He wasn’t that big when he came out of her silly. Echo's voice hummed with amusement.
I know that, Echo. It’s just so hard to believe that someone her size could carry a baby at all!
Again I heard Echo’s amused giggle, and then her tone turned serious. Well, why not? I wasn’t much bigger than her when I carried you. I was only four feet and eleven inches tall. She’s probably what, four foot, nine inches?
“Mommy,” Drew exclaimed.
“Hello Pumpkin,” she said, walking over to hug him.
I tried hard not to laugh over their little exchange. It was the funniest, and I’d be lying if I said it wasn't cute, but it'd be a cold day in hell before I ever told Drew that.
“Mom!” He dragged out the word in a hushed tone, looking embarrassed.
“Oh, Andy stop, this is your mom, she’s allowed to call you whatever she pleases.” I stepped forward and introduced myself. “It’s so nice to meet you, Mrs. Graves, I’m Eden Garrows.”
Drew gawked at me with poorly hidden horror. I ignored him and gave his mother my undivided attention. She had an amused smirk playing across her lips as she looked up at me. “Oh my, you must be something special if my boy lets you call him Andy?”
I returned her amused smirk with a smile. “He does, but I believe other than you, I’m the only one that can do it and live to tell the tale.”
She hiked a brow at me in the exact way Drew did when he was up to something, and I couldn’t keep my composure any longer. I finally knew exactly where Drew had gotten his sense of humor and mannerisms from. She laughed right along with me; I guess she got it, which meant she got me. I liked her.
“Daryl, your daughter is a delight! I see your sense of humor rubbed off on her.”
I stepped back and glanced at Drew in surprise. We shared a confused look that had both my dad and his mom bent over and busted at the seams with laughter. We both stood there like dummies and watched our respective parents ride out the humor of their little inside joke.
“Oh, you should see your faces,” Drew’s mom squealed, finally catching her breath. “Detective Garrows and I work together—sometimes. I deal with forensics, while he deals with the endless hours of investigating, following leads, and digging up dirt. We were talking over the coffee maker, one morning this past week, and he was going on and on about how his little girl liked some boy and how he’d yet to meet the kid. Of course being in a similar situation, I vented my frustrations about Andrew seeing some girl named Eden, and well as you can imagine we figured out the rest from there.”
“So when Eden told me you were coming over for dinner,” Dad said, pointing at Drew, “It just seemed like the next logical step was to invite Sara. That way, we can get the whole, 'meet the parents’ thing over in one shot.”
“Genius idea right, Eden?” Sara said and hiked that inquisitive brow of her's at me.
“Yes, Ma’am, that’s my dad, Genius Extraordinaire.” I didn't bother hiding the playful sarcasm from my voice.
She winged her eyebrow up again and wrinkled her nose. “Ma’am, ugh that sounds so old, you call me Sara, sweetie. Daryl, what are you cooking in there? It smells fabulous!”
She walked toward my dad, and he ushered her into the kitchen, offering a glass of wine, which left me and Drew alone. I turned to him with a smile, and he had the most mischievous look on his face as he closed the gap between us and circled me in his arms. “He does, huh?”
I laughed at his little joke until he leaned in. Alarms went off in my head as he attempted to close the gap between his lips and mine. I ducked out of his arms and took a couple of steps back before I started giggling nervously. I wasn’t ready for that first kiss yet. He looked wounded by my rejection; only it wasn’t that. I wasn’t rejecting him. I was scared. I hadn’t realized it until then. I perked up and grabbed his arm. “Come on. I want to show you something.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets as we left the living room. We headed toward the den where all my craft supplies and workstation were. He ambled behind me, looking at the pictures that lined the downstairs’ walls. I hadn’t noticed that he’d stopped until I turned around to say something when I reached the den’s door. He was standing at the other end of the hall, looking at an old family picture from before I was born. I knew which one had caught his eye. Slowly I treaded on the plush dark blue carpet to the end of the mauve-colored hall.
“Is that…” he started to ask.
“Yes,” I interrupted. “That’s my mother, Echo.”
Wow, you don’t have to say it like I was some evil witch! I could feel the sting of hurt that laced Echo's voice.
I’m not, I sighed in my head. I said it that way so that he will get the message loud and clear that you are not a subject I want to discuss. I would be hard-pressed to tell him about you truthfully.
“Well, like I said before, Eden, I am here whenever you want to talk.” He put an arm around my shoulders and gave me a sideways hug. “Now, what was it you were gonna show me?”
Stepping away but grabbing his hand as I did, I pulled him into the den and pushed him into a chair as I kept walking. “Close your eyes,” I told him. Surprisingly he did as I asked without hesitation. I opened the bottom drawer of my crafting desk and pulled out
