Something Blue

Chapter 27

"S'pose so," he answered, and she didn't need to watch him to read between the lines. The reluctant excitement was there in his voice.

"Are you happy spring is coming, angel?"

He made a disgruntled sound, whether at the question or at the endearment she didn't know. "S'pose so," he said again, and again she heard the truth pressing and pounding against the walls of his indifference.

For a while, they walked in silence—a silence filled with sound. The slish-slosh of their boots and the horses' hooves through the slushy mud. The constant crack and splat of heavy pats of melting snow falling from tree branches onto the pock-marked snow. The air smelled of woodsmoke and of dormant life, burgeoning beneath the surface of the mottled white, waiting eagerly to spring forth.

"I'm sorry winter's coming to an end," Gabe said eventually, giving a gentle, admonishing tug on his horse's lead as the beast snorted and huffed its indignation at their pace.

"Thought you hated winter."

"Most of it. Not all of it. There's some things about winter I'll miss."

"That so?"

"Mmhm."

"Like what?"

"Ma..."

"Like what, Gabriel?"

He sighed and turned his gaze to the woods. "I dunno. Home always feels warmer in the winter."

"Mmm," she hummed in agreement, nodding thoughtfully and smiling in spite of her efforts to remain a mockingly stoic mirror to his false apathy. One of her favorite things about 'winter' was teasing her son. She'd miss teasing him terribly. "What else?"

"When it's cold out, the girls spend more time just... hanging around? Not working. Just living. Inside, all together. I s'pose it's nice having everyone close."

"It's fun," she agreed. More than the money and the strength of her reputation, Vivian prided herself on the warmth of her establishment. Not for the patrons. She couldn't give a care if the patrons felt they were at home. But she likened her girls to a family, and the darkness surrounding their little haven had drawn them all closer. Family was something neither she, nor her son, had possessed in great quantities throughout their lives. She shared the same origin as her own offspring. A single working mother and a lone child were a family, yes, but a small one. It was nice to have more.

"Fun..." Gabe echoed, nodding and shooting her a sideways flash of a smile. "Also a pain in the ass."

"Sometimes."

"All the time."

"What are you most looking forward to, now that spring is coming?"

He sighed, the sound not unlike the one she made when she had carried something heavy all the way up the stairs and could finally set it down at the top. "All the..." he waved vaguely at the forest around them. "New life."

"New life?"

"Yeah. The grass and trees and flowers and that sort of nonsense."

She laughed. "That sort of nonsense is a delight, I agree. I don't think many folks would look at you, my love, and say 'That there is a man who appreciates the beauty of new life.'"

He rolled his eyes at her, the yellow sunlight making shadows on his face that shielded his expression. "Probably not."

"I'm your mother, though, so I know better."

"Of course," he drawled.

"You are exactly the type to appreciate new life. I can't imagine anybody better suited for spring."