“Okay, so what about the first weekend in September?” I asked.
“Hold on, let me check,” she said, squinting at the laptop. “Nope, I’ve got a retreat that weekend. What about the one after?”
I looked at my calendar and didn’t see anything for that weekend.
“Looks clear for me. Amanda is going to be thrilled. Be prepared for her to make food to order even when you tell her not to,” I said.
“That sounds lovely. I don’t hate the idea of a kindly woman making me pancakes in the morning.”
We confirmed the dates and I told Amanda.
“We can’t wait to see you, River,” she said, yelling into my phone as if calling to someone down a well.
“I can’t wait to see you too,” River said, smiling.
“Don’t worry about anything. We’ll take good care of you,” Amanda said.
“Thank you so much,” River said.
Amanda touched my shoulder and then waved to River.
“We’ll see you in September!”
I smiled at River and waited until Amanda was out of earshot.
“This woman is going to adopt you too,” I said.
“My parents are going to be upset that they’re being replaced,” she said with a laugh. She was the very cherished only child of a couple who wanted her very badly and hadn’t even blinked when she told them that, actually, she was a girl when she was six years old. They’d immediately been on board with learning how to support a transgender child. I’d met them via video chat and talking to them was like receiving a warm hug. They reminded me a lot of Amanda, actually. I still got a birthday card every year from River’s parents, and a beautiful ornament every Christmas.
“Oh, shit, I have to go teach,” River said as her watch beeped. “But we’re all set and I’m going to book my tickets and I’ll let you know about flights and everything.”
I smiled. “Okay, sounds good.”
She waved and said, “Love you!”
“Love you, too,” I said, and ended the call.
I couldn’t wait to see her.
Chapter Six
Before I walked into my parent’s house with Julia and Hollis, I took two deep breaths.
“Come on,” Julia said, taking my arm and dragging me through the door. The noise level was normal, but normal was loud. There was simply no way for this many adults and this many children to have any kind of volume control.
I was greeted by my niblings, and I loved them, but it was really hard to answer fifteen questions and listen to twenty stories and tie three pairs of laces at once.
“Hug please!” said Leo, my brother Rob’s son.
“Okay, buddy,” I said, pulling him into my arms.
“More please!” I hugged him tighter as he giggled. He was a total lovebug.
“ME HUG!” Zane yelled, and then I was giving out hugs like candy.
“Do you have one for me?” Mom asked, holding her arms out.
“Always,” I said. She hugged me and ran her hands on both sides of my head.
“You look good, kid.”
“Thanks,” I said. Dad came over to hug me as well, and I sunk into the hug. I wished you could fold hugs away and store them to bring out in moments when you were alone. I still hadn’t told my parents how long I was planning to stay, and I knew they wanted to ask me, but also didn’t want to know the answer. So we just did this weird little dance around the topic.
“And that’s why parkour is dangerous,” I heard Julia say to my second-oldest brother, Will. He was only second-oldest by a few minutes, since his twin Ben was born first.
I walked into the living room to find Will with a boot on his foot, which hadn’t been an odd occurrence when he was younger, but I had sort of hoped marriage and being a father had mellowed out his daredevil instincts. Apparently not.
“Don’t even get me started,” Will’s wife Portia said as she picked up their youngest daughter, Harley. “I told him I’m always right and guess what? I’m always right. Right?” The last word was directed at her husband.
“Yes, my love,” he said sheepishly.
Mom yelled that dinner was ready and we all tried to get ourselves seated. I ended up next to Hollis with my mom at the head of the table on my other side and Jake across from me. He and Julia were having some drama lately, and things were tense, so I wasn’t really looking forward to being on this side of the table. It wouldn’t be a problem if Jake had just told his creepy friend to lay off Julia and stop being gross, but he hadn’t done that, so Julia had to take matters into her own hands. Jake had told us that he was going to stop hanging out with Carter, but I had yet to see it. Honestly, it was the least he could do. The bar was low—don’t have friends that say gross shit to your sister.
“Are you teaching a lot of classes?” Mom asked. This was the other reason I didn’t like sitting near her. I had to listen to all her questions about my ability to make enough money as a yoga teacher. She tried to understand what I did, but she definitely had concerns that I didn’t have a reliable paycheck. Honestly, when I told her I wasn’t going to college and wanted to do a yoga teacher training program instead, I’d thought she was going to faint, and my mother wasn’t an easy one to shock.
“I have a new client for private yoga twice a week,” I said.
“And that pays pretty well, right?” Mom asked.
I took a bite of chicken from my burrito bowl and nodded.
“Well, that’s good. Now, if you stayed here for a while, do you think you could find other clients? Or maybe teach an indoor class?” Okay, we were going there. I glanced down the table at Julia who gave me a reassuring smile.
“Maybe,” I said, and hoped that would be the end of it.
I looked up from my bowl to find her eyes narrowed. She sat there, waiting for me to crack.
There was a yell down near the kids table, but she didn’t even flinch.
“Mom, I’m fine,” I said. “Can you bother someone else about their career now? What about Jake?”
“What did I do?” Jake said, looking up from his plate. He’d been shoveling food into his mouth as fast as possible, probably so he could get up from the table and escape being put under the spotlight.
Mom’s eyes narrowed further, and I waited.
“Okay, okay,” she said, finally. “You’re grown and I know you’re being responsible.” She didn’t sound so sure about that.
“I am,” I said. “I’m very responsible with my money.” I really was. My parents hadn’t had a lot of money when I was growing up, but we always had enough, and my parents had made sure us kids always had what we needed. Mom had also known how to take something cheap and make it magical.
I made it through the rest of the dinner without any further interrogation.
It was my turn for the dishes, and Julia had volunteered to help me, and Hollis hung around for moral support. We were just sorting the dishes when Jake came in.
“Jules? Can we talk?” he asked, leaning against the wall. His hands were behind his back, which meant he was probably picking at one of his nails. A nervous habit.
Julia stiffened. “And what do we need to talk about, Jacob?”