Mother, Please! (21 page)

Avery shook her head and glanced at him quiz
zically. “Mom only mentioned her to me on Saturday morning. Why do you ask?”

Her.
David groaned. This secret wasn’t his to tell. It was Suzannah’s. But he really hated for Avery to spend the next five days expecting her mother to show up for dinner this weekend with an old female friend in tow.

He took a long swallow of wine then said, “Look, Avery. Here’s the thing. You need to know that Leslie is a him, not a her.”

Avery blinked once, twice and then her eyes widened. He reached for the glass of wine she held in shaking hands, pried it free and returned it to the table. “A man? Leslie is a man? My mother is seeing a man?”

He nodded, decided to go for broke. “A man for whom your mother holds a great deal of, uh, affection.”

“Affection?” Avery snorted. “What the hell is that supposed to mean, affection? You think she’s having an affair?”

“That’s not what I said.”

“But it’s what you think.”

In the minute David took to reply, Avery was out of her chair, arms crossed tightly over her chest as she paced the floor of red-and-white kitchen tiles.

“Your mother has been alone for five years, Avery.”

“My mother loves my father.”

He ground his jaw, refusing to grab her and shake her out of the past and into the very real present. “No one is saying that she doesn’t. But your father is gone, and your mother is very much alive.”

Avery stopped in front of the sink, closing her eyes and hugging her arms to her middle as if she feared falling apart. He pushed out of his chair and went to her, refusing to back away even when she turned her head.

“Look at me, Avery.” He waited patiently until she did, until she opened her eyes and brought her chin up defiantly. Only then did he place his hands on her shoulders and squeeze. “Your mother is a beautiful, vibrant woman. Don’t tell me you’ve never seen the way men look at her.”

Avery kept her lips pressed tightly together.

“Fine. Don’t tell me anything. I’ll tell you.” If not for her stubborn refusal to face the truth, he would’ve been gentler. But her unwillingness to open her eyes and see, truly
see
those around her had gone on years too long.

“There’s an assistant principal at the junior high who can’t keep from smiling when he sees her. There’s a maintenance worker who brings her flowers every Monday. There’s a school-board member, a widower, who times his frequent arrivals on campus with your mother’s. And he always has fresh
coffee and breakfast from
your
bakery when he does.”

Avery’s eyes widened like saucers. “Robert Brown? He’s taking those muffins to my mother? She doesn’t even like blueberry.”

“She eats them. I’ve seen her. They sit in a corner of the faculty lounge and giggle like they’re thirteen years old.” When he felt her shoulders slump, he worked to massage away the rest of the tension. And then he wrapped her up in his arms and pulled her to his chest.

“It’s just so hard to imagine,” she said, her voice muffled by the fabric of his shirt. “I didn’t think she’d ever get over losing Daddy.”

“Maybe you’re the one who’s never gotten over it.”

She shook her head where it rested against him. “No, I’m doing okay. I miss him, yes. But the memories now are good ones, and the hurt isn’t quite as bad.”

He took a deep breath. “That wasn’t what I was saying.”

Avery pulled back far enough to look up. Her blue eyes were bright but blessedly dry. “I don’t get it.”

He stroked a hand down her hair. “Maybe you’ve never gotten over the idea of your mother not having your father. Maybe you can’t see her as
a woman who might still respond to a man who finds her attractive.”

“Well,” she said, the corner of her mouth crooking upward. “I don’t often think of my mother and sex at the same time.”

David chuckled. “I’m sure Suzannah appreciates that.”

Rubbing her fingertips over her temples, Avery stepped back and out of David’s embrace. “Leslie. A man. How stupid of me not to notice the lack of pronouns. That’s the sort of sneaky thing that happens when one’s mother is an English teacher.”

“I think that’s what happens when one’s mother is afraid of her daughter’s reaction to the new man in her life,” David offered softly as Avery returned to the table.

“Why would she be afraid?”

“Because she doesn’t want you to be hurt that she’s moving on with her life.”

“So what do I do now?” she asked, pouring wine into her glass until it reached the brim.

He wasn’t quite depraved enough to suggest she strip and join him on the table, so he simply asked, “Start planning Saturday’s menu?”

