Page 17 of Below the Far Horizon
Grace looked at Trevor. Trevor raised his brows and looked right back at her. They needed to talk.
“Why don’t you two come in, and you can get settled at the table.” She noticed that Trevor was holding a crockpot, which must have been the cauliflower her mom had been talking about.
“How about you follow me into the kitchen, Trevor, and we’ll deal with the cauliflower.”And whatever else we need to deal with concerning our parents, she added silently, but Trevor was going to hear it as soon as they were alone.
Don and Gita looked at each other like they had just won the lottery and were super excited and couldn’t figure out exactly what they wanted to do with all their money.
That confused Grace even more. After all, if they really wanted to be alone, it wasn’t like they had chaperones and they couldn’t be. She couldn’t figure out why else they’d be excited for her and Trevor to leave them alone while they went into the kitchen.
As soon as Trevor stepped through the door, she closed it behind him and then turned on him.
“What is going on?” She put her hands on her hips and then realized that she was attacking him, when he looked as confused as she did. He turned around and gazed at her.
He set the crockpot on the counter and then lifted his hands in the air in innocence. “I have no idea. My dad blindsided me with this about five minutes ago. It was almost like he was afraid to tell me.” He sighed. “I don’t feel like I’m that scary.”
She scoffed. “I know it’s taken me a little bit to get used to the idea… Who am I kidding? I’m not used to the idea, and my mom dropped this bombshell on me about thirty minutes ago.” She crossed her hands over her chest. “I didn’t mean to sound like I was attacking you. I just…am totally surprised. Although I can’t say I’m upset. I’ve been thinking for a while how nice it would be for my mom to find someone. Back when we were younger, my sisters and I tried to ask her why she wasn’t dating or trying to find someone after Dad died. And she just wasn’t interested. So, on the one hand, I’m really happy, but on the other, I wasn’t expecting this. Like a fully formed relationship sprung on me. I mean, they hug each other.”
“Yeah. I was afraid he was going to smack her on the lips, and I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could. This is going to take a little bit of…time for me to get used to the idea of my dad kissing someone other than my mom.”
“I remember my mom and dad kissing. And at the time, it was embarrassing. Looking back, I think it was sweet, but now…her kissing someone else? That’s weird. Even if it is your dad. No offense.”
“None taken. I’m the same way. Kissing my mom, yes, and I understand why he does not want to be kissing my mom anymore, considering that she left him. So that’s not hard either. But what’s tough is the idea of someone else. Just not sure how I feel about that.”
“I feel good about it, but it makes me uncomfortable and I feel a little off-balance. My mom is a rock. She’s happy, and positive, and always making sure to do the right thing. I can depend on her. But this is new. It’s different, and it feels slightly disorienting.” She didn’t know how else to explain it, but Trevor looked like he understood exactly what she was saying.
He nodded. “We just have to get used to this.”
“In the meantime, we can get that cauliflower out and put it in a bowl and take it to the table.”
“Can I help with anything?”
“There’s iced tea in the fridge. Maybe you can get it out and take it to the table.”
“Sure,” he said.
It didn’t take long for her to scoop the cauliflower out of the crockpot and put it in a serving bowl. She carried it to the table and saw everyone else was already sitting down waiting for her.
“Shall we say grace?” Don asked, sounding confident and in charge, even as he exchanged a shy glance with her mother.
Grace couldn’t help it, her eyes met Trevor’s, and they exchanged a look before she bowed her head and said her own silent prayer, that her mother wasn’t going crazy. After all, this was really fast.
“So,” her mom said after they had passed the cauliflower around and everyone had gotten a sandwich. “Donnie and I have been talking, andwe were hoping that the two of you would agree to be our chaperones. We want to set a good example for our families and for the town, and we don’t want to do anything inappropriate. But we’d like to take our relationship to the next level.”
“And we can’t do that without a chaperone. Because, like Gita Baby said, we want to be a good example, and we also want to please the Lord in everything we do.”
Gita Baby? Grace couldn’t help it. Her eyebrows shot up, and it almost felt like they bounced off the ceiling.
If she’d been looking at herself, she probably would have laughed, but the fact that he had a nickname for her mother already… This was more serious than she thought. Relationships where folks were tossing nicknames around were the kind of relationships that ended in marriage.
She glanced at Trevor. Maybe he had the same expression on his face after her mom had called his dad Donnie. She’d never heard anyone call him that before. From the look on Trevor’s face, neither had he.
Their parents certainly were settling into a familiarity with each other that was…well, it would be endearing if it weren’t so flipping scary.
“I think I need you two to just kinda calm down a little bit, because this is really hard to get used to. Did Stacy and Jill know about this?” she asked her mother, hoping she sounded reasonable and not negative or angry.
Her mother blinked and then looked at Don. Or Donnie, as she was calling him. “I can’t remember whether I said anything to them or not.”
“I don’t think you did, Gita Baby. We decided that we didn’t want to say anything until we were sure about each other.”
