“Thanks, I will. It’d be terrible if you found more once you got into it.” She pushed Noah up and stood as well. “Thanks again for today. I’m very lucky you were here and clearheaded.”
“Think nothing of it.” He ruffled Noah’s hair. “See you tomorrow.”
Chapter Ten
“Mom, anything to drop off in town while I’m passing?” Ethan walked into the packing shed early the next morning where his mother marked off an invoice.
“Hi, sweetie.” She cross-referenced the invoice to an order book and ticked it off before putting down her pen and holding her arms out to him. “Glad to see you.”
He gave her a cuddle. “Dad out with the pickers, I gather. How is the old grump today?” Ethan leaned against the cool room.
“Same as ever. He’s a good man, your father, despite what you think sometimes. Life hasn’t always been easy for him, you know that.”
“That doesn’t mean he has to make life hard for everyone else, especially you.” He grabbed a handful of cherries from the open box near the scales. “I got an earful from him the other night about letting ‘that girl’ get the better of me again. Looks like you’ve opened a hornet’s nest talking about Mari around him.” He threw a cherry in his mouth, chewed, and leaned over the trash can to spit out the pit.
“Don’t pay him no mind. I can deal with your father. Pretty sure I understand him better than anyone else after all these years together and he’s not that grumpy, Ethan. You know how focused he gets during cherry season.” She put a new box on the scales and checked the weight, added a handful of cherries before tucking the plastic bag down neatly and adding the lid. With a flash of her hand, she’d added a date stamp and pushed it to one side ready to do the next one. Ethan took it and placed it on the pallet with the rest she’d packed that day already.
“I spoke to Mari last night about you meeting Noah. He’s a terrific kid, Mom. You’ll like him. So polite too.”
“I’d expect nothing less from her despite the horrible upbringing she had before we got her.” Pearl brushed a strand of hair from her face, checked another box of cherries on the scales. “I can’t wait to see that little boy. Seems to be all I think about these last few days.” She paused, hand on her hip and a frown between her eyes. “Tell me, do you think she’d mind if I went over tomorrow? We didn’t really get a day set for me to meet him because we thought it would be a good idea to give him time to adjust. Seeing you and then me and your father right away might have been a bit too much for the poor boy. As much as I wanted to rush over there after school, I understand how overwhelming it could be having a whole lot of people pushed into your face. It’s my day off tomorrow and he’ll be home. I can get this lot of orders packed and ready to ship out today if I hurry and that’ll give me all day to do my own thing.”
“Since when have you worked Sundays anyway? Mom, you have to have time to yourself. Just because Dad lives and breathes cherries, doesn’t mean you have to work every day like he does. I keep telling you to have a life of your own. Go for coffee, shopping, anything, but make sure you get away from the farm now and then.”
“I know that and I do go out and about, as you well know. I just wondered if she’d mind if I arrived without letting her know.”
“If I was you, I’d call first. I know she’s worried about how Dad will react seeing her again. Even though she’s grown up now, she’s still nervous about him.”
“She’s a sensitive girl, always was. She hates for anyone to think ill of her, no matter how much they mean to her. And, let’s face it, you and your father blamed her without listening just because someone thought they saw her leaving the house that night.”
“I know.”
Pearl topped off another box. “Are you still half in love with her? I wouldn’t blame you if you were. You two were always so good together.”
“She’s changed, Mom. A businesswoman now with my child, your grandson. Certainly not the insecure girl I used to know.” He flicked a cherry stem into the trash can. “I’d love to get to know her again but I sense her holding back and I can hardly blame her after what she’s been through.”
Pearl shook her head. “No. You can’t give up that easy, Ethan. You were devastated when she left.”
“Sure I was but I was only eighteen. Seems that I wasn’t really what she wanted after all or she wouldn’t have married my brother.”
“I never did understand that bit but you know your brother. So stubborn. If he’d listened to your father, he might still be alive.” She picked up another box.
“Not sure that would be true, Mom.”
“We both know your father wanted him to do a different sport and that’s why Rake took off, because they argued over it so much. Boxing is dangerous and we more than anyone know that.”
“Life is a risk. I could hardly see him being a golfer just because it’s safer.”
“Me either but at least your father’s heart was