She snorted. “Oh, well, thanks for that.”

He waited until she’d taken a long swallow before moving in behind her and nuzzling her neck.
“Then why don’t we pop in a DVD and cuddle on your couch.”

“Cuddle?” she asked, arching her neck to give him better access.

“Yeah, cuddle. Make out,” he growled as he tasted her skin.

She turned in his arms. “You want popcorn?”

“Nope. I just want you.” He leaned down to show her exactly how much…rolling his eyes as she slipped free and, laughing, headed for the living room.

All he could do was follow. And so he did.

A
VERY PUTTERED
from the kitchen to the dining table and back, certain she’d never manage to get everything as perfect as she needed to and wondering why she even felt the need.

Impressing David or her mother was hardly necessary, but this Leslie who was coming…if he truly
was
a he and was more to her mother than a friend, well, a good first impression just seemed worth the effort.

Since Monday evening and the bug David had put in her ear about Suzannah being more than a widowed mother, Avery hadn’t stopped processing all the possible clues she’d missed that her mother had moved on with her life.

She supposed it was a good thing one of them had. She’d obviously failed to. She was thirty-three years old and still lived at home, she mused with a bit of a laugh, as she opened the oven to peer at the bubbling lasagna.

Yes, she had her own place, but it was still in the house she’d grown up in. Until confronted with
both her mother and David’s subtle finger-pointing that she was having issues getting beyond the past, she’d never even considered why she was so comfortable living where she did.

Now it was growing too obvious. She
did
fear stepping outside of her safe boundaries. When she had, the results had not been what she’d expected, or what she’d wanted to have to live the rest of her life facing down. Like the chance she’d taken with Johnny that had cost David so dearly.

Yet if she hadn’t been so stupidly reckless that long-ago night, she might not be here now, anticipating David’s arrival even more than that of her mother and Leslie. What had begun as a horrific disaster might just possibly have very positive and long-term consequences.

And if that wasn’t a reason to move out of the past into the present, she didn’t know what was.

Speaking of the present…dinner was five minutes from being ready, which barely gave her time to make a quick trip to her vanity and touch up her makeup and hair.

But the doorbell rang before she made it across the living room to the apartment’s short hallway. She ran her ring fingers beneath both eyes to clear away smudges, finger-combed her bangs and fluffed up her hair.

A deep breath, a wide smile, butterflies on the back burner and she pulled open the door.

David stepped inside and quickly shoved it closed behind him. “Are they here yet?”

She shook her head. “They should be here any min—”

Taking hold of her shoulders, he spun her around and backed her into the door. His eyes glittered sharply, the heat in them enough to sizzle her panties right off. “I never thought tonight would get here. I’m sick of middle-of-the-night phone calls and catching you coming and going.”

“I thought you enjoyed passing me on the staircase,” she teased, drawing a shallow breath and prepared to say more. But then his mouth came down, driving away all her intentions of keeping her feelings in check. As it was, she couldn’t manage her growing arousal or get enough of his mouth.

He pressed his body to hers; she wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled him as close as she could. He fit in ways she’d never known a man had of aligning and settling into a woman. His mouth explored hers deftly yet gently.

He made clear how much he wanted her with the sounds that rolled from his belly to his throat and with all the ways he touched her, his hands moving from her shoulders to her ribs, and then around to
her belly where he hesitated before sliding his palms upward to rest beneath her breasts.

It wasn’t enough. She wanted so much more. She adored the show of respect but right now, what she wanted from him was the clothes-ripping, table-throwing, promised wild ride into oblivion—

A knock on the door sent David into reverse. He’d backed five feet across the living room before she’d even taken a step. The startled animal expression on his face had her giggling like a school-girl.

And then she did her best to keep her own face straight as she took another deep breath and opened the door.

D
AVID ONCE AGAIN
found himself sitting opposite Avery at her dining room table.

This time, however, her reserve wasn’t about avoiding her conflicted feelings for him—which he didn’t think were as conflicted as they’d once been—but about how to react to the truth of the new man in Suzannah’s life.

Funny how after no more than a week of intense kisses and phone conversations in the wee hours, when Avery was up already and he should’ve been in bed, that he was able to read her moods, to tell where she was coming from.

