Page 35 of The Sky in Summer
“Please. Stop it, Mom,” I whisper the request.
She gets the message, but unfortunately it only confirms that the conclusion she jumped to is spot on. She squeezes my hand in a secret society’s secret handshake. Like only she and I are privy to the truth of how I feel. What the hell.
My cell sounds and I look at the number. Carrie. Nope. Delete.
“Can’t you turn that thing off?” my mother says like I’m ten.
“No I can’t. Clients call all times of the day and night. I have to be available.”
“Was that a client?”
I answer her with a blank stare. I’m almost fucking forty, woman.
She screws up her mouth in protest. “You have to carve a little time for yourself.”
“Little Layla!” my father calls to the back of her head. Shit. He heard too.
She turns.
“Little Layla! Do you remember us?”
“Of course, Mr. Lyon. Who could forget the Lyon pride?”
She chuckles as she speaks, but every word is measured. They please my dad, and he wants the whole family to know the backstory.
“Parish, this was Van’s kindergarten crush,” he says, leaning over to his son-in-law. “We haven’t seen her since nineteen eighty something.”
A few people sitting close listen to the interesting breaking news. Oh hell.
“Hi,” he says to Layla. She responds in kind.
“Teddy, trade places with her!”
My mother adds the command without room for discussion. Shit. Oh God. It’s happening. Layla doesn’t know what to do, except follow my mother’s instruction. It is a big fucking thing, both climbing over people and making them move aside. But that doesn’t deter the Lyon matriarch.
“Scarlett, let’s push over, so she can sit next to Van.”
Oh son-of-a-bitch. As usual, we let my parents direct the circus animals. Scarlett moves, Layla climbs, Teddy gets away from the game’s annoying interruptions. Now she and I are sandwiched between the king of the lions and the lioness. I need a whip. Or a cage.
Layla’s eyes meet mine and we exchange silent apologies. Me for my fucking family’s idea of a good time, and her for not being able to stop them.
“Hi, honey. It’s so good to see you all grown up,” my mom says, squeezing her hand.
Shit, do they realize they’re talking to a thirty-eight year old mother of two?
“Nice to see you too, Mrs. Lyon.”
“Oh no. It’s Aurora and Gaston. Please.”
“Give me a hug!” Dad says. “You were just a little sparrow last time we saw you!”
They exchange a hug, and both look happy it happened.
“Wow. You two look amazing,” she says to my parents, resulting in appreciative smiles.
“It’s my wife’s doing. She insists on keeping me young.”
“Glad to have you back in Montana,” I say, trying to sell casual. “Bet the twins are liking it.”
