Page 120 of Hoax and Kisses
Dread washes over me instantly. What. What is it?
He turns toward the feminine voice, his face falling. “Mom?”
“Dad broke his foot while you were on a stopover in Anchorage, and you had to be flown back to Vancouver?” Matt summarizes his mother’s long story as he places cups of coffee in front of his parents.
“Does it hurt?” Daphne asks.
“It’s better now that the doctors have given me a brace,” Mr. Becker replies, pulling up his pant leg to show his daughter.
Matt’s mother—she told me to call her Deb—hasn’t taken her eyes off me since we left the town hall. Her scrutiny is palpable, and I get it. I was glued to her son’s face when she met me for the first time. Great way to introduce myself, that’s for sure.
Hi. Yes, Mrs. Becker, just a second. Let me remove my tongue from your son’s mouth. There.Very nice to meet you.
“You finally listened to your mother, I see,” his mom says.
Matt drawls out a low “Mom.”
“What? I’m glad you met someone.” She turns to me, her smile pleasant. “It’s been so long since his last girlfriend. I thought I’d never get grandkids.”
Mr. Becker coughs into his coffee cup.
Oh, shit. Okay. No “What is it that you do?” or “How did you guys meet?” or even “What’s your name?” Straight to my uterus and assessing my procreation capabilities, I see.
“Whoa, Mom, hey. This is inappropriate on so many levels. Please don’t say stuff like that.”
“It’s fine.” I lay a hand on Matt’s arm—to his mom’s utter delight. “Although we’re nowhere near that, Deborah.”
“I told you, it’s Deb. And this is Paul.”
Matt’s dad gives me a playful salute, and I chuckle.
“So how was it, Daph, with your brother?” Paul asks. “Do you want to come back with us, or is it better at his place?”
“It was cool. But Matt is my brother, not my parents, and most of my stuff is here.”
Paul smiles softly. “I know, sweetie. I was teasing you.”
“Oh.” She blinks. “Well, you know…”
Her voice fades into the background. All of them do.
Being at Matt’s parents’, in his childhood home, is so strange. But even stranger? Being surrounded by a family in the truest sense of the word.
I watch them as they laugh and talk, Matt and Daphne filling their parents in on the new school, their parents sharing vacation stories. There’s such a familiarity between them, an easiness that makesmeuneasy. It’s Deb laying a hand on Matt’s bicep as he tells her about Cooper’s fundraiser and the show he gave on stage. It’s Matt wrapping his arm around his sister’s shoulder as she explains her latest art project in school to their dad.
The love they have for each other is potent, almost tangible. I feel it in the way Paul angles his body toward his daughter because he missed her and in how Matt constantly glances at his mom, ensuring he’s right beside her if she needs any help.
And I stand there, on the outside looking in, as the fantasy plays out. A life I’ve never lived myself but always craved, one foot grazing the threshold of the door.
“Zoé?”
Matt’s voice pulls me back to the kitchen. “Hmm?”
“I’m gonna help my dad get their things out of the car. You okay here?” He rubs my upper arms in a reassuring pattern.
I smile. “Yes. Don’t worry about me.”
He glances at his mom, then ducks in close to me. “Call me if you need me, okay?”
