Strawberry Wine (Strawberry Inn Book #2)

Chapter 5

BLAIR

“Hey, Ma.”

It doesn’t matter that I see him every single day, I still have a hard time adjusting to the tall male figure that stands in front of me and calls me his mom. Those days when he was an infant are still fresh in my brain. Yet here he is, tall and built, exactly like his dad was at that age. There is such a discrepancy in boys his age, they either look like they are full-grown men or barely look like they’ve hit puberty yet. There is no in-between. Hayes is part of the first group, taking after Cody when it comes to height. He was taller than me by middle school, the same time that my dad had to teach him how to shave.

Raising a teenage boy without his father being around consistently was a task I never expected to take on, but I pride myself on how well I did. I can’t take all of the credit, though. Both sets of grandparents took a very active role in helping me raise Hayes. Once Cody and I called it quits I was worried that his parents would be less than thrilled to see me and be part of Hayes’s life, but that was silly to think. They never faltered as grandparents, always there to pick up the slack for their son. Will and Diana never spoke ill of Cody, but it was clear his choice was not the one they wanted him to make.

When Hayes walked across the stage at his high school graduation a few weeks ago I almost felt like I was walking right next to him. We did it together and I was taking credit for the accomplishment just as much as I would praise him for it. Hell, I was just glad he made it out of high school without getting somebody pregnant. That was something I couldn’t claim to have done. 

Now he was out of high school and ready to start his adult life in the real world. I wasn’t quite ready to let go and thankfully he indulged me in that. The two of us had our moments, but for the most part, we were really close and I hoped we would be forever.

“What are you doing here? I thought you were going to meet up with Jozie and Aidan tonight.” Aidan was Hayes’s best friend and Jozie was Aidan’s girlfriend. They were both leaving Strawberry at the end of the summer to head off the college so he had been spending as much time with them as he could.

“I was,” he began, sitting down in the chair next to my desk, “but then I realized they wanted to go to that Italian place and that was more date night than friend’s night.”

“Ahh, I see.”

“I didn’t need to be the third wheel, ya know?”

“Unfortunately that is a feeling I know all too well.”

“Like when Angela and Harrison invite you out?”

“Why do you have to go personally attacking me like that?” I kid. Hayes may look like Cody, but he has my personality and sense of humor. No doubt that it is because he has spent more time with me than anybody else, but I’ll take it. There were plenty of times that we would butt heads, but we also had a similar sense of humor and joking became a love language between the two of us. Being able to crack a joke sure helped break the tension during the tougher times.

“You’re the one that brought up that you understood,” he shrugged. “It is cool though. I’m really tired and an early night sounds pretty nice.”

“Be careful, Hayes, you’re starting to sound like a real-life grown-up.”

“You don’t even know the half of it, Mom. I knew there would be some physical stuff, but I didn’t expect to be running up flights of stairs the very first week.”

“No fire fighting yet, right?”

“No, Mom,” he laughs, “no fires yet.”

“Don’t laugh at me. I’m worried sick about this venture of yours.”