“Still no clues,” she says. “Are y’all making out fine in the cabin?”
I choke on my spit. “Excuse me?”
“Everything okay there? David said you should be able to run the generator the whole time you’re there.”
“Everything is fine here,” I say. “Except . . .”
“Except what?”
I hesitate. Am I unleashing forces I can’t control if I tell her about Levi’s . . . behavior? “Mom, you’re on my team more than anyone else’s, right?”
“I am Team Dad first, Team Daughters second, Team Twins third.”
“But all of us ahead of anyone not born or married into this family?”
“A hundred percent.”
“Even Levi?”
There’s a long pause. “Yes.”
But it’s cautious. “I mean it, Mom. If I needed advice, you would tell me what was best for me and not what gives you and Sheryl Taft a chance to plan a wedding?”
“Honey,” she says. Her voice is so gentle that my eyes prick with tears. “I’m always on your side. What’s going on?”
“We kissed.”
“Yeah, we all saw that.”
“But it was not for show.”
Another pause. Then, “We all saw that too.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“I’m confirming what you told me. This should not be news.”
“It’s news that everyone else noticed.”
“Oh, honey.”
That’s it. She doesn’t add anything to that even though I wait for several seconds. “Mom.”
She sighs. “What do you want me to say, Taylor?”
“Whatever you’re trying very hard not to say right now!”
“Oh, boy.”
“Mom.”
“Give me a second. I’m going to need some eggnog for this.”
The phone knocks against a hard surface, and I hear the distant sound of the fridge door opening. A minute later, she picks up the phone. “Okay, let’s do this.”
“What are we doing?” I’m sorry I called now. This feels like a good time to hang up and run back to the house.
Where Levi is.