But they had a long evening ahead to get through,
and it was going to require a big fat jump-start for this party to make it from here to there considering Suzannah and Leslie were carrying the bulk of the conversation while Avery mostly nodded and smiled.

Since David’s plans for Avery wouldn’t fit into any socially acceptable dinner discussion, he launched into the next best thing. “You much of a baseball fan, Les?” he asked, watching Avery’s eyes roll back in their sockets.

“No. No sports talk. Please,” she begged, though she did so with an honest laugh.

This time it was Suzannah’s eyes rolling, which caused Leslie to glance from mother to daughter before looking to David for help. He feigned ignorance and shrugged.

Leslie cleared his throat. “I take it the ladies here aren’t much on sports?”

“And living in West Texas at that. It’s gotta be some kind of sin,” David said with only a half effort at a straight face since at long last everyone was talking. “The excitement spurred on by Friday-night high school football is contagious beyond belief. You hang around long enough, you’ll see.”

“It is only contagious to those who have not been inoculated,” Suzannah said sagely. “And usually those are the same ones who do not teach at
the districts in question and have to battle the sports-over-education mentality.”

“And to a lesser extent,” Avery went on, “it’s a relief, when the season is over, to those providing doughnuts for the booster meetings and cakes for celebrating all the wins and cookies for the pep rallies and—”

Leslie waved a hand and, laughing, cut Avery off. “Okay, okay. I surrender. Sports will forever be off-limits when I’m around either of you two ladies.”

David tossed his napkin to the side of his empty plate. “Well, hell. I see where I rate around here.”

Gray eyes twinkling behind round, wire-rimmed glasses, Leslie leaned to the side, raised his hand to hide his mouth and spoke in David’s direction. “I’m considering season tickets for the fall Tornadoes schedule. We’ll have to finagle a guys’ night out. Maybe two or three.”

“Season tickets.” Avery glanced from Leslie to her mother, her gaze skating over David only briefly before returning to the older man. “Does that mean you’ll be in Tatem more often from now on?”

“Actually,” Leslie began, hedging a bit as he pulled his glasses from his face. While he crossed his legs and cleaned both lenses with the corners of his napkin, he cleared his throat and continued.
“Yes. I took an editorial position this week with the Brewster County Press.”

Suzannah fairly beamed, her elbows on the edge of the table, her chin resting on her laced hands. “As if they would’ve let you get away once you stepped foot inside the door and offered your services.”

“Roaming the world has become tedious,” he replied, his expression as besotted as hers.

“Oh, I don’t know.” Avery laughed, though David sensed a hint of the reaction being forced rather than genuine. “I’d like to give it a try. Then again, traveling outside of Texas sounds good to me.”

“Then you should. And I think this summer would be the perfect time for the two of you to get started.” Leslie fought a smile. The corners of his eyes crinkled all the way to the dark gray of his temples. “Maybe you could talk David here into showing you the West Coast. Especially since he has a good eight weeks off coming up, am I right?”

David grinned. No matter that somehow he was going to end up paying for this one, he could’ve hugged the older man for planting the seed. Showing Avery the world was the least of what he longed to do.

Avery reached for her glass of red wine, her hand amazingly steady, before turning an expression of friendly accusation on her mother. “I think my
mother may have misled you as to the nature of my involvement with David.”

“To tell you the truth, she hasn’t said anything leading me to believe one thing or another. If I’ve spoken out of turn, the fault is my own and I apologize,” Leslie replied, and David watched a flurry of emotions cross Avery’s face.

“And even though I know you were teasing,” Suzannah said to her daughter, “I forgive you anyway for your uncharitable thoughts. Gossiping about you to Leslie, indeed.”

Avery laughed then, shaking her head at her mother’s dramatic display. “Well, you did tell me the two of you had been discussing your children.”

“Your mother has been a model of propriety, Avery.” Leslie returned his glasses to his face. “I know you have no reason to trust me, but I ask that you do when I tell you that she hasn’t compromised your confidentiality.”

“Oh, I know.” Avery sat back, appearing caught off guard by Leslie’s humbleness. “It’s just my job as a daughter to give her a hard time.”

