Where Azaleas Bloom (7 page)

Mitch turned to him. “I know she would,” he said with
conviction. Even he had seen the way the two of them had looked at each other.
It was a lot like the way he and Amy were looking at each other over their
children’s heads in the picture. Whatever reservations he might have were almost
beside the point in the face of all that undisguised joy.

* * *

In the morning Mitch left Nate and Jo asleep at the
house and headed over to Raylene’s. He only intended to hand out paychecks, make
sure the work was progressing well, then head back home, but instead he found
himself gravitating to Lynn’s.

He knocked on the back door, tested the knob, then shook his
head when it opened immediately.

“Lynn, are you here?” he called out.

“I’ll be right there,” she replied. “There’s coffee if you want
some. Help yourself.”

He poured himself a cup, then waited, resisting the urge to
wander into the living room. He’d noticed on his last visit that there was a
virtual shrine to Ed set up on top of an old upright piano. He knew the pictures
had probably been kept out for the sake of Jeremy and Lexie, but he’d wanted to
smash them so they wouldn’t be in Lynn’s face. Who knew, though? Maybe she
wanted them there as much as the kids did. Maybe she wasn’t as over the man as
he wanted to believe she was.

He’d just settled at the kitchen table—a much more welcoming
environment to his way of thinking—when Lexie came in. She was still in her
pajamas or what he assumed passed for pajamas these days. Looked a lot like what
he saw some girls wearing at the mall, too. The loose pants and a tank top
seemed to be go-anywhere attire, though he imagined there was some distinction
that eluded him.

“How come you’re over here?” Lexie asked curiously as she
poured some cereal into a bowl.

Mitch noticed that she was careful not to fill the bowl or to
add much more than a splash of milk. Given the amount of food she managed to
consume over at Raylene’s, he knew it wasn’t because she was dieting
excessively. The thought of her having to restrict every mouthful she took in
her own home to make sure there was enough left for her mom and brother made him
want to go down to that fancy brick mausoleum Ed had built and slug the man
squarely in the jaw.

“I just stopped by to see how your mom’s doing with those bills
she was going to send for me,” he told Lexie as she sat across from him and
started eating. “You knew she was working for me part-time, right?”

“Is that why you were here the other night, too?” she asked,
looking him straight in the eye. “Mandy thinks it’s because you’ve got a thing
for my mom.”

Mitch nearly choked on a sip of coffee. She and her best friend
were speculating over his motives? What sort of romantic ideas had he unleashed
in those two? And how was he supposed to respond?

He settled for at least a half truth. “Your mom and I have been
friends for a long time. We’ve known each other most of our lives,”

Lexie’s eyes lit up. “Did you ever date?” she inquired, her
curiosity obviously fanned.

Only in his dreams, Mitch thought, suddenly trying to contain
his amusement at the determined cross-examination. “No.”

“Did you want to?” she persisted. “I mean, I know my mom fell
for my dad when they were pretty young, but what about you? Did you want to ask
her out?”

“I considered it,” he said. Knowing full well that she’d turn
him down had deterred him. No adolescent kid risked certain rejection.

“Why didn’t you?”

“As you said, your mom was crazy about your dad. We all knew
it.”

Lexie gave him a look that was entirely too world-weary for a
girl her age. “She’s not anymore.”

Thank heaven Lynn came into the kitchen before he had to think
of a response to that. She studied her daughter with a narrowed gaze.

“What was that about?”

“Just trying to figure things out,” Lexie said cheerfully.
“Gotta run. Mandy and I are going to the library, and then we have that
babysitting certification class. We might go shopping or have lunch after
that.”

“You need money?” Lynn asked.

Lexie immediately shook her head. “Mandy’s got it,” she called
over her shoulder as she took off for her room.

Mitch saw the defeated look on Lynn’s face before she could
cover it. “She’s an intuitive kid,” he said.

“To me that’s another way of saying she’s growing up entirely
too fast. Do you know she’s turned down an allowance from me ever since Ed left?
Now she’s taking this babysitting class, hoping I’ll let her take a few
jobs.”

