Read Online Huckleberry Hearts by Jennifer Beckstrand - Free Book Online Page B

all. She had told him that she didn’t want to hover. The only times they talked were when he called her, two or three times a week. He liked to think that she needed him, but it was definitely a lopsided relationship. He wasn’t too proud to admit that he still needed to hear his mom’s voice every once in a while, and he wanted her advice and encouragement now more than ever.
    â€œHey, Mom. Is everything okay?”
    â€œRelatively,” she said, which wasn’t an answer at all. “How did your surgery on that Amish lady go today?”
    â€œIt went good. Dr. Mann says I have steady hands.”
    â€œIt’s all those years of piano.”
    â€œOr maybe all those years of picking cherries.”
    A pause on the other end of the line. “You’re never going to thank me for those piano lessons, are you?”
    Zach smiled. Mom had forced him and his two older brothers to take piano lessons until they were in high school, predicting that they would thank her later. At about age twelve when Zach had started to eat and breathe soccer, he had promised his mom that he would never, ever thank her for making him play the piano. It was a running joke, especially since he and his buddies had formed a band in high school with Zach on the keyboard. Mom wouldn’t let him live it down.
    Zach took a bite of ramen. “I will thank you for signing me up for soccer.”
    â€œAm I interrupting your dinner? I can call back.”
    â€œI can eat and talk,” Zach said.
    â€œMac and cheese again?”
    â€œRamen with hot dogs.”
    â€œHave you found any good restaurants in Shawano yet?”
    â€œNope. I don’t get out much.”
    â€œWell,” Mom said, “You need to find a surrogate mother to feed you a home-cooked meal.”
    Other moms might have told their sons that they needed to find a girlfriend, but not his mom. He liked that she never once asked him if he was dating some nice girl. She never mentioned grandchildren or tried to make him feel guilty for not going to church. She was just his mom, who loved him no matter how much she thought he was screwing up his life.
    She and Dad had taken him to church faithfully for seventeen years. He’d memorized fifty scriptures at Bible study camp. He’d even taken a purity pledge before high school. But he just hadn’t had the heart for all that fluff after Dad died, and Mom had witnessed his fall.
    Of course she thought he was screwing up his life.
    â€œSo,” Mom said, “what I’ve called to tell you is I’ve broken my arm.”
    Zach nearly spilled his noodles all over his thirty-year-old sofa. “What? Mom, what happened?”
    â€œI tried to clean out those stupid gutters and fell off the ladder.”
    â€œMom, I told you not to do that yourself. A woman your age shouldn’t be on a ladder.”
    â€œOh, for goodness’ sake, Zach, I’m only fifty-five.”
    â€œToo old to be on a ladder,” Zach said.
    â€œJust wait until you’re fifty-five. You’ll be embarrassed that you thought I was old.”
    Zach gave up on his noodles and set them on the filing cabinet. “Mom, I’m coming home in June. Save all that stuff for me to do.”
    â€œYou won’t want to come home if all I do is make you work.”
    For the thousandth time since he’d left California for college, the guilt and anger slammed into him. He should have gone to school closer to home. He should be there for his mom. If God hadn’t taken his dad, Mom would have someone there to take care of her.
    His brother Drew lived in Japan with his wife and baby boy, and his brother Jeff was in Saudi Arabia with the State Department. Zach was the closest one to home. “Maybe I can get a little time off next month. I could spend a few days.”
    â€œYou’ll do no such thing. Stay there and finish your residency.”
    He ran his fingers through his hair. She