Cowboy by Declan Rhodes

Author:Declan Rhodes [Rhodes, Declan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-03-12T00:00:00+00:00

12

Simon

Mom Missy slapped my hand away from the pot of chili on the stove. “Stay out of it. You’ll get to eat it in about fifteen minutes anyway. Why don’t you sit at the table, and we can talk a bit. You’ve been kind of quiet the last couple of weeks. Is everything going okay? How are the plans for your new office? Do you have a grand opening date yet?”

It was a complicated series of questions. I contented myself with inhaling the rich, savory aroma of Mom Missy’s famous pot of red before I seated myself at the kitchen table. It was one of the few things she cooked. Mom Tina handled most of the meals.

Mom Missy handed me a teacup. I knew part of the quiet was related to Tate. I knew that I still loved him, and I wanted everything to work out, but I wasn’t ready to talk about it yet. It was such an ordeal to explain our breakup the first time around. I wanted to be sure before I started advertising that we were trying again.

I said, “That’s a lot of questions. What’s this? Maybe I should drink a beer instead.”

She shook her head and talked like a mom. “You can have that beer with dinner. This is perfect for now. It’s a new herbal tea, and it makes you feel very relaxed. I give it to Tina after she’s spent a long day fighting with her sculptures. She loves it.”

“Do they come to life and try to wrestle her to the floor?”

Mom Missy laughed. “She hasn’t reported that yet, but I hear stories about how her muse wouldn’t let her get it just right. She tells me that sometimes she talks out loud when they’re in the middle of an argument.”

A voice from out in the hallway responded. “Are you talking about me in there? Shouldn’t I be in the room when I’m the topic?”

I said, “It’s a lot more fun talking about you when you aren’t here.”

Mom Tina entered with a huge smile on her face. I couldn’t believe that she’d completed a hard day of work. Her grin showed off a set of perfectly white teeth, and I didn’t see any signs of dark circles under her eyes. She credited her youthful appearance to living a natural lifestyle.

She asked, “Did I tell you about the man that bought one of the sculptures of you?”

Mom Tina stepped up behind me and wrapped her arms around my neck hugging my shoulders. I groaned. “Oh, man, do you mean I’m naked in some total stranger’s living room? That’s a little creepy.”

“Well, I don’t know if it’s the living room. I like to think of my sculptures sitting in spaces designed for art like a gallery room.”

“So what did you want to tell about him?”

Mom Tina pressed her face against the side of mine. She was always more physically affectionate than Mom Missy, and I treasured the difference between the two. Mom Missy knew how to express her emotions in words.

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