“I’m starting to turn into a prune. Come on, let’s get back to the cabin and sit by the fire now,” Katrina said.

“OK, but I’m going to have to do some carving tonight. Since you arrived you’ve been nothing but a distraction to me.”

“Are you complaining?” she gasped.

I hid a smile. “Ha!” I jumped out of the water and offered her my hand to help her out. Her body pressed against mine. She pouted.

“No, I’m not complaining,” I said softly.

“Race ya,” Katrina shouted as she slipped out of my grasp and took off stark naked. I watched her run towards the truck, completely ignoring her bruised knee. “Come on, just drive naked. It’ll be fun. I’ve never driven in a car naked. Have you?” she shouted as she turned to look at me.

In the middle of winter? I shook my head. The girl was bonkers, but she made my heart smile. I picked my clothes off the rock. No, I don’t think I’d ever driven a car naked, but why not?” It wasn’t as if there was anyone around to see if I was stupid enough to sit buck naked behind the wheel in the middle of winter.

That would have been the case any other day of the year, except today.

When we pulled up there was a silver sports Mercedes parked in front of the cabin and my mother was leaning against the hood. She was dressed in a stunning, long cream mink coat, no doubt from her Russian furrier, and black boots.

“Fuck,” I swore.

Katrina covered her breasts with her hands and squealed, “Who is that?”

“My mother,” I muttered.

My mother turned then, and there was an incredulous expression on her face as she spotted us. Not surprising since we were both naked as the day we were born. I quickly got my clothes back on, but Katrina had thrown hers around haphazardly, so she was scrambling around searching for all the pieces with her ass up in the window. When she sat down to pull her leggings on my mother’s stern, gravity-repellant face was staring at her through the passenger side window.

I buttoned my jeans and shrugging into my shirt got out of the truck. My mother was generally not good at smiling, but I was furious with her for deliberately staring at Katrina, instead of looking away like any other normal person would have.

“Come on, Mother. Let her get dressed in privacy,” I said curtly as I neared her.

“Privacy?” she scoffed. “She should have thought about that before she took her clothes off out in the open.”

I grabbed her by the elbow of her luxurious coat and guided her towards the cabin. She’d never been to my place before and looked around with undisguised horror.

“Oh, Cade. It makes me sick to think of you being out here alone all this time.” She gathered up the hem of her coat so that it wouldn’t come in contact with the dirt from my porch. When she passed through the threshold her long, thin hand covered her mouth in shock. “Oh, dear God.” She looked at the rafters, the stove, and the clothesline across the room, the one and only bed on the mezzanine. She took it all in from the middle of the room then turned to me without saying a word.

“What are you doing here, Mother?” I asked.

Her lips thinned at my rudeness. I know she had driven a long way to get here, but her condescending attitude was pissing me off.

“I’m so sorry!” Katrina said, rushing in, out of breath and bumping into the doorframe as she pulled on her other boot. “So sorry about that! Hi, how do you do? I’m Katrina.” She extended her hand to shake my mother’s hand, but my mother filled her chest with air and gave Katrina an icy stare.

“Cade, this is not exactly how I expected to find you.”

“Calm down, Mother. We’re both adults.”

“You said you needed space. You wanted to be alone to think about life. Instead you’re playing naked games in the woods. Ugh, can she wait outside while we have this conversation?”

“Mother, this is Katrina. Katrina, Lynn. And no, she is not waiting outside in the cold.”

“She didn’t seem very cold a moment ago,” my mother snapped sarcastically.

Katrina flushed bright red as she stood awkwardly by the door. There was an expression on her face I had never seen before. “It’s not a problem. I can wait outside,” she said, taking a step backwards.

“No, stay,” I ordered firmly. “Anything my mother wants to say to me can be said in front of you.”

“Cade, I want to speak to you in private. I don’t even know this person.”

“What do you need to speak to me about? Has something happened?”

“No, no it’s nothing like that.”

“Well, then what is it? What did you come all the way out here to tell me?”

