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When we left to go to the grocery store leaving Christian, Kevin and Vinnie behind my mother went on nonstop about what a good feeling she had about Kevin and how nice he was.  I took it with a grain of salt though thinking that perhaps her excitement wasn’t so psychic but rather it was her getting giddy about the idea of her only daughter finally hooking up with a good man instead of just hanging out with her dog all of the time.  She was really good about not begging me for grandchildren who weren’t four legged and covered in fur but I knew that not so deep down inside she had the same hopes for me that all good moms did. She wanted the big fancy wedding with a white-ish dress followed by seeing me good and knocked up so that she could spoil my skinkids just as much as she did my furkid.  Hell, even I sometimes went into that fantasy right along with her, but then I’d squash it telling myself that I was just fine with Vinnie and my sex toys.  Nevertheless, hearing her going on and on, and on about Kevin was kind of cool. 

“He’s gorgeous…” she told me as she picked out a stalk of broccoli. 

“So polite too…” while checking out the fresh mozzarella.

At the meat counter. “Very tall… Great height for you…”

“And a great ass…” as we were checking out. 

In other words, Kevin had in just a few short moments won over my mother.  If I didn’t know any better I would have been worried about her trying to steal him from me with the way she kept talking about him.  It was fun to see her so happy over something, or rather someone, who I’d brought into her life though.  On the drive back to my house where Kevin and Christian were most likely laying around like slugs in the sun with Vinnie on the deck my mom finally got managed to blurt out what she’d been so politely trying to keep in while naming all of Kevin’s great attributes in the grocery store.

“Has he been married?”

I glanced at her and then back to the road with a nod, “Yeah.  Why?”

“When I looked at his palm I saw something that peaked my interest.”

“And you waited all this time to bring it up?”I asked with a chuckle.  “I’ve gotta love the fact that you chose to talk about his ass before you brought up this peak of interest in his palm…”

“His ass is a peak of interest as well…” she said and cracked up.  I laughed with her and shook my head.  My mother was a certified nut and I certainly didn’t fall from her nutty tree.  “Anyway…” she said once she’d finished laughing at her own joke.  “I saw that he was going to have one marriage that ended in divorce and then one really strong relationship after it.”

Divorced.  That word was music to my tortured soul.  Divorced.  “Oh yeah?”

She nodded, “Yes.  I was actually a little worried because I didn’t know he was married before.  I thought maybe you were going to be the bad marriage…”

“Mama!”

“Oh I didn’t mean it like that… I mean it’s good for you that he’s already had the first marriage because that means it’s a better chance that you’re the real thing.”

Okay I’ll fully admit that when she mentioned me being Kevin’s Real Thing I got a little giddy and felt like pulling the car over to do cartwheels down the beach.  Just a little bit.  “Well that’s better…” I said and smiled.

She patted my hand, “You’ll definitely be a challenging wife some day but not bad by any means…”

I rolled my eyes, “Wow, just keep the love flowing, Ma…”

She ignored me, “You’ve never mentioned that he was married so that was a bit of a shock to see.  Do you know what happened?”

“Not really.  I knew that he was married because when I met him the first time he was engaged to the chick and when they got married it was in People magazine or something and I remember seeing it.  But I dunno… I always got the impression that they were happy.  At least when I’d see them in pictures and stuff.”

“Pictures don’t always tell the truth…”

“True…” I said and nodded. I hadn’t told my mom about the whole truth about my Kevin’s marriage dilemma because I knew she’d just tell me to buck up and ask him.  I decided that if we were all going to be in each other’s presence for the next several hours that I needed to come clean though.  “I actually haven’t asked him about her yet.  I’m kinda freaked out about it.”

“Oh Monkey…” she said and sighed that motherly sigh that she was so good at.  “Why haven’t you asked him?”

“I don’t know…” I groaned.  “I just… He’s so freaking perfect in my mind you know?  And I want him to stay that way.  I don’t want to find out that he’s still married and I’m some fling on the side and at the end of the summer when Roland comes home Kevin’s going to go back to her.  I don’t want to be a fling but I’m also fairly happy with just being perfectly in the dark.”

“Honey…”

“I know, Ma!” I said and ran my hand through my hair.  “I know.  I’m just scared to find out the truth.”

