In This Life (Sequel to 'In Another Life')

115

She smiled seeing me walk up. My parents turned to see who she was smiling at and my Mother caught my eye. I quickly looked at Mrs. Gail instead, avoiding my parents gaze. "Ma, I think we're going to go. I'm not feeling great, but I wanted to make sure that you have someone to help you clean up this mess." Mrs. Gail's eyes softened, and she took my hand that wasn't in Colby's. "I do. Those two boys said they would stick around and help. JJ and that one that you used to see. We can handle it. You go on and get some rest. I'll see you at the service?" She asked. I nodded. "Yes ma'am. I'll be there." "Terra honey, I have a favor to ask. You knew Amber better than anyone, I think. Do you think you could maybe say something at the service tomorrow? Show people that she wasn't all bad?" I swallowed hard, my nerves already stretched thin, tightened even more. "Um, Mrs. Gail, I don't know." Her face fell a little but she still smiled at me. "Okay dear. That's okay. Well, I'll see you tomorrow then." Shit. I couldn't say no to her sweet old face. "I'll do it Ma. I'll do it," I said, resigned. Her face lit up. "Oh wonderful, thank you dear. It doesn't have to be much. Just a few sentences." I smiled at her stiffly and nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat. "No problem. I'll see you tomorrow." I leaned over and kissed her weathered cheek, feeling my mother's eyes on me. I avoided her gaze, smiled one last time at Mrs. Gail, and turned back to Colby. "It was nice to see you again ma'am," he replied. She grinned at him and winked. "You too handsome. Make sure you take care of my girl. She's special, that one." He glanced at me, and nodded. "That she is. Very special." "Bye Ma," I said, waving at her. Then Colby and I walked away, without a glance back. When we got back in the car, I heaved a sigh of relief. "They didn't even say anything. Nothing at all. I don't know what's worse. When they won't get off my case and criticize every move I make or when they ignore me completely." "You ignored them too T. Maybe they just don't know how to handle this line that you've drawn. I think maybe they'll come around," he said, starting the engine. "Maybe," I whispered, staring out the window at the passing homes. "But I'm not sure that I want them too." My chest ached thinking about my parents not being in my life at all, but then I remembered that they hadn't been in my life for a long time. "Do you want to go back to the motel or go grab something to eat?" he asked, smiling at me. I smiled back, knowing that as long as I had that smile in my life, I would be okay. "Let's go get something to eat. Something really bad for us, but so good to us." He raised his eyebrows and laughed. "Okay, what do you suggest?" "Hmm," I said, running over my favorite places in my head. "Joe's Bar and Grill. It's in the next town over. It'll take us about thirty minutes to get there." He agreed, so we set out to the restaurant. I remembered going here with my childhood friend for her birthday. It had a Mexican theme, but really sold all kinds of different foods. I ordered the one pound burrito, knowing that I couldn't finish it. Colby ordered the New York Strip Entree. I just laughed and shook my head. "Always a steak man." He grinned and winked at me. "Always." When our food arrived, we both tore into it like we hadn't eaten in a week. I guess having heightened emotions is like swimming. You're always starving afterwards. I took one last bite of my burrito, and leaned back holding my stomach. "I can't. I can't," I said, groaning. "You only ate like half of that thing. We don't waste food in this house," Colby said, grinning and tapping my plate with his knife. The only thing left on his plate was a couple bites of mashed potatoes. "You eat it then," I said, pushing it towards him. "Are you kidding me? I can't even force this down," he said, pointing at his plate. I laughed, and signaled the waitress. "Can we get a to-go box?" "Of course. I'll be right back." I watched her walk away, then grabbed my stomach and groaned again. "Oh my God, I really did eat too much. Why did you let me do that?" He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You really think I'm about to come in between you and food? Not a chance." I laughed, then held my stomach again. "Stop making me laugh. It hurts." "Remember when we ordered two pizzas and finished both of them that very night?" he asked. "Oh God, don't remind me. I felt like I needed to run a hundred  miles to make up for that," I said, laughing. The waitress came back with the box, so we went ahead and paid for our meal as well. I put my food in the box, and Colby left a generous tip for the young waitress. It was almost nightfall by then, but I wasn't really feeling like going back to the motel just yet. "I wanna go walk all this food off. You wanna walk around the lake with me?" "Sure," he said, taking my hand in his. I navigated the directions to him, until we pulled into a small dirt area to park by the lake. The sun was almost completely down, but the sliver that was left lit up the lake like crystals were sparkling on top of it. "Is that ducks?" I glanced out to where he was pointing, and nodded. "Yea, it's ducks." A random memory popped into my head and I burst out laughing. "They're NOT ducks!" I exclaimed. He looked at me confused. "But you just said they were. They look like ducks." I laughed even harder and shook my head. "The TFIL video. You kept calling the swans or geese, whatever they were, ducks."