My daughter-in-law hated the idea of me staying with them while I was recovering from a leg injury. Who knew, maybe she hated my remarks on her clumsy work around the house when I knew my son deserved better.
Being seven months pregnant, Kate, who was ever-resentful, never accepted any of my advice. Whenever I would make a comment about her cooking, she would tell me to cook myself if I knew any better.
One time, she was racking the leaves in the yard. Watching her from the distance, I thought to myself, “This daughter-in-law of mine has no idea what she is doing.”
I tried to tell her that she was doing it wrong, but she pretended she didn’t hear me. “I’m telling you, you’re raking them the wrong way. Start with small piles, then combine them into one big heap. Dragging them across the yard is a waste of time,” I said. Instead of taking my advice, she turned to me and told me it was probably about time that I go home.
She looked at me angrily, the same look as that of her grumpy neighbor, Mr. Davis, who also seemed to be fed up by my good-natured comments.
“Hi, Mr. Davis,” I said as I turned to him, but he didn’t say anything back, she just turned around and entered in his house.
No one seemed to appreciate my help.
That evening, while my daughter-in-law prepared dinner, I couldn’t help by tell her to put some more salt in her dishes. And instead of thanking me for my help, she told me to leave the kitchen.
During dinner time, Kate mentioned that she noticed Mr. Davis was looking at me as though he liked me.
“That grumpy neighbor of yours doesn’t even greet me,” I said. But Kate insisted he had feelings for me.
Well, she could be right because the following day, Mr. Davis invited me to dinner at his place. I agreed. The night wasn’t as fun as I expected it to be at first until I mentioned my love for jazz. It turned out he was into that type of music too.
He didn’t pull out my chair when I entered his home so I didn’t think he was a gentleman, but his dancing to jazz music made me rethink my opinion for him.
The rest of the night was lovely. We had dinner, laughed, danced, and I felt more alive than I have in years.
I was eager to share everything with my daughter-in-law. This time, for a change, she seemed genuinely happy for me. She even suggested we invite Mr. Davis to dinner on Thanksgiving. Oh, what a lovely idea that was.
The table was all set, the smell of the turkey filled the air, and jazz music played in the background. It was the perfect Thanksgiving, until I overheard Mr. Davis, or Peter as he wished I call him, and my daughter-in-law talk about me.
“Mr. Davis, thank you for doing this for me,” Kate told him. “This scheme works perfectly. My mother-in-law is so busy spending time with you that I can finally take some rest from her mean comments. You’ll get your new record player soon for playing along.”
Her words shook my world. Peter dated me because Kate told him to. How could she do that to me.
I entered the kitchen, where she and Peter were and stared yelling at them. I even told my son about it, but it turned out he knew the truth all along. In fact, the idea was his.
“Your son was also at his wit’s end with you!” Kate said. “I couldn’t handle the stress from your constant nitpicking, and this way you were busy with Mr. Davis and could finally have some break.”
“I expected something like this from my daughter-in-law, but not from you Peter,” I said.
But Peter grabbed me by my hand and said that although everything started as a game, he developed feelings for me. I refused to believe him, but his words felt sincere.
Honestly, I also had feelings for him. Maybe my daughter-in-law did all this in order to get rid of me, but she did the best thing she ever could.
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