Shit. Shit. Shit. “I think I’m gonna get the waffle with fruit. Strawberry, maybe?”
“Daisy.”
Fuck, I’d been caught.
“How’s Atlas?”
“How should I know?” I blurted as I dropped the menu.
Now my mom had that stupid grin on her face. You know what I’m talking about. The one where your mom basically knows every little thing you’ve done like a goddamn detective. “Well, you’re doing the walk of shame right now.”
“Oh my god, I hate that phrase. I call it the victory parade.”
Mom chuckled. “I like that better.”
I looked at the menu again. “Or maybe I’ll get the French toast—”
“Nope. Answer the question.”
“Ma, you’re prodding.”
“You tell me everything. So, why don’t you tell me what happened with Atlas?”
I lowered the menu again and dropped my shoulders, unsure what to say.
She waited, an expectant look on her face.
“Because…” My head rolled back, and I closed my eyes. “Mom, I really like him.”
The smile she wore was unforgettable.
“He’s so hot, Jesus Christ.” I started to fan myself. “And he’s so confident but doesn’t take himself seriously at the same time. He’s easygoing and he just… I don’t know. I’m scared. I’ve got it bad already. I’m trying to play it cool but he’s making it really hard to do that.”
“Then don’t play it cool.”
“I just don’t want this to move too fast, and it’s already on the freakin’ Autobahn.”
“Why is that a bad thing?”
“I don’t know… Mason was only a little over a year ago. I’m not sure if I’m ready to give my heart to someone again.”
“Well, I have some bad news for you, sweetheart. I think you already have.”
I released a long sigh. “Yeah…I think so too.”
“I knew your father was the man I wanted to be my husband pretty much instantly. Your brothers felt the same way about Sicily and Emerson. We just all took a really long time to get to that place, but you guys aren’t. And I think that’s great. Why waste time?”
I watched the people walk by on the street, New Yorkers living their busy lives.
Mom continued to study me.
“What?” I turned back to her.
“You said you were just going to have fun until your husband showed up. Well, I think he might be here.”
When I walked in the door, Bear ran right to me, already having a toy in his mouth.
“Hey, boy.” I got on my knees and played with him for a bit, chuckling when he sat on my lap even though he probably weighed as much as I did. I gave him a good scratch behind his ears before I got up again.
Dad had just set the table. “Hey, sweetheart.”
“Hey, Dad. What’s on the menu?”
“Halibut.”
“Cool.” I hugged my mom then sat down to join them.
We made small talk, discussed work and other things, talked about our next trip to the cabin.
“How about next weekend?” Dad asked.
“I have a tournament in Vegas, actually. I’ll be gone all weekend.”
“What about the following weekend?”
“I think I’m free.”
“I’ll check in with Dex. He’s been doing surgeries on Saturdays again lately, so we’ll see if he has the availability.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that.”
“He got hit with a lot more patients, so he didn’t have a choice,” Dad said with a tone of pride. Dex always had a choice. He could send them to another surgeon or put them farther down the calendar, but he didn’t. “How are your patients?”
“Good. I just had a patient discharged. Ended up having a hernia that nobody caught. It was ridiculous.”
“How did you catch it?” Dad asked between bites.
“Just an old-fashioned physical exam.” I gave a pronounced shrug. “When he had his scans, I guess the tear was so small it wasn’t visible, but then got worse afterward and people just ignored his symptoms. When I applied pressure, he nearly collapsed on the floor he was in so much pain. He even had a hernia in his scrotum.”
“How long was he living with this?”
“Like six months.”
He shook his head in disappointment. “Unacceptable.”
“I know.”
Mom was quiet during these conversations, but she seemed content just to listen to us.
“How are things with you?” he asked. “Working a lot?”
I knew Mom would never tell him anything I said about Atlas, and he would probably never ask outright on his own, so I didn’t bring it up. “Pretty much. That’s my life. I went out with my friends last night and had a good time. Met the lead singer of the Conundrum. He invited us to party with him, so we went.” I pulled out my phone and showed pictures.
My dad looked even though he didn’t listen to modern music. “I like it when you wear purple. It’s a pretty color on you.”
“Thanks.”
Mom eventually excused herself to do the dishes then watch TV in their room, and Dad and I brought out the chessboard. He’d taught me to play when I was little, and we’d had our games ever since. There were pictures of us playing together throughout the years in his office. I started off as a little girl and then progressed into a young woman. There was a picture of the two of us when I won the United States Chess Championship senior year in high school. Sometimes I felt like my father pushed me more because I was a woman and he knew I had to jump higher, work harder, be smarter than everyone around me so no one could take advantage of me.