“Cake! Cake!”
I narrowed my eyes at my mother, who just fluttered her eyelashes and helped wash off Amelia.
John leaned forward, a fake pout on his face. “Hey, you’re my mom. You’re supposed to help wipe my face.”
“You’re in college, my boy. You should be able to do it yourself.” And then Mom leaned forward and began to wipe off his face anyway.
He beamed over at her, and I snapped a photo. “I’m sending that to your girlfriend.”
John posed again. “Go for it. She loves Mom. And it would show how great I am with kids.”
“You’re a menace,” I said, doing my best to clean up Amelia as much as possible.
“John Montgomery. Are you thinking about kids?” my mom asked, and my brother blushed beneath the face paint.
“No. I promise. I’ll wait until I’m out of college, and prepared.”
“Nothing prepares you for kids,” my mother said sweetly.
I swallowed hard, knowing that she hit the nail right on the head. Because I hadn’t been prepared for Amelia. I hadn’t even been prepared for the man I thought I had loved. The man who I thought had loved me.
But Brick was long gone, no matter how hard I tried to find him.
“Why are you sad?” Amelia asked, her voice soft. Both John and my mother gave me a look, and I pasted a bright smile on my face.
“I’m just sad that I don’t have cheese right now.”
It wasn’t quite a lie. My mother hadn’t been joking when she said cheese was a Montgomery trait. Most people went along with the joke and thought we were at least good natured when it came to it. But in reality, our family just really liked cheese. It had started with a party long ago and had now catapulted into an entire branding. When people thought of the Montgomerys, they thought of cheese. Which probably wasn’t the greatest thing in the world, but I didn’t mind it. It just meant no matter the family event, we were going to have something we liked to eat.
“I love cheese. Do I get to try Gouda next?”
“It’s Gouda for you,” John put in.
I groaned. “That wasn’t even a good one.”
“You mean a Gouda one?” John asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
Amelia laughed, and then threw herself at her uncle. As I watched more paint smear on his clothes, I sighed and sat back on my feet. “Well, it looks like both of our children are going to need baths tonight.”
“That is up to John. I passed those duties to him long ago,” my mom teased.
I stood up then and held out my hand to help her. She gave me a look but let me guide her. “I’m not elderly you know. I just ran a half-marathon.”
“I don’t know how you got into running. The only way that I’ll ever run is either because a zombie’s chasing me, Amelia needs me, or if there’s a cheese plate with my name on it,” I added just to make my mom laugh.
Mom shrugged. “I needed something to do after I sold the business. I mean, looking at numbers all day was fine, but I wanted something just for me. And running’s it. Your father thinks I’m crazy, but he loves me.”
That made me smile. “I do like swimming. I should probably get back into that.”
“There’s a nice program at the gym near us. Do you want me to look things up for you?”
I shook my head. “Thank you, but I’ll find time.”
“Really? We had to pull teeth in order to get you out here today, my child. Let me help.”
I grimaced, knowing she was right even as the guilt set in. “Okay fine. I’d like that.”
“You know, you should also get back into riding”
