After losing her job and her girlfriend, it's time for Annie Abraham to admit defeat and move back in with her parents. She has hardly been back to her tiny Montana hometown since the unforgettable summer before her senior year of college, when she...
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It makes my parents laugh when it gets to three o'clock and I have to leave to get to Otto's and Hannah's schools in time for pick-up. I make it to the high school just in time for the last bell, and I scan the sea of kids for Otto's face. When I spot him, he's not alone. He's walking with a short chubby girl who keeps tucking her hair behind her ears, and when her hand drops to her side, their fingers brush. When she walks in the opposite direction, Otto watches her go.
This time, when he gets into the car, he doesn't make a comment about me not being his mom. He just sits in the passenger seat and watches the girl walk away, and I watch him.
"What's her name?" I ask softly, so as not to startle him out of his pining.
He sighs a lovesick sigh. "Madison."
"She's cute," I say. Otto sighs again.
"Yeah."
I don't know what witchcraft is allowing me to talk to Otto about a girl he's obviously into without him shutting me out but I risk pushing it too far when I say, "You like her, huh?"
He goes slightly pink. We don't have much time, only a few minutes between here and Hannah's school. "She's cool. We play the same games. But it doesn't matter 'cause Mom won't even let me go to her house."
"What, like a playdate?" I ask.
"Ugh, no," he says with a groan. "Even Hannah is too old for playdates, Annie." He lets out a very teenage grunt and busies himself with his backpack. "Madison asked me to go over to hers a few weeks ago. Like, for the night, 'cause one of our favorite games got a big new update. But Mom said no. Which is totally lame and unfair."
"Have you had Madison over to your place?" I ask. Teenagers are not my area of expertise, not even when I was one.
"No."
"So your mom doesn't even know this girl that you want to spend the night with?" I glance at the route on my phone to make sure I'm going the right way, imagining a future where I don't need Google Maps because this is my routine every Tuesday.
"No," he says again. "It's not like that, though. We only wanted to play the game and hang out and it takes, like, forty minutes to drive to her house from home so it just makes more sense to stay over."
"Maybe you could talk to your mom about having Madison over for dinner," I say, praying I'm not stepping over boundaries. I need to brush up on Laurel's rules with her kids. "Take it easy, don't rush straight into a sleepover."
"Whatever," he says, looking out of the window.
"I just mean, you know, if you like her then you could woo her with regular dates before you jump straight into sleepover territory." I glance at him. At least he isn't scowling.
"We only wanted to play games. She wants to check out my Xbox."
I laugh and shake my head at him, and this time when I sneak a look at him, there's a hint of a smile on his face. "You don't need to spend the night together for that to happen," I say. "I'm sure your mom would be okay with Madison coming over for a few hours." I pull up outside Hannah's school and put the car in park, turning to Otto. "You have to understand where your mom's coming from. She just had a baby last year – she's not ready for her little boy to grow up, and she is definitely not ready to be a grandma."