“But what if the truth is good?  Then you’ll have wasted all of this time being worried when you didn’t have to.”

I looked at her and it was like a huge light had been turned on.  What if the truth was good?  “I’m such an idiot… Do you know that in all of the time I’ve spent with Kevin not once have I really truly thought that maybe his truth was going to be something good?  Jesus…”

“You’re not an idiot, sweetheart.  You’re just someone who has had her heart broken and unfortunately when that happens it’s easier to assume that everyone else is going to break your heart too.”

“Yeah… I guess I do that a lot.”

“You do, but you’re getting better.  You’re doing a lot better with Kevin than you think.  I’ve listened to you talk about him for the past month and you have opened up to him much more than I’ve seen you do with anyone.  Especially since Sean died.”

I took that deep breath that I always seem to take when anyone mentions my brother.  That split moment to breathe and remember.  Remember that he was gone and remember what he was to me all in a split second.  “He doesn’t know about Sean yet.  I mean, he knows that I have a brother who was killed and I’ve told him little bits about who Sean was but I haven’t told him how he died yet.”

“That’s understandable, and I won’t mention it.  But just the fact that you’ve mentioned Sean to him at all and that Sean is gone is a lot more than you’ve opened up to other guys.  Kevin’s special.”

I smiled, “Yeah… he’s pretty special, and not in the Short Bus sort of way.”

My mom groaned but then laughed, “You can try to cover it up with humor all you want, Monkey.  I see how special that man is to you…”

“Yeah yeah…” I said and gave her a wink as we pulled into my driveway. 

“Whose car is that?”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking…” I said as I realized there was a new car in my driveway along with my mother’s, Christian’s and Kevin’s cars.  “I have no idea…”

“Well there’s only one way to find out… come on.”

She got out of the car and headed toward the house.  I sat for another moment looking at the car.  Florida plates, expensive luxury car… I had no fucking clue who it was or who it could be.  As I got out of the car Christian came bouncing out of the house, “I’ve been deemed Grocery Boy by Mama…” he laughed and began helping me pull bags out of the back seat.

“Uh, Chris?”

“It’s Grocery Boy…”

I looked at him and sighed, “Uh, Grocery Boy?”

“Yes?” he answered and giggled.

“Who’s here?”

“A surprise…” he said with a huge grin.

“I don’t like surprises…”

“Sure you do, now come on… stop being so paranoid and just go inside.  I’ll get the rest of the bags, it’s my duty.”  He posed in a superhero post with the bags and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Just as long as you don’t start wearing a cape…”

“Nah… the cape gets in the way of my big strong bag carrying muscles.  I could use a tiara though…”

We laughed together and walked into the house.  At first glance I walked into an empty house.  No one was in the living room and I couldn’t hear anyone in the kitchen either.  Just as I started to wonder where everyone had gone I hear laughter, and barking, from the backyard.  Christian took the bag from my hand and bumped me with his hip toward the sliding screen door that led to my deck.  “I’m going…” I sighed and he laughed then proceeded to the kitchen.

I stepped out onto the deck reminding myself that I needed to think positively instead assuming that doom was impending like I’d discussed with my mom in the car.  I also told myself that Christian wouldn’t have been so goofy and secretive if whoever was visiting my house was a bad thing.  Positive, stay positive. 

The first person I saw was Kevin which was a good thing because seeing him just made a big grin spread across my face.  He was playing fetch with Vinnie who was leaping around in the sand like a maniac.  For a moment I forgot to worry about who was visiting and I just laughed at my crazy dog.  Then as I stepped down into the sand I saw my mom standing next to someone.  It was a man, one who I’d yet to meet but recognized immediately.

“Hey!” Kevin said with a big grin when he saw me.  He crossed the sand and kissed me then wrapped his arms around me.  “How was the grocery store?”

“Fabulous…” I said with a smile.  “My mother is in love with you…”

We both laughed, “Cool… So I’m sure this is breaking all sorts of etiquette rules and stuff but I need to ask you a huge favor and see if we can add one more person on for the dinner and slumber party thing tonight.”

“Would that person be the dude over there who’s flirting with my mom?” I said and nodded toward my mother getting her flirt on with the gorgeous young man.

