Chapter 7: Three Times the Price

The flight cost me three times the price of the one Preston canceled, and I paid it without blinking.

My mother stood at the curb outside the airport in Tulsa with her coat open and her arms wide.

She didn't ask a single question in the car.

She turned up the heater, put a thermos of coffee in my lap, and drove.

Her house smelled like sage and butter, the way it had since I was nine.

There were leftover rolls on the counter and a half-eaten pecan pie.

"A dozen people," she said, "and I told every one of them my daughter was coming home to eat what's left."

"What did you tell them about Preston?"

"That he had business."

She said "business" like she didn't believe it.

I sat at the kitchen table and let her put a plate in front of me.

I ate everything on it.

The doorbell rang while she was pouring tea.

My mother frowned and went to look.

I heard her stop in the hall.

"Kendall," she said.

I put my fork down.

I walked to the front door and stood behind my mother's shoulder.

Kendall was on the porch in a pink coat with a pie in both hands.

Her eyes were red and her makeup was perfect.

"Mrs. Delaney," she said. "I'm sorry to turn up like this. I took the first flight I could."

"You took the first flight," my mother repeated.

"I couldn't let this sit. Matilda, can I please come in?"

I thought about the hundred times she had slept on the guest bed upstairs.

I thought about the hot cocoa she used to drink out of my mother's blue mug.