“All kids need a little spending money of their own.”

“They do,” Lynn agreed. “That’s not why she wants it. She wants
to help with the bills around here.” She shook her head. “I’ve already told her
that’s not her responsibility. Any money she makes will go into savings or she
can spend it on herself.”

“It’s clear that she’s very protective of you. You should have
heard her just now.”

Lynn regarded him with alarm. “What did she say?”

“Settle down,” he said. “She asked a few questions, that’s all.
Dropped a few hints.”

“About what?”

“My intentions. Your availability,” he told her, grinning now
that the uncomfortable moments were behind him.

Lynn groaned. “She didn’t! Are you kidding me?”

“She did.”

“I am so, so sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’m glad to know that somebody else has your
back.”

Lynn looked thoroughly disconcerted by the conversation, so
Mitch let it drop. “Actually, I stopped by to see if you’d had any problems with
the billing. I’m sorry I didn’t get by here yesterday.”

“It took a while, but they all got done. I dropped them in the
mail late yesterday afternoon. Now, as long as nobody comes over here screaming
about being overcharged because I put a decimal point in the wrong place, I
think I have that under control.” She finally turned away from the sink and
faced him. “So, how did it go last night? With Nate and the fiancée? Are you
still worried?”

“Not half as much as I was. She looks like she ought to be in
high school, but she’s twenty-three and getting a master’s in May, then studying
to be a chemical engineer.”

“Wow!”

Mitch chuckled. “I know. Intimidates the heck out of me, but,
surprisingly, Nate just thinks she’s amazing. He’s content to have her be the
brains in the family, likely even the major breadwinner, as far as I can tell.”
He frowned. “Should I be worried about that, do you think? Should he be showing
more ambition?”

“I imagine every couple figures out the kind of relationship
balance that works for them. Look at Helen and Erik. She’s a high-powered
attorney with a statewide reputation and he’s a chef in a small-town restaurant.
He doesn’t seem to be the least bit threatened by that.”

“Need I remind you that that restaurant has an outstanding
reputation all over the state?” Mitch said. “I doubt Dana Sue would appreciate
any hint that it’s some local dive.”

Lynn winced. “I didn’t mean it that way. I was just making a
point. And to continue with that, Cal doesn’t seem to notice that Maddie’s ten
years older than he is. There are all sorts of things that make couples seem
unlikely to outsiders, but that work perfectly for them.”

Mitch nodded. “I suppose in a way that was even true for Amy
and me. I was a blue-collar guy all the way and she was a debutante. Did you
know that?”

Lynn shook her head. “I never would have guessed. The few times
I met her, she seemed totally down-to-earth.” She shrugged. “Then, again, so’s
Raylene, and she was a debutante, too.”

“With Amy sometimes I wondered how our paths even crossed, but
fate stepped in and there she was one day when I was over at Sullivan’s Island
with my folks. Her blueblood Charleston family nearly had a coronary when we
said we wanted to get married. They insisted that she had to go to college, and
if it was what she still wanted after graduation, they promised to go along with
it. Then she got pregnant with Nate, and that was that. They couldn’t get us
down the aisle fast enough. I think they finally reconciled themselves to having
me in the family when Luke was born, and Amy and I were still together and
happy.”

“My folks never approved of Ed,” Lynn confided. “I think they
saw him in a way I didn’t until we started this divorce process. My father
always thought he was shallow and self-involved. Most of the time my mom managed
to get him to keep his opinion to himself, but both of them slipped up enough
that I knew exactly how they felt.”

Her smile was rueful. “Of course, I wouldn’t listen, because
what do parents know? Some days I wish I had listened, but then I wouldn’t have
Lexie and Jeremy. They’re worth whatever pain I’m going through now. And I can’t
help thinking the one good thing about having lost my parents a few years ago is
that they don’t have to see the way he’s behaving now. And I don’t have to hear
so many I-told-you-so comments.”

