“Well, yes, I am 100% on board. I love Harvey, and I want to spend the rest of my life with him. And that would be enough for me, but he wants to tie the knot. And there’s one other reason.” She put her hand on mine. “We’re going to formally adopt Hailey.”
She paused to wait for my reaction. I had no idea what to say. “Oh, well, okay. What about her mom, Hannah?”
“So, the thing about Hannah is she has not gotten her life figured out just yet. She doesn’t know what she wants to be when she grows up, so how can she raise a kid? She can be irresponsible on her own time, but when it effects that baby, Harvey and I have had to step in. Hannah’s mother wants nothing to do with her, so that leaves us. And Hannah is signed on, too, as long as we tell Hailey the truth and she can still see her sometimes, when she’s straight and under supervision. Anyway, it would be much easier for everyone if Harvey and I were married, so it makes sense to go ahead and do that. I know that sounds romantic, right? I was hoping …” She smiled at me.
“What?”
“We, we were hoping you would go with us tomorrow to city hall and be a witness. We might do a ceremony in the summer, but right now, we want to take care of the legal side.”
So, Mom was giving up her single lady status for the sake of the bundle in the back seat. I looked at Hailey’s big, bald head. “Sure.”
Mom flashed me a tight grin. “Is that ‘sure, I’ll do this to get you off my back” or ‘sure, I’m glad you waited for me because I want to share the day when hell freezes over with you’?”
I smirked. “The latter.”
“Oh, baby, thank you!” Her skinny arms wrapped around me in an instant.
When we got home, Harvey was his usual jovial, couch potato self. There really was a lot to like about him, even if I didn’t get Mom’s physical attraction to him.
March 10, 2013
This morning, we dressed in our best outfits, and Mom and Harvey got hitched. With Harvey’s sister, my mom’s best friend, Lisa, and me and my new appendage, Hailey, witnessing, how could their new endeavor do anything but succeed? Afterwards, we all went to Biba’s (the best Italian place ever) for a huge lunch. Harvey and Mom were beaming. It was actually pretty cool.
Harvey went home, I’m assuming to nap, and Mom and I went to a huge chain baby store to use her gift card, a shower present from her work friends. She bought a car seat/jog stroller combo that cost more than probably everything she ever bought me before I turned twelve, combined. Still, Hailey did look like a cute little dictator, ruling from her baby Pope-mobile.
When we got home, Mom fed Hailey and put her to bed, then disappeared into her bedroom with Harvey. About 11:30, she came out and joined me on the downstairs couch, watching reruns of Friends.
“You used to watch this show, waiting for me to get home from work, huh?”
“Yeah, sometimes. I never really got into it.”
“Me, either.”
“So, how are you dealing?”
“With what in specific?”
“Adulting.”
“Oh, I don’t know. I seriously don’t know how I’m going to sell the place, displace Elliot, get rid of all the animals, let everything Dad built disappear. And I don’t know how I would not sell it, since my whole life is back in Seattle. Maybe I could get someone to run it with Elliot, someone I could trust, while I finish school, but I don’t have a clue how I would find someone. What do you think?”
“I don’t know, babe. I know you’ve always wanted a master’s degree. You love Seattle. Has anything changed?”
“No, I don’t know. I thought I’d appreciate it more, now that everything I own is covered in bird poop. If I’m really honest, though, this trip is making me wonder. I mean, work is still great, but the bar scene is just boring now. I ran into Ton-Ton.”
“How did that go?”
“About like you’d expect. She’s so fake, I don’t know why I didn’t see it before. I did stand up for myself this time, though. Anyway, I think she has moved on.”
“Well, good. She didn’t really sound like your type.” Mom didn’t know all the gory details, but she knew enough. “Tell me more about this Jodie girl.”
I tried to mute the grin now spreading across my face. “Well, she is beautiful. Kind of a Kelly Clarkson meets Selena. She’s about my age. She’s a librarian, so she’s smart. I went riding, horseback riding, with her a couple of weeks ago, and it was probably one of the best days of my life. It’s not just those things, though. She’s got this way of being, you know, a Zen, but she’d probably make a joke about me using the word to describe her.”
“Sounds like you got it bad.”
“Mom, no. I’m sure she’s straight, and besides, if I leave, I’d probably never see her again. I mean, I’ll go back to Boise to see Liv sometimes, but I barely know Jodie. She probably thinks I’m an idiot.”
“Have you asked her how she feels.”
“Well, no. I’m sure she’s straight. She’s a daddy’s girl. And if you knew the right-wing assholes she has to deal with every day…” Mom gave me a look that said she wasn’t buying what I had to sell.
“Ask her how she feels.”
“Okay, okay. But it’s moot if I sell the place and move away.”
“You keep saying ‘if.’ You’re seriously considering staying?”
“Yeah, well. I don’t know what Elliot will do without the
