“Well, I mean, I want to enjoy it too. But yeah.”
“Staying for dinner tonight?”
“And engage in a verbal sparring match with your bull-headed brother as his welcome home present? Color me there.”
She cocked her eyebrow.
“I mean, sure, I’d love to. Thanks. Just let me text my mom.” I grabbed my phone and quickly tapped out a message. Honestly, her work schedule meant I rarely saw her for dinner anyway.
“How’s her new job going at the hospital in Hilton Head?”
“Good. It’s good. She’s working with the new cardiac surgeon, with scheduling and stuff. He’s complicated and difficult but he pays well, so she’s happy she found it.” My mom had been looking for steady office work for so long so she could be home more in the evenings. “Unfortunately she found the one office job that seems to keep her at work later and later these days. At least she’s been able to cut back on hours at the convenience store. And we finally have good benefits.”
“That’s awesome. I’m happy for you guys.”
I was too, it had been too long since we’d had something permanent. I was proud of my mom, she’d worked hard to get trained and get this job while working to get food on the table. We owed a debt of gratitude to the Butlers—who had pretty much been my bonus family since I was eleven years old—that we could never repay.
“SO WHAT ARE you girls going to watch? If it’s a chick flick, I’m out.” Joey stacked the plates at the kitchen table where we’d all just gorged ourselves on Nana’s famous shrimp n’ grits. “Thanks for dinner, Nana.” He leaned down and kissed her papery cheek, bringing a warm smile to her face, then stood, unfolding to his six-foot-three height.
“You’re welcome.”
“Depends on your definition of a chick flick,” I joked and reached to clear up the spare unused silverware. “We could be watching Immortals. It’s action-adventure, but Henry Cavill’s bare chest lumps it firmly in chick flick status for me.”
Joey put the plates in the sink that Keri Ann was currently filling with water. “Hmm. My definition of chick flick is movies where some chump says all the crap guys don’t say in real life, and you all sigh and swoon and shit.
“Joseph Walter Butler,” Nana admonished. “Watch your language.”
I snorted a giggle.
“Sorry, Nana.” Joey glared at my outburst before addressing her. “But do you honestly condone these unrealistic expectations the girls are getting of men?”
Nana stood gingerly, her frame frailer than it used to be. “Ah, Joey. A girl has to dream and expect more. If women expected nothing from men, men would never amount to much.”
“Here, here,” Keri Ann added. “Maybe you’d have a girlfriend rather than a stalker if you actually learned a thing or two.”
Joey chuckled. “I have no problem getting what I need from girls. Getting a ‘girlfriend’ is not one of them.”
“Joey!”
“Sorry, Nana. But it’s true.” He shrugged with a grin. “And I have enough female companionship right here in this kitchen not to want anything more than sex with a girl and too much going on in the rest of my life to worry about some chick who’s going to start dreaming of marriage and babies.”
Nana shook her head. We’d always had open and honest conversations around her. “I’m leaving you three to your discourse and heading to bed,” she said. “Joey, one day you’re going to catch a direct hit from a woman and realize you’d change your whole life for her. I just hope you don’t run when it happens.”
“And I hope she doesn’t leave you swinging in the wind,” I added, raising my eyebrows. “But that’s highly likely.”
He pursed his lips. “Night Nana. It’s good to be home.” He pulled her in for a hug, her grey-haired head only reaching his chest, and kissed her forehead. His brow furrowed as he concentrated on the gentle hug he gave her.
“Thanks for dinner,” I said as they released and stood to hug her myself.
“Sweet girl.” She hugged me back, then patted my cheek before releasing me.
I turned back to Joey. “Ugh. You’re such a pig. Not all girls dream of marriage and babies.”
“Really, Jazzy Bear?” He lifted a sardonic eyebrow. “Are you dreaming of your future career every night or one of those ridiculous heroes from a movie or romance novel to come and sweep you off your feet?”
God, he was annoying. “Actually, I dream of being a journalist. And traveling the world.”
He stopped what he was doing and looked up at me. A split second of curiosity and interest crossed his expression, then it was gone.
“And hotelier,” added Keri Ann affecting a French-accented inflection to her words. “She wants to run a hotel one day.”
He glanced at her, then shook his head. “Whatever.”
“Ugh. You’re a complete chauvinistic—”
“Jessica,” Nana interjected from the doorway. “Y’all try not to dissolve into insults. Good night.”
“Sorry. But it’s true. Night, Nana.”