Page 41 of Make Mine Sweet
Obviously, I do. I haven’t dated since my accident. I had too much going on to consider it when I was in rehab learning how to walk again, and later…well…I haven’t thought about it.
I continue to not think about it now. Mostly, I think how if I were in a dating mood, I know exactly who I’d ask. And then I think what a disaster it would be, so I don’t.
“You could stand to have someone help you out with yourfrozen foods,” he says.
I groan, rolling my eyes to the cloudless sky. I never should have answered his call. Finding a bench in some shade just off Maple Street, I drop onto it.
“I need you to change the subject.”
“Mom’s in town.” Steven switches gears easily enough, but I’m not so innocent to believe he’s dropped it for good. “She’s waiting around for Pierce’s baby to be born so she can claim first visitation rights.”
“How’s Mom doing?”
“You don’t talk to her?”
“I do.” But I wince as I say it. I don’t avoid her calls, but I don’t initiate many, either. “Too loving” is an absurd criticism of my mother, I know, but talking to her leaves me aching. It’s like she shines a light on everything I was and should be, leaving me feeling even worse for what is. “I’m just asking how she is.”
“She’s good. Last I heard, she was helping Bonnie wash and ready all of the baby’s reusable diapers.”
“Reusable diapers?” On paper, I know diapers haven’t always been disposable. In practice, I can’t understand going back to the Stone Ages to care for your kid. They’ll be doing laundry every day for the next three years at least.
“Better for the environment, I guess.”
“What’s Mom’s take on that?”
“She’s enthusiastic with Pierce and Bonnie. With Iris and me, she gives it two months, tops.”
“I’d put my money on her prediction.”
Steven laughs again. “No kidding. She was telling us about this thing called blowouts, and how the baby gets completely covered in?—”
“Absolutely not. Don’t say another word.” I’m not prepared to even hear about another person’s bodily functions, let alone be the one responsible to clean them up. I want zero details.
He chuckles. “You get my drift. This is why we’re perfectly happy with our dogs.”
“How is the herd?”
“Rowdy as ever. Bruce has finally stopped peeing in the house, so we’re lightyears ahead of Pierce already.”
My ridiculous brother and his wife named their dogs Bruce, Jeff, Dave, and Bill. Going to the dog park with them is endlessly amusing. The really strange part is every name exactly fits the dog it’s attached to.
I stretch my legs in front of me, watching people walk up and down Sunshine’s shopping district. I haven’t been down here much, but it’s not a bad little town. A surprising number of frilly shops and more new restaurants than I expected, but comfortable.
“So,” Steven says. “About this woman…”
Somewhere on the other end of the line, his wife, Iris, gasps. “Does Ian have a woman?”
The situation just got worse by a factor of ten. “I don’t have?—”
“Iris says women like it when you ply them with produce. You should offer her an eggplant.” He snickers at his little joke.
“I’m not an idiot, Steven.”
The phone line goes muffled for a second before Iris comes on. “Ignore him, Ian. Now tell me about this woman.”
I love Iris, I really do. She speaks her mind, and her take-charge attitude is perfect for my brother. But I’m not about to let her steamroll me into divulging information about my dating life. Not even when I have so little to tell.
“There’s no woman.”
