Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 106772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
Nova couldn’t care less and had spent most of her time with my parents. She preferred to be pampered by Grandma and Grandpa than to follow her brother across the country for tournaments. Couldn’t say I blamed her. My parents doted on her, and she had a good thing going with a horse trainer near my parents. Every weekend, my dad took Nova to the stables, where she learned to muck the stalls, ride, and care for the horses.
The Girl Scout horse camp had given Nova a sense of belonging. Her therapist said she’d seen a positive change in Nova, and she was smiling more. The research I’d done showed that horses had an innate ability to comfort their riders. Nova needed that. She still had nightmares, but they were less frequent, mostly thanks to Scout.
Ever since we moved into Weston’s while the house was being remodeled, Scout had slept with Nova. She curled up with the dog like she had with her teddy bear. He didn’t seem to care that she needed to hold on to him every night. Scout stayed and never left her side. He even went to my parents’ with her.
Moving into Weston’s when we did was the right thing to do. The day after we’d moved most of our clothing and necessities to his house, two pipes burst. One in the upstairs bathroom, which flooded the flooring and ceiling, and a sewer pipe in the basement. Both were a shitty experience. No pun intended.
I had already planned to replace the flooring but hadn’t thought about the ceiling. By the time the house was scheduled to be done, it would be mostly brand new. The clapboard siding would come down in the fall, replaced with vinyl siding. A privacy fence was going up out back because I wasn’t comfortable with Nova being out there by herself. After I’d gotten through the dead brush and shrubs, I found a dirt road leading into the woods not far from the house. That was enough of a nope for me. Miri had always wanted a white fence, and that was what it was going to be.
The kids and I had gone through Miri’s stuff over the past few months. We weren’t ready to get rid of anything yet. Her belongings would go into totes and into a protected storage unit until the kids were ready. I knew I’d never be ready to part with her stuff. After the remodel, her room would become mine, and the guest room would go back to being an office and where my parents stayed when they visited.
I was still unsure about sleeping in there because it was Miri’s space, but the kids were insistent, especially with Weston moving in. They wanted this to be a home where we were all happy and feeling welcomed.
In our search, we’d found hand-sketched drawings of how she’d wanted the house to look. The kids asked if we could do what their mom had planned, and I immediately said yes. This was their house, and that was something I held on steadfastly to. Regardless of the impending adoption, when they were ready to sell or do whatever, it was theirs.
What hurt was when Cutter said he didn’t want the baseball diamond on his wall anymore. I didn’t fight him about it, but told the contractors to preserve the wall as best they could and put it in the garage. I didn’t know what I’d do with it, but it would be there if Cutter ever wanted to see his mom’s work.
Nova followed Cutter’s decision as well, but she left her room purple because it was her mom’s favorite color. The hand-painted solar system would go in a frame, on Nova’s wall.
One of the things I planned to do next spring was buy and raise chickens. I had no idea what possessed me to even consider this, but being as it was something Miri had wanted to do, the idea had grown on me. Weston and I mapped out a space for the chickens and found the perfect coop online. He volunteered to rebuild the one we had already, but by the time the chicks would be ready, he’d be in full baseball season and wouldn’t need the hassle.
Today, we were visiting the University of Richmond. The coach had reached out to Cutter about a visit to campus. Normally, they’d fly prospective members of their team to Virginia, but Weston had told the coach we were traveling and could swing by. This way, both of us were there: me as Cutter’s mom and him as Cutter’s coach.
Cutter was excited, and honestly, so was I, even though I missed Miri terribly and wished she were here to see her boy shine. He’d grown a couple more inches since her passing and had somehow maintained his honor roll status despite losing his mom.