As Naya stepped onto the walkway leading to the house, she froze. An incredibly handsome man was bending down to kiss her mother.
“Naya, this is Jeff, my fiancé,” Anna explained, her arm around the man’s waist and that huge grin was back. “Jeff, my daughter, Naya.”
Jeff extended his hand and shook Naya’s, nodding to her as well. “Your mother brags about you all the time, Naya. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”
“Same,” Naya replied, trying to be polite, but she was so confused.
Anna put a hand on Jeff’s chest and looked up at him. “Naya and I need to talk. Would you mind opening a bottle of that wine we like so much?”
“Sure, honey,” he said and kissed her gently before walking into the house.
Naya wasn’t sure what was going on, but she followed her mother into the kitchen, then right out onto the patio. More flowers. New patio furniture. Even the loose boards along the fence were fixed and the grass looked to be, well, grass. On Naya’s last visit, the area had been mostly weeds.
“You’re gardening now?” she asked.
Anna laughed. “No way! That’s all Jeff’s doing. He loves to plant things and was horrified by the state of my grass last spring. So he took over, telling me I wasn’t allowed to touch anything anymore.”
Naya wiggled in her chair, offended on her mother’s behalf. “Yes, but you could have done it.”
Anna shook her head. “No way. I hate gardening. Actually, I used to hate being out here because the yard looked like such a mess. But now that Jeff has taken over, I love this area. He has a good sense of what works well around the yard, doesn’t he?”
Naya’s eyes moved around the small yard. It looked charming and cozy. She didn’t like a man telling her mother what she could or couldn’t do though. “Yes, but…”
Anna lifted her hand after the acknowledgment, stopping whatever Naya had been about to say. “No. We’re not going to talk about Jeff right now,” she agreed, even as she smiled up at the man in question as he handed each of them a chilled glass of white wine. “Thank you, dear,” she said. “Jeff and I discovered this wine about two months ago when he took me on a long weekend into the Virginia wine country. He loves wines and he’s taught me so much.”
“You used to drink wine,” Naya argued.
Her mother sipped her wine, closing her eyes as the tastes hit her. When she opened them again, she smiled slightly. “I used to buy wine at the grocery store. I would pick up whatever was on sale. Jeff was horrified.”
Naya looked around, trying to find the man in question. “So, he doesn’t like your yard and he doesn’t like your taste in wine. What else didn’t he like?”
Anna understood exactly where this conversation was heading and smiled gently at her daughter. “Honey, Jeff is a good man. He loves me. If I wanted to buy cheap wine at the grocery store, he would let me do it. But he’s opened my eyes to more things. And I love him. I’m hoping that you will come to, at least, like him over the next couple of days while you’re staying here.”
Naya bowed her head, feeling horrible. “I’m sorry. I’m just so confused.” Looking up, she peered into her mother’s eyes. They were so much alike, although her mother’s red curls were softer, shaded with a touch of grey now. “You hated being married. You and Dad fought all the time.”
Her mother’s relaxed smile caused another shift in Naya. “Yes. Your dad and I were wrong for each other. We met in college, I accidentally got pregnant with you, and we thought that marriage was the only answer.” Her mother’s eyes sparkled with unshed tears. “I never regretted having you. Naya, you have to know that you gave your father and I so much happiness.”
She was comforted by the words, even though they didn’t make must sense. “But you fought all the time.”
Anna smiled again. “Not when it was just you and me, or you and your father. You loved being with your dad, didn’t you?”
Naya fondly remembered lots of times when she was alone with one of her parents. They’d laughed and played games, her father was an amazing soccer coach for her team, he loved to cook, and her mother loved crafts. “Yeah, we had good times when it was just one of you.”