“And you do your job so well, sweetie,” Suzannah said, causing Avery to laugh with a hint of relief, and causing David to chuckle. God, but he was enjoying himself.

Being here in this company, experiencing this
warmth, this teasing, and having it all with Avery…yeah, this was good, he thought, swallowing against the tightness in his chest. This was very, very good. And he found himself smiling as he turned his attention back to Leslie, who was speaking.

“Actually, I made my comment based on observing the two of you throughout dinner,” the older man said to Avery. “Thirty-five years reporting for the
New York Times
has given me a fairly extensive education in reading people.”

This time Avery’s mouth quirked as she swirled her wine and stared into the glass. “And what have you read into this situation?”

Leslie glanced from Avery to Suzannah. His affection was obvious even to David. “Much more than I’m sure you want to hear me wax over ineloquently.”

“Oh, no. I do want to hear. Very much so,” Avery said, sipping her wine and considering the man her mother had brought into her home.

“Okay, but you have been warned,” Leslie said with a laugh, his eyes twinkling as he settled back, hands clasped in his lap. He looked thoughtfully around the table. “Here the four of us sit. Two generations. Old friends becoming reacquainted after years of living unconnected lives. We bring worlds
of experience and expectations with us. Yet, in the end, we’re all wanting the same things. Fine food and drink, stimulating conversation, the warmth of companionship and, if we’re lucky, of a partnership.”

Again Leslie glanced at each of them in turn. “And, in what seems to be our shared case here, we’ve come to find those things by looking to the most unexpected places. I truly believe that to everything there is a season. Suzannah and I happen to be approaching the winter of our years. But I fully intend to stick around and show her the beauty of spring.”

David found himself held fast, but not by what the older man was saying. It was the rapt attention on the faces of both Avery and her mother that grabbed him by the throat. It was as if they were hearing a prophet speak. As if they’d cut out their hearts and pasted them to their sleeves.

He kept his attention on Avery’s face; she must have sensed his intensity because her lashes drifted down, and when she next looked up she stared at him with an expression of longing that left him amazed. He’d known her for so long yet until this past week, he had barely known her at all.

He’d held on to his fantasy of the girl she’d been from the time he’d left Tatem until he’d returned
ten months ago. But he’d arrived to find a woman he didn’t want to live without.

All he had left to do was convince her that they were meant to be.

“L
ET ME HELP YOU
clean up before we go,” Suzannah said, once David and Leslie had headed out into the living room and left the women to the kitchen. Suzannah and Leslie had plans to continue their evening by driving to the cinema in Alpine.

“No way. You’re cutting it close as it is.” Avery refused to be responsible for her mother missing out on a minute of her, uh, date.

Suzannah shrugged. “If we’re late, we’re late. There will always be another feature.”

Avery wasn’t buying her mother’s casual nonchalance. Not for a minute. She crossed her arms, blocking the path to the kitchen should Suzannah try to slip away to do the dishes as some sort of penance for the deception name Leslie.

“Mom, please go and enjoy your night out. I’ve met Leslie. I approve. He’s a wonderfully insightful man, and quite cute to boot! I refuse to stand in the way of the rest of your evening together.”

Suzannah laced her fingers and held her hands at her waist. The look she gave Avery conveyed both repentance and concern. “I am sorry, sweetie. I should have been up-front in telling you about Leslie.”

“Considering how adamant I’ve been about keeping Daddy’s memory alive, it’s no wonder you didn’t.”

“I had hoped that meeting him without having formed expectations would give you a chance to see him for who he really is. And to see how happy he makes me.” Suzannah asked, “Avery, are you pouting?”

“Of course not.” Pouting? No. About to cry? She feared exactly that. Her emotions were all over the map. Tonight had been a series of highs and lows as she’d considered how often she’d rejected a challenge, refused an adventure because she didn’t want to open herself up.

“You look miffed.”

“I’m not miffed. I’m…frustrated, I suppose. I’ve been so wrapped up in keeping the status quo. I thought having me around after Daddy’s death would make things easier on you.”

“And it did. It has. You’re my daughter. I love you being here where I can be reminded daily of my greatest accomplishment.” Suzannah took Avery’s hands in her own, stroking her thumbs over the backs, bringing Avery to the verge of tears.