The Nice Guy Next Door (When In Waverly 1)

She scoffs and says, “I don’t believe you for a second. Your nana is a sweetheart.”

I cannot believe my ears. No one in all of my thirty-one years of living has ever called Nana a ‘sweetheart.’

“Nana is fooling you and trying to butter you up,” I laugh.

“Why?” she and Lo ask in unison.

I narrow my eyes at them and consider the question. I hear two sets of footsteps charging into the room. “I don’t know,” I tell them before turning around to greet my mom and nana.

They both ignore me completely and go straight to Millie and Lo. They get through all of the introductions and compliment each other on their superb outfit choices. Mama gushes over Millie’s and Lo’s long, beautiful heads of hair. Why do women always have to do this? Can’t they just hug, say hello, and move on to the food?

Pops comes into the room and joins me while I watch the four women talk like old friends. Nana and Millie act like they really know each other, and I wonder what’s going on there.

“Pops, has Nana been going to the library a lot?” I ask.

“How should I know?”

“You live with her,” I argue. He just harrumphs at me and goes back to the kitchen. Pops is a man of few words.

I follow him into the kitchen, and we sit at the table, staring at the food in front of us, wishing we could eat. I begin to reach for a one of the corn muffins sitting right in front of my face, but the women come into the kitchen right then. Nana swats my hand and says, “Mind your manners, young man.”

Millie sits beside me, and Lo chooses the seat across from Millie and beside Nana. Nana squeezes Lo’s shoulder as she sits in her seat, and a soft smile appears on Millie’s face as she watches her young sister.

The way Millie cares for her sister does things to my heart. Things I can’t explain in words because words aren’t enough.

Mama nudges me and says, “Quit staring at the pretty lady.” Millie’s face turns a bright shade of red when everyone around the table, excluding me, laughs.

Mama serves us big bowls of chili, and my stomach growls when my eyes land on the steaming layers of meat, sour cream, and cheese. Mama’s chili is so good it’s known throughout the county. It has won no less than fifteen chili cookoffs. People will drop out of the contest if they know she has entered.

Millie takes a bite, and I swear her eyes roll back in her head as the flavor hits her taste buds. “Oh my gosh, who made this?” she asks.

Mama beams with pride, and so does Pops. Mama is the apple of his eye. Even when she got pregnant at eighteen, Pops was still so proud of her for choosing to keep me and raise me. Not that there’s anything wrong with placing your child in an adoptive home—because that’s an extremely admirable and brave choice.

But Pops saw how conflicted Mama was after my father abandoned her. He has always been proud that she followed her heart, and I am too. I love my family and can’t imagine being raised anywhere else.

“What brought you two to little ol’ Waverly?” Mama asks Millie and Lo. Millie tells everyone about her father’s sudden passing and taking in Lo while trying to finish school, finding a job here, and renting Nana and Pop’s house. My whole family sits stunned by the strength of the two women sitting at our table.

“I can’t imagine being so young and in either of your positions. I mean, I’m almost fifty and still depend on my parents so much,” Mama says.

“It’s not easy, but we do what we have to. And I’m learning that it’s okay to ask for help sometimes,” she says, and she looks at me with a small smile. Mama and Nana don’t miss a thing and exchange glances. There’s some kind of scheme going on between them, and that’s not good news for anybody. They’re so much alike that it’s scary.

“You don’t have a boyfriend or a secret husband hiding somewhere, do you, Millie?” Mama asks just as I’m taking a sip of my tea. I choke and have a coughing fit at the table. Nana gives me the stink-eye like I’m doing it on purpose.

“Um. Well, no,” says Millie. “I don’t have time for a relationship or any of the complications that come with them.”

Nana scrunches her brows as she watches Millie explain all of the things she has going on in her life: new job, Lo, other things she’s working on that she purposefully doesn’t name. I’m determined to figure out what she’s hiding with that last part. I’d also like to know why she seems scared of relationships, because all of her excuses sound like just that…excuses.

“Don’t you know that the right man would help with those things, not complicate them,” Nana says.

“I know I sure wish I had been more open to a relationship when I was younger,” Mama adds with a laugh.

Millie’s face is bright red, and Lo is giggling uncomfortably. The women in my family are about as subtle as a hurricane, and right now, they want a relationship between Millie and me. I did warn her that Nana and Mama are a lot to handle, but I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this.

Pops is busy scarfing down his chili at the head of the table, not paying a bit of attention to the inappropriate conversation going on around him. If he is listening, he’s being smart by staying out of it. Something I cannot do. I can’t allow them to continue to make Millie uncomfortable.

“So, did y’all hear that I helped deliver a baby last night?” I ask, desperate for any change of conversation. I’ve talked about the delivery so much today that I can spout out all of the information without thinking.

“Shandi called me first thing this morning and told me all about it. Poor Tess having to be rushed to the hospital. I heard you may have saved her life…” Mama says.