Page 81 of A Dream for Daphne

“Then stop dragging your damn feet and tell her how you feel!”

28

WAITING FOR ME

“It’s only Abe’s mother,” Daphne said to herself as she drove to Abe’s house the next day. “Just his mother.”

She kept repeating it to herself and hoping that it’d calm her down.

All it did was make her heart race more.

It was his mother. And his cousin. And Laurel.

She was meeting the people closest to Abe in his life.

Next weekend she was going to have Abe meet Aster. It seemed it hadn’t worked out well prior, but now they were cramming it all into a week.

Talk about show time and the curtain was getting ready to lift.

“Abe’s mother,” she said again. “Who Abe said he got his personality from. So it will be a funny dinner.”

She stopped at a light, took a deep breath and closed her eyes, then let it out. She did it again and then heard a horn beep behind her.

Her eyes snapped open, she saw the green light and stepped on the gas.

She hoped they hadn’t seen her talking to herself and just assumed she was on speaker or singing to the music in the car.

Before she moved here she didn’t have enough time to lose her mind like she was now.

Not a good feeling!

When she pulled into Abe’s driveway, she saw the two cars in Laurel’s and just Abe’s truck in his.

He didn’t visit last night and she had expected that. He’d want to see his mother, but he had called her to check-in.

She never had a guy call her before. Normally it was a text, but Abe did like to talk.

Man, did he like to talk.Sometimes she wondered if he just liked to hear his own voice.

She parked behind his truck and got out.

The front door opened and Abe came out. “Have you been waiting for me?”

“Like a kid at the top of the stairs on Christmas Eve. Did you bring me treats or coal?”

He was puckering his lips adorably and she leaned up to kiss him. “Always treats.”

“How was your night?”

“Good,” he said. “We had dinner with Easton and Laurel. Then my mother has been all over the kitchen driving me nuts for not keeping things where she used to keep them. I had to run to the store last night and again this morning because I didn’t have the right ingredients for whatever she is making.”

She laughed. “She wants to feed her son. I bet she knows how much you like food and what you’re eating when you’ve got to fend for yourself.”

“Sad but true.” He took the plate out of her hands holding the two kinds of cookies she’d baked. “It’s more about making it perfect to meet you.”

“That’s sweet,” she said quietly. Just matching his tone. “I’m nervous. Do I have anything to worry about?”

“Nope,” he said cheerfully. “She’s going to love you. I’ve had nothing but wonderful things to say about you and because you put up with me, she’ll be fine.”

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