Page 34 of Because of You
Hannah launches into some story, and for once, I’m grateful for my sisters and their need to voice all their feelings about all the things, because it means no one is focused on me and how unhappy I am with my current professional predicament. Hannah is still talking, my mom and Jo’s attention on her, as I slip quietly outside onto the deck and into the lake sunshine.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Ben
The grill is going in preparation for our regular first night barbeque. There are tubs full of beer, wine, and sodas on the deck, and all the people I love the most are scattered around the backyard. My dad and Hallie’s dad, Max, are at the grill, and my mom and Hallie’s mom, Rebecca, have their heads together over something or other. Jordan, Allie, and Jeremy are laying on lounge chairs by the pool. Julie, Molly, and Emma are in the pool with Hallie’s sisters, and Hallie is curled up in her favorite rocking chair in the corner of the deck, e-reader in hand and beverage assortment on the table next to her.
Hallie keeps lifting her head and shooting glances at me, and I grin inwardly, thinking of her face when I handed her the iced latte I made for her when I heard their cars pull up earlier. She thinks she’s all chaotic and mysterious about her coffee choices, even to herself. But it just takes some attention to figure it out. I don’t think anyone has ever paid enough attention to Hallie to really know her completely. But I have. More than anything in the world, I want to be the one to show her what it really means to be known all the way down to her soul. I can tell from her looks that she’s confused right now, and that’s just fine by me.
Brace yourself, Hallie girl; you have no idea what you’re in for.
I start heading down to talk to the guys when my mom intercepts me.
“Oh my lord, is that my baby boy? The one and only Benjamin Parker? I could have sworn you decided not to come up this year given how little I’ve seen of you today. Don’t you even think about leaving this deck without having a conversation with me.”
I grin and open my arms to her. “Put ‘er there, pal.”
She wraps her arms around me. She smells like the lake, the perfume she’s been using for as long as I can remember, and the cookies she was no doubt baking earlier today before we all got here. It all screamsmom,and it relaxes me almost instantly.
“I know you’re all grown up and a man now and blah, blah, blah, but you will always be my baby. We are going to get a beer that I will never believe you are old enough to drink and sit in those chairs over there, and you are going to tell me what’s going on in your life.”
She points towards the lounge chairs on the opposite side of the deck, and I follow her, grabbing a couple of beers out of the cooler on the way. I may be almost thirty years old, but when Rachel Parker issues an order, you listen. I pop open the beers and hand her one as we sit down.
“Okay, tell me everything,” she starts. “What’s going on with you, with the bar, with your life? Since we’ve been at the lake for weeks, I’ve missed catching up with you.”
“Really? I could have sworn someone who sounded like my mom has been calling me at least every other day since you got up here.”
“Smartass. It’s different in person, and you know it. I need to see your face when we talk. You have a very expressive face.”
I snort out a laugh. “Drama much, Ma?”
“I prefer to call it loving mother involved in her children’s lives.”
“Keep telling yourself that.” I take a long sip of my beer and consider whether to tell my mom about the Stonegate deal. I think about Jeremy pushing me to talk to my dad about it, and I decide to test the waters with my mom first.
“There actually is something I wanted to talk to you about.”
My mom’s face lights up, like I knew it would. There is nothing my mom loves more than when one of her children confides in her. She’s both a great mom and an unabashed gossip, so anything that falls into the Venn diagram of those two interests is right in her wheelhouse.
“Please, do go on, Benj.”
I give her the broad strokes of the deal. I keep it to just the facts, without letting her know that I’m struggling to decide what to do. She listens, her face giving nothing away. When I finish, she sits for a minute, considering.
“So, what do you think you’re going to do?”
“I haven’t decided yet. We have a few months before we have to come to a real decision, and I’m not sure what I want. Jeremy would be fine with either choice, so he left it up to me. Jerk.”
She laughs. “I think Jeremy knows you well and knows you wouldn’t be at peace unless you made this decision for yourself. He’s a good friend, Benj.”
“The best. But what do you think I should do?”
“You really want to know what I think?”
“Always, Ma.”
“I think you should talk to your dad about it.”
I make a face, not sure why I didn’t consider that talking to my dad would be the first thing she recommended.
