this moment right here.” I cringe. “Actually, I thought I’d see if you need any help around here.” I look around the bar before focusing back