I take a few precious moments to run my fingers through my hair and find a speck of courage to walk out and meet his mother.
“Where is the girl? I want to see her. You can’t hide her away in your love nest forever!” she scolds.
I take that moment to exit the room. I wave shyly. “Hello.”
Nick’s mother is more beautiful than I imagined. She’s small, curvy, and stunning. Her hair is as dark as Nick’s and her smile just as kind.
She lifts her hands to her heart in a prayer position. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! You are real! And so beautiful!”
Guess that answers where Nick got one of his favorite religious sayings.
“Come, come child, let me get a good look at you.”
I pad close and stretch out my hand to shake hers.
She shakes her head. “No, no, no. That’s not how we greet one another in this family.” She holds her arms out and embraces me in an all-encompassing hug. “I’m Josephine or Jojo, or Mama. Whatever ever makes you comfortable, my darling girl.” She pulls back and holds both of my cheeks. “My boy has done well. Son, she will make me beautiful grandbabies.”
I’m certain my eyes are about to pop out of my head, and I cough.
Nick laughs. “Yeah, Ma, she will.” He answers as if it’s every day that you introduce your girlfriend to your mother and blatantly admit to the prospect of having children. We haven’t even talked about kids. We just admitted we loved one another.
Oh, my God! We admitted we loved one another.
In all the touching and lovemaking, that little admission slipped to the wayside. Now that I’m awake and standing in front of his mother, the memory of him whispering he loved me is running rampant in my mind. Did he mean it? Was it something he said in the heat of the moment?
Nick comes over and tugs me to his side, looping an arm around my shoulders and kissing my temple. “Ma, this is my girl, Honor Carmichael. Dove, this is my mother, Josephine.”
“It’s so good to meet you, Josephine.” I grip Nick’s waist and hold on tight.
“So, tell me, Honor, are you Italian?” she asks while lifting a bag off the floor and walking into the kitchen. She starts unloading several Tupperware containers onto the counter.
“Um…” I try to come up with the right words, but Nick cuts me off.
“Five percent, Mom.” He winks at me.
His mother beams. “I knew it.” She wipes her hands on a dish towel and throws it over her shoulder. “Now, you both look hungry.” She gestures to the stools at the bar. “Sit, sit. I will feed you, and you will tell me all about how you met and fell in love.”
I shakily make my way to a stool and gratefully sit down before I fall down. I am not used to a mother who not only cares this much but makes a point to insert herself into her children’s lives because of concern and love instead of status and keeping up with the Joneses.
His mother opens all of the Tupperware she brought, gets the plates, and dishes out more food than I can usually eat in two days, let alone one meal. Lasagna is cut and steaming hot. A bowl of minestrone soup, thick slices of garlic bread, and some steamed fresh veggies are sitting in front of me, making my mouth water. I haven’t smelled food so good in ages.
Nick digs in like nothing is strange about his mother popping over, laying out a feast, and grilling him about his girlfriend. Without knowing what else to do, I tuck into the food and answer Josephine’s questions as best I can.
When she leaves, she hugs me not once, but twice, and kisses me on both cheeks.
Nick walks his mother down and out of the gym. She must have a key if she was able to reach his door inside the building. Thankfully she doesn’t have a key to the inside, or she’d have found us in a more precarious position, and I would have died from sheer embarrassment.
“My mother likes you,” Nick says as he comes back from downstairs.
“I like her. She’s full of happiness and love. What’s not to like?”
“Care to tell me about your mom?”
Instantly, ice fills my veins. My mother is nothing like the loving, joyful woman who pushed her way into Nick’s home so she could make sure he and his new girlfriend were okay. My mother doesn’t even know where I am, and she probably doesn’t much care.
“Not today. I want to end this day on a happy note.”
He comes over to me and tucks me against his chest. I wrap my arms around him and know as long as I’m in these arms, I’ll be fine. Nothing can hurt me here.
“Okay, Dove. But soon, yeah? You have to let me in on the good, bad, and ugly.”
I nod and hold him tighter. “Soon.”
“How’s about we cuddle up and watch some TV like an old married couple?”
I chuckle into his chest. “Sounds perfect.”
Chapter Sixteen
Cow Pose (Sanskrit: Bitilasana)
Getting back to the basics, cow pose has the yogi dropping the belly low while the hips and bum rise up, along with the head and neck. Keep the shoulders hip distance apart and press into the hands and arms getting the most from your stretch.
NICHOLAS
Our convoy stops suddenly. “Master Sergeant Salerno, there’s something up ahead.”
The skin at the back of my neck stings, and the hair stands up. We were supposed to be alone. This trek has been hidden from our enemies for a year now, and we’ve had zero problems.
“What do you see, Private?” I gesture to Danielson, a young twenty-year-old from Kansas. He’s got eyes on the desert ahead. We’d been driving along a path cut near a long line of boulders, scoping out enemy territory. This is the first time we’ve seen any movement along this route.
The sky is pitch dark, but