“Cade, I’m shocked at your callousness. I’m your mother and I haven’t seen you in two years. No calls or birthday cards! You didn’t even come home for Christmas. We’ve had no communication whatsoever from you. And then to find you here living almost as a homeless person and driving around in the middle of winter without clothes, it’s just unimaginable. Just look at that grown out beard. I’ve never seen you like this. Oh, I’m overcome! I feel dreadful right at this moment and I would think you would give some care to your mother. I haven’t even been offered a seat! Do you even have one?”

Katrina pulled the stool out for her. “Here you go, Lynn,” she said, but my mother looked at her with contempt as though Katrina was unfit to even address her by name.

“Is there somewhere else for you to go, young woman? I want to be with my son, not some—”

“Be nice, Mother,” I interrupted, before the insulting name came out of her mouth. “Katrina lives here. You don’t.”

“Well, I’ve lived longer than you. I know her type.”

“For God’s sake, Mother. You didn’t come half-way across the country to insult my girlfriend, did you? What do you want?”

“Your girlfriend?” My mother looked at me in shock. Like I had gone stark raving mad. Then she looked at Katrina, and back at me. Then she pressed her fingers to her temples and squeezed her eyes shut. “Oh, God,” she muttered, her shoulders slumping.

My mother suffered from terrible migraines. She’d had them all her life. Ever since I was a boy I could remember her getting them and having to lie in a darkened room for hours, sometimes days. I moved quickly forward and guided her towards the stool. She sat down, her gorgeous mink trailing on the floor. I must admit until I saw that, a cynical part of me wondered whether she was being dramatic for effect.

“Have you got your medication?” I asked.

She shook her head. “But I have the prescription. Would you run into town and get it for me, Cade?” she whispered. “Otherwise, I won’t be able to leave here before dark.”

I frowned. “Are you sure you’ll be all right, here? Do you want to come with me?”

“Oh, I couldn’t face the winding road. I’ll stay here with …”

“Katrina,” I supplied.

“That’s right, Katrina, and let me make it up to you and start off on the right foot with your new girlfriend.”

“Are you sure about this?”

I couldn’t believe my mother was being genuine, but then again she did move to New York when she was eighteen to tread the boards. She was a pretty good actress by all accounts until she married a rich, handsome, son of a property tycoon and found it much more enjoyable to live in luxury than to follow her dreams.

She patted my hand. “Yes, of course. It’s my way of apologizing.”

“Are you alright with this, Katrina?” I said.

She smiled weakly. “Oh, yeah. That’s fine. Of course. Yeah, go and get your mother her medication. I’ll keep her company.”

“There that’s settled then. Now, hurry back before it gets dark. It makes me nervous to think of you driving these terrible roads.” She hands me her car keys. “The prescription is in the glovebox. You might as well take my car and leave that wreck of yours here.”

My mother’s sincerity was difficult for me to read and near impossible for anyone new to her acquaintance. She was not all bad though. Her good to bad ratio was just in constant fluctuation. And often when it looked like she was doing something out of meanness it turned out to be coming from a good place. Unfortunately, the opposite was also true. In that moment all I could do was cross my fingers and hope she was not up to something bad.

I prepared to leave and Katrina caught my arm. She looked deep into my eyes and said, “Please hurry.” Under her breath, she said, “I had a great time with you today. The best.”

I frowned. “I’ll be back in less than two hours.”

She looked like she was blinking back tears.

“Do you want to come with me?” I asked.

She turned to look at my mother then back to me. “She doesn’t like me,” she whispered.

I turned to my mother. “Maybe I should take Katrina with me.”

“You will absolutely not leave me out here by myself. Katrina and I will stay. Go on now, Cade, it’s not like I’m going to carve her up into little bits and pieces! We girls will be fine, now go on!”

Katrina smiled. “Of course, she’s right. I’ll be fine.”

“She’s a bit of a dragon, but she won’t harm you.” I kissed Katrina’s cheek and whispered to her, “I’ll be back as soon as possible.”

“I’ll miss you,” she said. It didn’t seem like a joke. I think she really meant that she’d miss me while I was gone. It was the craziest thing, but hell, I would miss her too.