onslaught of questions and judgment that was undoubtedly about to head my way. Scout blinked up at me innocently––obviously having no idea of the hot grease fire we were about to step into.
After taking a deep breath to try to calm my thrumming heart, I said to the little boy as I reached for the door handle, “There’s no time like the present. Right?”
As soon as the door closed behind me, Mom yelled from the kitchen. “Avery, darling, come in here for a minute. We need to talk.”
When I passed by my dad sitting in his La-Z-Boy watching television in the living room, I mumbled, “Wish me luck.”
He harrumphed, but wasn’t brave enough to say anything that my mother might overhear.
Once I sat down at the granite counter with Scout in my lap, Mom presented the little boy with an apple juice box. He made grabby hands for the juice before taking a giant slurp from the straw she had inserted for him. Mom’s thin eyebrows snapped together before she asked me in a sharp, accusatory tone, “Have you not fed that child?”
“Oh, I…” When my sentence trailed off, she must have figured out the answer because she moved to the large bag of supplies Molly had dropped off at our house earlier, retrieved a small bowl of dry Cheerios, and set them on the counter in front of him.
The child pounced on the snack like a starving wolf. Mom narrowed her eyes at me, but refrained from further comment on my obvious lack of parenting skills. She probably didn’t want to take a chance that I might decide I couldn’t handle the responsibilities of being a mother.
With Scout’s needs taken care of for the time being, Mom fluttered around the kitchen preparing the two of us mugs of hot tea. “How was the wedding, dear?”
I knew this was how the woman operated. She would ask some innocuous questions first to lull me into a false sense of security before she pounced with what she really wanted to say. I loved my mother, but she could be a lot to handle when things didn’t work out how she wished.
“The wedding was simple, lovely, and perfect for them. They are obviously so in love and ready to spend the rest of their lives together,” I answered honestly.
Mom nodded with a faraway look before she snapped back to the present and said, “I just hope they get this custody nonsense straightened out. Anyone with working eyes can see that this little boy belongs with the two of them.”
I nodded, unsure what to add.
“Of course, with you on their side, how could they lose?” Mother patted my cheek with her cool hand after she set a steaming mug of English breakfast tea on a coaster in front of me.
I wondered if she truly believed that, or if she was trying to build my confidence. Either way, it was kind of her to say.
After taking a tentative sip of the perfectly-sweetened tea, I said, “I sure hope we win this case. It’s bound to be the battle of my lifetime, and I don’t want to let any of them down.”
“You won’t,” Mom assured me, as if she already knew the outcome.
Evidently done with that topic, Mom sat down on the high stool next to mine at the counter with her own mug of tea and asked, “So, how was your date with the gorgeous, new vet in town?”
“It was nice,” I answered honestly, plastering on a smile.
I had known this vanilla response wouldn’t suffice and was proven right when she glared at me and asked, “Nice? Is that all you have to tell me about my future son-in-law?”
I tried to let her down easy. “I don’t think we’re heading in that direction, Mom.”
It became obvious that I had worded my response too lightly when her brows lifted almost to her hairline and she asked, “But you might be?”
I shook my head and said quietly, “He’s not the one for me.”
Unable to hide her annoyance, Mom asked, “Why? Is he too handsome? Too smart? Too successful?”
I didn’t appreciate her trying to force the issue with me, so I answered in a bit too harsh of a tone, “It’s not happening with me and Noah. Got it?”
Mom pursed her lips before she asked, “Why not? Because of that criminal you were seen with at the park today?”
And… There it was. This is what she had been itching to ask me about since I walked through the