My Twist of Fortune by Rayne, Piper (little red riding hood read aloud txt) 📗

report. “No. Hank and I were friends. That’s all. I loved your father. When your dad and I split up I was really sad, as you probably know.”

They all nod. Tears come to my eyes as I remember how I wanted to spare them from seeing how broken I was.

“I’m not sad now, but Hank…” How do I tell my kids he gives me butterflies and stomach flips like when I was seventeen and I’d catch him smiling at me in the hallway? How I can’t stop laughing and smiling when I’m around him? “Let’s just say, I’m choosing happiness. And I understand that it’s hard on you, but I’d really appreciate your support.”

Posey crawls into my lap and puts her small arms around my neck in a tight hug. “I support you.”

Nikki and Mandi reach across the table.

“We do too. I still think it’s a Hallmark movie,” Nikki says.

Jed sits there, and we all look at him. He sighs. “They’re going to bust my balls about this at school even more now that you’re official. Cade hates me. And…” He releases a deep breath. “Fine. Date your cousin.”

“He’s not her cousin!” all four of us girls scream, and we laugh together.

I grab Jed’s hand and he squeezes mine, which hopefully is a sign he might not be ecstatic, but he’ll deal with it. Everyone picks up dishes, assuming the family discussion is over.

“One more thing,” I say. “I guess the radio station in town reported that Hank and I went on the date and…” I bite my lip. I cover Posey’s ears and she squirms. “We were caught on the bleachers last night, kissing.”

“Mom!” Nikki yells.

“Way to make it easy on us.” Jed shakes his head and walks away.

I let go of Posey’s ears and she looks around. “What did I miss? Come on. I can’t be the only one who doesn’t know.”

“Mom kissed Hank and everyone in town knows,” Mandi says.

“Mandi!”

She shrugs and walks away. “Believe me, she was gonna find out.”

As the kitchen clears out, I sit at the table and sigh. I’ve got good kids. Hopefully this doesn’t mess them up too much. But I can’t shake the feeling that in the long run, seeing me pick myself back up out of the rubble and moving on with my life will be good for them.

I pick up my phone and see that Hank still hasn’t texted me back.

Me: It’s done. Jeez, who knew I could be so scared of my own kids?

No response.

Me: I’m thinking of you. Hope everything is okay.

“Mom!” I yell into the nearly empty house, reading all the names on the boxes. Some have storage written on them, others Hank, then one says Northern Lights.

My shoulders fall. Chevelle is skipping from room to room, telling me how they’re all empty.

“Hank?” Mom comes from the kitchen and Chevelle runs up to her, hugging her. Chevelle is almost as tall as her grandma now.

“What’s going on?” I ask.

She looks at her foyer with the rounded staircase along the wall and the chandelier she’d always brag about because she found it at a flea market. “What?” She looks at me with a blank expression.

“The boxes!”

“Oh.” She pats Chevelle on her back and hugs Adam. “So tall.” She kisses his cheek. “I’m moving.”

“And you didn’t think to tell me this?”

“I was going to tell you.” She pushes Chevelle and Adam in front of her with her hand on their shoulders. “I have some cookies in the kitchen. Fresh and hot. Go.”

They both almost knock the other one to the floor trying to get there first.

After they’re out of earshot, she steps over to me. “I’m moving into Northern Lights Retirement Center. I don’t want the grandkids to think it’s because I’m old though.”

I have no words.

Since I opt not to say anything, she continues. “I’ve had so much fun with Dori, and there isn’t anything here for me. You don’t need me anymore and the kids are getting so big. This house is all just memories of how old I’ve become. The stairs hurt my knees. It’s too much house for one person. It was meant to be enjoyed by a family.”

“But why didn’t you tell me?”

She giggles. “You’ve had your hands full. Or maybe that’s Marla.”

I ignore her comment for the moment. “But Northern Lights is in Lake Starlight.”

“You act like it’s in the lower forty-eight. It’s a twenty-minute drive.” She moves into the family room, and sure enough, it’s half packed, though the furniture’s still there. “This is just too much space. It was too big of a house even when there were three of us, and now it’s just me.”

I stare at a picture of the land back when my dad bought it. He’d decided to leave Anchorage when Sunrise Bay was nothing but a fishing town. He owned the land for almost eight years, building the house bit by bit until he finished it. My mom says he was never around during her pregnancy, but it was worth it to bring me home from the hospital to this house.

“The kids still need you.”

She pats my cheek. “And I’ll be there whenever you want. I can still drive, you know. But you all have your own lives.”

I guess she’s right. The boys are older, and they don’t want anything to do with me, let alone their grandma. It’s only a few years before Adam and Chevelle are where they are now.

“Still, I could’ve helped you if you told me.”

She waves me off. “Dori knew this moving company. They’ve been so good about being patient with me deciding what to keep and pack. I’ll move a lot of stuff into a storage unit unless you want it.”

I sit on the sofa and rest my forearms on my thighs. “Mom, how are you affording Northern Lights? It’s expensive.”

She sits next to me and places her hand on mine. “Your dad was always concerned with money. He worked so hard to give us the