Our Time Will Come - An After Story

155

Hardin

"Hello, son." the blonde, middle aged woman chimes, and I'm so surprised to see her that I leave her standing at the door, my mouth still wide open. She's here. My mum is here! "Mum!" Is the only word I can muster as I take in her presence. "You said you couldn't make it!" I blurt, not realising how I might sound. It's true though, she gave the whole excuse about it being far too short notice, so I had no idea that she'd turn up on my doorstep.

"Oh, charming. It's lovely to see you too mother dearest." She mocks me as i gesture for her to come in. "It is! It's more than lovely. It's brilliant! Come here!" I beam as I open my arms and pull her in for a hug. I know. Weird, right? I don't fucking hug, but that's the positive effect that this morning has had on me.. and this is just the cherry on the cake. I never thought I would be a mummy's boy in a million years, but that's the effect that distance has.

I can't help but laugh at my mum's dramatic reaction to me showing affection. "Who are you, and what have you done with Hardin?" She schemes as I let go of the embrace. I ignore her wisecrack, still shell shocked that she's even here.

"I can't believe you're here!" My voice cracks as I take her bags, closing the door behind her. "Are you kidding? Mike and I wouldn't miss this for the world." She beams and I find myself smiling with her, but wondering where Mike is. "Mike will be in in a second, he's just parking the rental." She reveals and I breathe a sigh of relief. We definitely don't need any more drama on that front.

I bring in the bags, knowing from the weight of them that she brought gifts. As I'm lifting the final suitcase, Mike struts up the driveway with yet another bag. "How long are they planning on staying? Fucking hell." I subconsciously groan.

"Hi!" I bluntly greet the bearded man who looks fairly happy to see me. "How are you!" He beams and I make painful small talk with him as I close the door behind us. "Come in!" I break an awkward silence as I gesture for them to follow me into the sitting room. It's always slightly awkward, bringing my mum into a room of my fathers side of the family. The family that was created after their nasty divorce all those years ago, but we all try to get along for the sake of the children. 'Try' being the key word.

"Look who turned up!" I beam as we enter the room full of people and we're greeted with huge smirks from everyone of them. Somethings going on, isn't it. "You all knew about this!" I finally put two and two together and realise and all of their smirks turn into a mob of laughter. "We wanted to surprise you!" My Tessa reveals and I find myself laughing along with them. Those sneaky fuckers.

There I was surprising Emery with Addy, when they all knew all along that my mother was on the way. We get to talking and with that, I leave them all to it. I take their bags up to the empty guest room and head on up to get showered and changed. It's only a matter of time before my mother comments on my slobbish appearance.

Everybody seems to have made the effort, leaving me looking like a bum. With that, I take an impromptu shower. Tessa has some kind of photographer coming over soon to capture the twins first birthday celebrations, along with some snaps of Emery and Charlie heading off to their prom night. There's no doubt that she'll make me get in on the snaps, which means I should probably wear something other than all black.

I wrap a towel around my waist and begin to root through my wardrobe, but trying to find something with a bit of colour proves to be harder than I thought. I eventually find a beige, long sleeve polo shirt, which is about as colourful as it's about to get. Hell, I look like I borrowed one of Ken's golfing outfits. I reign it in by pairing the shirt with a pair of black, loose fitted jeans and black Chelsea boots to maintain a sense of self-comfort.

With that, I head back on into the bathroom to run a comb through my hair, adding a shit tonne of Charlie's hair gel in the process. I find myself gawping at myself in the mirror, not wanting to shave off the beard that I have grown fond of but knowing that if I don't, my mother will rip me to shreds. I can hear her extremely British voice now. "Oh dear god, my son is a caveman." Typical Trish. I breathe a deep sigh before grabbing my electric shaver from the cabinet. "Fuck it." I mumble to myself before buzzing the fucker off. I guess I look somewhat decent now for the over the top photoshoot that Tessa has planned.