Page 86 of Crave

“How come only you can call her that?” he asks.

“You call her Dee. I call her Deedee because she is my daughter and I love her.”

“Well, I love her too,” he says, causing me to gasp in surprise. Tash lets out a loud squeal as she squeezes my thigh under the table.

“You love her?” my mother asks. She finally looks up and probes him with her eyes. He doesn’t shrink away from her intense stare.

“I do.” He reaches over and plants a kiss on my cheek. “So much.”

“Remember I told you to stay away?” she asks, but she’s playful and smiling.

“I couldn’t,” he says, looking into my eyes while he squeezes my hand.

“You might love her, but I will always love her twice as much.”

“Not possible,” he says.

“Look at this one,” Tash says, removing a picture from the old photo album. It’s a picture of our mother, a much younger version, sitting behind the wheel of a car. The car door is open, revealing an extremely short skirt on my conservative mother. The picture must have been taken in the late seventies because her hair is parted down the middle with a flare at the end. “You look like a black Farah Fawcett, Mama. And I’ve never seen you behind the wheel of a car before.”

Mom takes the picture from Tash and smiles at it.

“Your father take this picture. He tried to teach me, but he got impatient with me. He said I didn’t know how to handle the stick well.” I choke on my water, and Jake automatically starts to rub my back. Tash and I look at each other, but she turns her face to hide her laugh. Luke laughs but starts to cough to hide his laughter. Jake is hiding his smile behind his hand, but Chris can’t hold his laughter. He laughs so hard he has to hold on to his wife for support. This causes a chain reaction, and we all start to laugh uncontrollably.

“What? Did I tell joke?” She sucks her teeth at us. “Your father yelled at me, and we got in big fight. I never drive again.”

“He yelled at you? I don’t remember him ever raising his voice. Not even once,” Tash says.

“That was the only time he did it because I yelled back, and I yelled louder. I didn’t talk to him for days. It seems stupid now. I wish I could go back and get those days back.” She takes the picture and gently puts it back in the album. “Christopher is good boy, but Tash is like me. She will yell louder. Trouble, Deedee is like her father. She is quiet and hold everything in, but when it comes out, it’s a volcano. I think trouble is like volcano too, but he erupts immediately.”

“It’s never too late to learn, Mrs. E.,” Jake says.

She turns her hazel eyes on him and smiles. “You will teach me, trouble?”

“I can,” he says.

I look at Tash and we both roll our eyes.

“Okay. Pick me up at the bakery next Saturday morning.”

“Suck up,” Chris says, masking the word as he coughs it into his arm.

It's at this moment that a silver Mercedes SUV stops at the end of the driveway and Chris lets out a loud whistle as Troy gets out and opens the door for the kids. Tristan makes a beeline for Jake, and Emma follows behind him.

Troy arrives and greets my mother and Tash, who introduces her to Chris and her kids. The three kids immediately run to the bouncy house, but Tristan stays with Jake.

“Hey, Trist. Come play, buddy.” Luke grabs Tristan and carries him to the bouncy house with the other kids.

“We’ll drop them off later. You can go,” Jake says, dismissing his brother.

“You and the wife going out?” Chris asks.

“No. She was actually glad to see us go. She wanted me to thank you guys. She’s in desperate need of a nap.”

“Well, if your wife naps, you stay,” my mother says.

Jake’s body immediately tenses up. Tash and Chris look at each other like deer in headlights. “We have food. I cook. My food is better than the stuff Chris has on the grill. I’ll go get it. Tashtash, come help me.”

“I’ll be right there, Mama,” Tash yells after our mother.

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