“Andrew!” she yelled before wrapping her arms around me. Mum always called me Andrew. I didn’t mind.
I completed the hug. “Hello, Mum.”
I felt her squeeze me hard, not surprising as I know she had missed me. I’d missed her too. “It’s good to see you.”
I couldn’t help the chuckle. “You saw me a couple of weeks ago.”
She released me and looked up at me from her height of five and a half feet, if she was lucky. “I saw you and perhaps spent a couple of minutes talking to you.” My face must have fallen. “Don’t worry, I understand. It was a big day in your life.” She grabbed my hand. “Grab your bag and we’ll get out of here.”
I did as she requested as we weaved through the crowds out into the car park. I wasn’t surprised to see that she had the latest sports car as her mode of transportation. After placing my bag in the boot, she made sure to pop the top down, placing on a pair of sunglasses before she floored it once we’d gone through the barriers.
“Nice car,” I shouted over the wind.
“I know. The engine purrs when stopped but the growl it makes when you put your foot down,” doing what she’d just said as an example, “Certainly gets the blood pumping.”
I looked at her as she drove and she glanced towards me, just smiling away. What’s making her so happy? I couldn’t help but run an eye down her, thankful for my own sunglasses. Despite approaching forty, her breasts were full and I think gravity hadn’t taken hold just yet. Maybe she wears good bras. She’d always taken care of herself, eating right and exercising, so she was slim, my eyes crawling down over her body to her shapely legs. She may have been shorter than me, but she’d always had good legs.
“Andrew?”
“Huh?” I stuttered, blinking rapidly, thankful again for the sunglasses.
“What are you looking at?” I felt heat rise into my cheeks and knew I was blushing. “Were you checking out your own mother?”
I shrugged. “You look good, Mum. I couldn’t help it.”
She gently clasped my knee. “You sure know how to make a woman approaching forty feel good.”
“You’ve got a couple of years yet, Mum. Anyway, don’t they always say life begins at forty?”
“My life resumes now that my boy has come home. I can’t thank you enough for that.”
“Miss me, eh?” I asked, knowing I was teasing.
She looked right at me. “More than you could imagine. But, yes, I’ve missed you the past few years. I’m glad you’ve come home.”
I wondered what she meant by that but she pulled off the freeway and I left her to concentrate on driving as the traffic increased. As we approached the suburbs and what I knew to be home, our conversation resumed.
“What’s with the hair?” I asked.
She raised a hand, running it through. “Do you like it?”
“I didn’t recognise you. Like a new woman. But, yeah, I like it. No… I love it. Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re gorgeous.”
“Not your mother?”
Shrugging, I said “If I didn’t know it was you, I’d have certainly checked you out.” I shrugged again. “I’ll admit I kinda did anyway. It was unexpected. But, I’ll be honest Mum, you’re gorgeous.”