Life Is What You Make It (A Tom Hiddleston Fanfic)

Part 33: The Barbecue

Take It Easy

I fall into a routine. I sleep until about 8:00, then I go for a run, and I come back home to have breakfast with Mom. Some mornings, I get up earlier to help Mom with the horses. She has four now. Two are hers (Ringo and Sasha); another belongs to a girl whose trying to become a competition barrel racer, but her parents recently split up so her mom can't afford the upkeep; the last one is a sweet old man whom Mom took in from a rescue group - I call him Blue.

Though he's a little too feeble to ride, I've taken to leading Blue around the small corral we have three or four times, then I give him some apple mush to eat. As the barrel racer takes her horse for rides regularly, Mom and I ride Ringo and Sasha almost every afternoon just before sunset. Since Norco is Horsetown USA, the town is set up so it has riding trails throughout the residential areas.

"You remember the barbecue is tomorrow," Mom says as she lets Ringo have his head. "Yes, I remember." 

"I invited Dean. He said he'll be here with his wife and daughter," Mom says. "What's her name again?"

"Which one - the wife or daughter?" I ask, prodding Sasha along when she finds an interesting shrub to nibble.

"Both."

"His wife is Sherise, their daughter is Annabeth."

"Sherise and Annabeth, Sherise and Annabeth," I hear Mom repeating to herself.

"Who else is coming?" I ask.

"Oh, you know, your brother, your aunt and uncle. And...I took the liberty of peeking at the contacts on your phone."

"Moooommmm!" I say like a sixteen-year-old.

"Yeah, I've been meaning to talk to you about that, Baby Girl. You really should have a different passcode than my birthdate," she says with a smug look on her face. Her facial expression reminds me a bit of Tom when he was able to regurgitate from memory all of the things about me on our first date.

'First date' - wow, that seems like so long ago, yet in some ways it just seems like yesterday. In my mind, I see Tom's face and his sweet little smile, and I'm suddenly sad all over again.

"Okay, just tell me who you invited, and I'll forgive you," I say with a sigh.

"Well, apparently a number of your friends don't respond to messages like, 'Hi, this is Mia MacKenzie's mom' but I was able to talk to one or two."

"Spill it, Mom."

"Okay," she says, leaning toward me from her saddle like she's conspiring with me. "So, I talked to Anna, and she is coming with her son and mom. The other guest is going to stay a surprise," she says, giggling like a schoolgirl.

"It better not be Tom." I say in a stern tone.

Mom looks offended, so much so that I feel bad for my tone. "The surprise guest is absolutely not Tom. At least, I hope not since he said he's bringing his wife."  Okay, so it's Channing and Jenna, I think. 

"Okay, cool. It should be a party then."

Too Many Cooks

The day of the party arrives. As it's Southern California, the weather is nice for a barbecue even this late in the year.