Part 38 (1/2)
”At least your mother isn't here!”
”Ride home with me,” he said, putting an arm around her. ”I'll bring you back for your car early in the morning. Before the town wakes up.”
”I'd like that.”
When they were under way, he asked, ”Are things between us going to change a lot with your mother here?”
”Not as far as I'm concerned. I'm a little angry with her for coming without notice. If she'd called and told me she was missing me, that she was looking for a reunion to get back on good terms, I would have been honest with her. I'd have told her about you and asked her to hold off. I'll see her at Christmas. Even before I met you, I needed s.p.a.ce. My mother's been driving me nuts!”
”Really? Like how?”
She told him about some of the arguments they'd had over the past few months. ”She's convinced I've gone through a personality change since my injuries.”
”I like your personality,” he said, reaching for her hand.
”I realize I'm a little different. It's deliberate. I don't want to spend my life so one-dimensionally-I want more balance. I don't need another shrink to give me permission to do that.”
”Another shrink?” he asked, looking at her.
”A little counseling after a fatal accident is reasonable, but my mother has trucked me off to more than one psychiatrist to check my brain. I think she wants the old Angie back. She'd gotten used to that person-the new me is someone she was unprepared for.”
He gave her hand a squeeze. ”I like the handful I've got now. Did I tell you I spent some time with a shrink? After the crash?”
”No. How was it?”
”Boring. But that's how I managed to get a.s.signed six weeks of leave. It was my PTSD. The nightmares.”
”Are you different now?” she asked.
”Probably.”
”I like you now, too,” she said with a smile.
”Listen, don't make things harder with your mother than they have to be. I'm a flash in the pan-your family is forever.” He turned onto the drive to his house.
”If she screws up this flash, I'm going to be furious.”
”Nah, don't get mad. Everything will turn out. We'll manage just-” He stopped shy of the house and just stared. A very fancy RV was parked next to the house. ”Oh, G.o.d, this isn't happening to me.”
”What?” she asked.
”My mother.”
”No way!”
”Way,” he said tiredly.