Valerie put both hands on the table. “Listen, friends, I appreciate the interest. Especially you, Sami, because you’re so close to him. If things ever go forward with Brad and me, I will tell you. But for now, I just consider him my longtime friend.” Her coffee and croissant arrived. Strawberries and kiwi fruit formed a decorative flower on the edge of the plate. Picking up her cup, she took a delicate sip before adding, “Even though he once asked me to marry him.”
Laughter erupted around the table and Valerie grinned and took a bite of her pastry, remembering her childhood, feeling a giddy excitement at the thought of Brad admitting he’d always wanted to date her!
Brad carried the cooler offish into the kitchen, setting it next to the sink. His mom stood at the counter, stirring milk into a bowl of cornmeal. “All cleaned,” he announced. She grabbed a handful of chopped green onions and tossed them into the batter before she reached over and paused the audiobook playing on her tablet.
“I have hush puppies here. How many fish?”
“Three. Kind of smallish to medium. Want me to freeze any?”
“No. Jon’s here. With you three boys and your father, I’ll be lucky to sneak a bite in.”
“Buddy pulled in right behind us, too.”
“Three is perfect then.”
He walked over to her and kissed her cheek from behind. “Want me to help?”
She looked over her shoulder and smiled at him. “That would be lovely.” The batter mixed, she set it aside and wiped her hands on her apron. “I’ll get you some potatoes to peel.”
She restarted her book and they listened to it together. Several minutes later, it came to an end. Brad chatted with her about it because he’d already read it. They dissected the crime uncovered in the book.
“It’s hard to think of such evil in the world when I’m standing in the sunny kitchen with my son.” She grabbed a cutting board out from under the cupboard and selected a knife. “It’s never made sense to me.”
Brad knew his mother had not had an easy adolescence, and that she did not speak from ignorance. “We both know how evil permeates society. Look at what happened to someone in our own sphere. Look at Valerie.”
Rosaline stopped working and turned to fully face Brad. “Why don’t you unpack that a little bit more for me, son.”
He tossed the last potato into the bowl and set the knife in the sink. “I’ve always….” He didn’t know what to say. This was his mom. How could he verbalize this?
“You’ve always had feelings for Valerie. Yes, Brad, I know.” Brad must have looked astonished. “Bradford. I’m your mother. A mom knows.”
Brad closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes, he said, “When she left, I kind of held onto this childish hope that one day she’d come back. Then she and Tyrone moved in together, and I didn’t know how to process that because it didn’t make sense. It made no sense based on everything I knewshouldbe.” He leaned his hip against the counter and crossed his arms. “Then she came back and I thought, ‘Okay. Everything’s right again.’” Taking a deep breath, he rubbed the back of his neck.
“But it’s not all right again, is it?” His mom reached out and put a hand on his arm, gently squeezing. “She’s not the same person.”
“Neither am I.”
“No. But, you didn’t suffer violent tragedy. You just grew up, matured, took on a multi-million-dollar company and pined for the girl you lost.” When he opened his mouth to protest, she laughed and held up a hand. “I’m not going to argue about whether you pined. You pined. I saw it.”
A sheepish smile covered his face. “Okay. Yes. But surely not this whole time.”
“Only when you thought about her.” She reached into the sink and grabbed his bowl of peeled potatoes. “What happened that has you pining again? Your dad told me you two were together Thursday night.”
He took a deep breath through his nose and let it out of his mouth. “Well, apparently, Valerie Flynn has decided that she no longer believes in our God.”
Rosaline stopped dicing potatoes and set her knife down. “Oh, Brad.”
He shrugged. “I can’t.” He cleared his throat. “I just have to let it go. Maybe it was never meant to be.”
Rosaline stared into his eyes. He could see her understanding and her hurt. “I don’t know what to say to you to make you feel better.”
“Well, just don’t start with, ‘You’ve wasted twenty years waiting for the wrong girl,’ because I don’t need the affirmation.”
“You’ve wasted nothing.” She patted his cheek and turned back to her potatoes. “Of course, I completely expected to be a grandmother by now, so you’d best be getting your head into that game.”
Knowing she teased, he laughed and walked over to the refrigerator, pulling out some eggs to boil for the potato salad. “Yeah, okay. I’ll get on it.”
She paused and turned to him again. “You understand that even with the pining and the waiting, if the woman God had designed for you had come into your life, you’d have known it, right? Don’t suddenly get all remorseful about wasted time and opportunity. When she’s right, you’ll not doubt.”
