Thrilled to announce that my short story, “Mama’s Favorite,” was published at Grande Dame Literary & Art Journal. ✍️

Here’s an opening excerpt:

"She wanted you to have it,” Randall says. He holds it out, between us.

What can you say to that?

I move my hip from blocking the doorway. “Come in,” I say.

I let him scooch around me. He looks really good—he’s lost a few pounds and just had a haircut. And he smells even better: woodsy, warm, and clean. I can’t take a chance he’ll “accidentally” touch his hand against mine in the hand-over.

The cutting board is made of walnut. I already have two: one I got for my first apartment before we met, one I got when I cleaned out Nan’s house, but I don’t tell Randall that. I flash back to the first Thanksgiving we went over to Mama Lainie’s. She put me to work paring and dicing the celery, which was a relief because that’s about all I knew how to do. Mama Lainie was always great that way—she could size you up without making you feel weird about it and place you exactly where you’d do your best work.

Randall sits it on the counter next to the juicer.

“You got new Formica,” he says. Never content to just let it be. “When’d you get that?”

Clickety-click to read it all (and check out the other amazing stories they publish): here