Rose drove up in her electric wheelchair and set her brake beside me. “If you’re going to be my daughter,” she began, apropos of nothing, “then I need to know a little more about you without my son interfering.”
“Oh, um.” I crinkled my brow. I wasn’t sure I didn’t need some kind of test prep for this. “I’m an open book, so go ahead.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-five.”
She narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips, but didn’t address that. “Where are you from?”
“Calumet, Michigan. That’s in the Upper Peninsula. See, Michigan has two parts—”
“I’m aware of the geography of the United States, dear.” She fixed me with her sharp green gaze, and I felt like sinking back in my chair. “How did you meet my son?”
“In an airport.” I was getting good at omitting the details of this story. “He had to get somewhere quick and he couldn’t get a crew for the jet, so he was flying commercial, of all things.”
Rose clucked her tongue. “He simply needs to hire a dedicated crew. He’s a penny pincher, like his father was.”
“Well, I’m glad, because otherwise I wouldn’t have met him.” I shrugged and went for a smile, but Rose was still stern and serious.
“You’re much younger than he is. What do you have in common?”
“Not a lot,” I admitted. “Almost nothing. But that’s what makes us work. We never get tired of each other, because we can show each other new and awesome things all the time.”
“No, no.” Rose waved her hand in dismissal. “You aren’t on a job interview. Get it right out. Why do you love my son?”
For a split second, I thought about cracking a joke about his bank account, but I didn’t see Rose as a big joker. So, I told her the truth, exactly as I had told Dr. Ashley months before. “I don’t know. I don’t know why I love him. Our personalities click, and he’s the only person in the world I want to spend my life with. But if you’re looking for a specific reason as to why, I can’t give you just one thing.”
“You want to spend your life with him.” She considered. “You realize, of course, that his life is quite spent already?”
“I know.” I hated thinking about it, but I knew. In September, I would be twenty-six. When he turned seventy-five, I would be fifty. Though he was healthy and in good shape now, there was no guarantee he would always be. His cancer could return. He could succumb to the heart ailment that had taken his father. I was keenly mindful of these things. “I know his father died very young.”
“Far too young,” Rose agreed. “I’ve spent over thirty years without Leif. The loneliest thirty years of my life.”
“And I’m going to spend a lot of lonely years, too.” There was no alternative for me. Either I would be with Neil for the rest of his life, or I wouldn’t, and the latter was incomprehensible. “I was faced with that during his cancer, and I can face it later. He’s worth it.”
I think it was the right answer for her. Frankly, it didn’t matter if it was or not. It was the right answer for me.
She considered for a moment, pinning me with the weight of her decision. It was clear that she would make up her mind about me right now.
Finally, she said, “Well, you’re a good girl. And you love my little bird. I think he may be mad, marrying someone so young, but you may be mad as well.”
Mutual insanity was not a ringing endorsement, but I thought perhaps I could win her over with some humor after all. “So…can I call you mom?”
Her expression of disapproval never changed as she reached down, released her brake, and put her chair into motion.
It seemed like once the dinner was finished and the dancing started, everyone was much more at ease than they had been that morning, Emma included. Neil, definitely, although the alcohol he’d consumed might have had more to do with his stellar mood than with some sudden acceptance of his daughter’s marriage and husband.
“Woman,” he greeted me, affecting a terrible cowboy accent. “Might I have the pleasure of this dance?”
I pretended to consider my options. “Only if you stop talking like that. Otherwise, I’ll be embarrassed to be seen with you.”
“Fair enough,” he agreed in his normal voice, and extended his hand. I took it as I rose from my chair and let him lead me out to the floor. The couples around us looked to be having fun, which I knew was important to Emma and Michael. Every couple was smiling as they danced to the band performing Sam Cooke’s “You Send Me.”
“Have I mentioned that you look amazing tonight?” he asked, resting his hand on my waist.
“You’ve been distracted by more important things.” But the compliment was still appreciated. The dress Emma had helped me pick really did look “knock out sexy” as she’d described it in the store. “How are you holding up?”
“Tolerably well, I would say. The real test will be when they leave on their honeymoon tonight.”