Kevin chuckled, “Yeah… Just after you left he called to tell me that he was over at the condo to surprise me but I wasn’t there of course and Christian said that it would be okay so I told him how to get here.  But if it’s not okay that’s fine I can just take him back to Roland’s and take a rain check on dinner.”

I shook my head, “Nonsense… he’s more than welcome here.  Now introduce me.”

Kevin gave me one of those grins that made my knees weak and he kissed me again, “Come on…”  He grabbed my hand and pulled me over to where Vinnie was now trying to get our guest to throw the ball for him. 

My mom did it instead and Vinnie galloped down the beach after the ball.  “This dog will play fetch all day long if you let him… We usually have to hide the ball from him to get him to stop.”

“My dogs are the exact same way…” he said with a smile.  “Just much, much smaller.” 

Kevin tapped on the man’s shoulder and he turned around to face us with a smile, “Ahh… You must be Kellie…”

I grinned and nodded, “That I am… and you’re AJ.”

“The one and only…” he said and chuckled.  He held his hand out to shake mine then stopped, “Wait… are you a hugger like your mom?”

Kevin and I laughed, “Yeah I am…”

AJ opened up his arms and grinned, “Well then come on…”

I hugged him with a giggle and then totally blushed looking up at him, “Nice to finally meet you.”

“And you…” he told me with a nod. 

“So I hear you want to crash our slumber party…” I said and winked at him.  Again with the winking, I was hopeless. 

“Only if it’s cool with you… Although…” he leaned in close to me and did a stage whisper, “Your Mom totally already invited me to stay.”

We all laughed and my mother wrapped her arm around AJ’s cute little waist, “I’m a sucker for a pair of pretty brown eyes…”

Kevin looked at me and smiled, “Me too…”

More blushing on my behalf.  I pushed at Kevin’s chest, “Would you stop that?”

“Nope…” he said simply with a smile.

“Anyway…” I said and looked back to AJ.  “You’re more than welcome and honestly, we have so much food that we should probably start inviting in strangers off the beach… No worries…”

AJ smiled and nodded, “Sweet.  Thanks so much.”

“You’re quite welcome…”

“Oh so guess what?” Kevin said and smiled.  “Christian and AJ already know each other.”

“What?” I laughed.  It shouldn’t have been a shock to me that Christian already knew AJ.  Christian was one of those people who could go absolutely anywhere in the world and run into someone he knew or a relative of someone he knew. 

“Yeah Roland had a party about a year ago maybe and I happened to be in the state so I came over.  Christian and Josef were there too so I met them and we all hung out for a couple of days while I was here.”

“Huh…” I said and wondered why Christian hadn’t mentioned knowing one of Kevin’s closest friends.  Knowing Christian he probably forgot all about it until AJ called Kevin that afternoon.  “Well cool then you’re almost like family…”

AJ nodded and laughed, “I suppose… When Kevin let me in earlier and Christian was sitting on the couch I was so confused but then he explained how he went to school with you.”

“Small world, huh?” my mom added with a smile.

“Totally…”

“Well, I think I’m going to go check on Grocery Boy and make sure he hasn’t hurt himself…” she laughed at her own joke again which made us all laugh too.  She looked at me, “I’ll take care of dinner, you just relax and have some fun with your guests.”

“Mama… I’m not going to let…”

She cut me off, “Yes you are.  Consider it my gift to you in celebration of your book release.  I simply won’t allow you to help with dinner tonight.”

I sighed and Kevin wrapped an arm around my shoulders, “Will you at least make Christian help you do some of it?”

She thought about it then shrugged, “He does live with a famous chef, he must have picked up some talent in the kitchen, right?”  I snorted and she rolled her eyes at me, “You are such a pervert, young lady.”

“Takes one to know one…” I said and stuck my tongue out at her.  “But yes, Christian’s not too bad of a cook, he’ll be able to help you out at least with the easy stuff.”

“Fine.  Now have some fun why don’t ya?” she said with a big grin and then turned to go back to the house. 

Vinnie followed her with his ball and I looked from Kevin to AJ then back again.  I had to smile when I looked at them and thought about my situation.  My semi-psychic mother who could read palms and tarot cards was in town and making me dinner then spending the night, my best friend was spending the night too, along with the hot guy I was lusting over and his best friend who very well might hold the key to getting more Kevin Information into the open for me.  Things were definitely looking positive.