The Secret Life of Sarah Hollenbeck by Bethany Turner

Author:Bethany Turner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary Romance;Christian women—Conduct of life—Fiction;Women—Religious life—Fiction;Women authors—Fiction;Christian life—Fiction;Christian fiction;Love stories;FIC042040;FIC027020
ISBN: 9781493411023
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2017-07-28T04:00:00+00:00

14.

Seven Minutes at 350 Degrees

There are certain words that feel to your soul like that first shower after you’ve been in the woods camping for four days. That’s how I felt about Ben’s declaration of love.

I had been so worried about that—even more than I had realized. Like I already said, I knew he was falling in love with me fast, but when would the timing be right to say it out loud? I didn’t want him to feel pressured to say it or feel any uncomfortable expectations from me about those words.

But Ben’s “I love you” was perfect. Just perfect.

In my opinion, just as exciting and fear-inducing as the words “I love you” are the words “I want you to meet my mother.” Or, worse yet, “My mother wants to meet you.” At least with “I want you to meet my mother” there is a feeling that your guy is proud of you and your relationship, and he’s serious enough about you to take you home to meet the first woman he loved. “My mother wants to meet you,” on the other hand, is a mixed bag of Oedipal chaos. He’s been talking to her about you—that’s the first thing you know. But after that? You know nothing. Maybe it’s his low-pressure way of saying he really cares about you and can’t wait to take that next step with you. Then again, it could mean he’s not really sure about your relationship at all, and he wants to get his mommy’s two cents to see if he should even continue on with you.

Thankfully, Ben told me, “I want you to meet my mother.” And then he tagged on with a smile, “And my dad. But there’s a very good chance he’ll just watch football the whole time. Don’t take it personally.”

I hadn’t had to deal with meeting mothers all that often. The last time I’d met the mother of a boyfriend, I was a teenager being introduced to my future mother-in-law, Lucy McDermott, at the senior awards banquet. Lucy was fine. I didn’t even have to call her Mrs. McDermott. We were never close, but looking back, I do think there was always a sort of solidarity or sisterhood between us. We’d both had the grave misfortune of falling for McDermott men, and though she loved her husband and practically deified her son, I think she understood better than anyone the burden of being a McDermott wife.

I was dreading meeting Ben’s mom. Absolutely dreading it. I was confident about our relationship, and I knew that her two cents, or any other amount of intrusion, wouldn’t shake his love for me. But considering who I was to much of the outside world, I felt as if there was some additional stress piled on top of the already scary meeting of my boyfriend’s mother. At the very least, I worried it might not be pleasant.

Of course, it didn’t exactly help my anxiety subside to learn from Ben that Joanna Delaney viewed Laura Bellamy as the daughter she’d never had.

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