“What about his folks? I know they’re still right here in town.
Have they stepped up at all?”

A hint of temper sparked in her eyes. “And suggest for even an
instant that their precious son might be in the wrong? Not a chance,” she said
heatedly, then flushed. “Sorry. They’re good people, but they have a blind spot
where Ed’s concerned. Heaven knows what he’s told them about the divorce, but
I’m sure they think I’m the one in the wrong.”

“Maybe you need to set them straight before they say something
in front of the kids,” he suggested.

“Too late,” Lynn said. “Lexie already refuses to go over there
because her grandmother said something about me that upset her. She refuses to
tell me what was said. It’s taken everything in me not to go charging over there
to warn them they’ll never see either of my kids again if they don’t watch what
they say around them.”

“Maybe you should,” he told her, angry on her behalf.

She shook her head. “I don’t want to escalate things. As far as
I know, there was only the one slip. I’m sure when Lexie stopped going over,
they got the message. For all their flaws, they adore the kids. I know they have
to be missing her.”

Mitch would have been content to stay right here for a second
cup of coffee, but he knew he was getting entirely too comfortable being with
Lynn. The other night they’d established the need to take it slow, for both
their sakes. He had to honor that.

“I should get over and check on my crew.” He hesitated,
debating with himself, then decided to ask. “I’m taking the kids to Sullivan’s
for brunch tomorrow. Luke’s coming home, so he’ll be there, too. Would you,
Lexie and Jeremy like to come along?”

The invitation clearly flustered her. “Thanks, but I think
that’s a bad idea.”

Mitch frowned. “What’s bad about it?”

“You’re going out for a family celebration. I think your boys
would take it the wrong way if I came along with my kids. It might raise
questions that not even we know how to answer at this point.”

Mitch reluctantly concurred. Her wisdom, inconvenient though it
might feel, was another thing he saw to admire about her. “You’re probably
right. Another time, then, okay?”

She smiled. “We’ll see.”

Knowing it was useless to press for more when her mind was
clearly made up, he stood. “See you on Monday, then.”

“See you,” she said. “I’m glad you have your family home this
weekend and that things are good with Nate.”

“Thanks.” He headed for the back door. As he opened it, he
turned and regarded her with the stern expression he usually reserved to get
through to his sons. “And lock the darn door, you hear me?”

Lynn’s laugh rang out. While the sound pleased him, it also
signaled that she wasn’t taking his admonition one bit seriously. For the second
time in recent days, he shook his head and turned the lock himself. He wondered
just how long it would take her to flip it back.

7

W
hen they were seated around a table at
Sullivan’s on Sunday, Mitch surveyed his family and felt a familiar stirring of
sorrow. Amy should have been here for this. He had a hunch his invitation to
Lynn the day before had, in part, been an attempt to fill the void that would be
left by his late wife’s absence. He knew, though, that Lynn had been wise to
decline. It wasn’t the time to introduce someone new into his sons’ lives,
especially when things with Lynn were far from certain.

“Dad, you okay?” Luke asked, leaning closer and regarding him
with concern.

Mitch was still surprised when his younger son showed so much
insight. Nate was more like him in a lot of ways with his carefree exuberance,
but Luke was pure Amy, filled with compassion and taking everything to
heart.

“Just wishing your mom were here for this,” he told Luke.

“I know. I think she’d love Jo, though, don’t you?”

Mitch nodded. “I do.”

“Hey, Dad, how about a bottle of champagne?” Nate asked.

“Sure, why not?” he said, beckoning their waitress.

When she returned with the requested bottle and glasses, Mitch
declined. “I’m good with sparkling water.”

The waitress poured three glasses, though she gave Luke a
considering look before filling his. Mitch, however, moved the glass aside.
“He’ll have sparkling water, too.”

“But I’ll be twenty-one in a couple of months,” Luke
protested.

“Then in two months, we’ll have champagne and toast you,” Mitch
said. “I don’t want Dana Sue losing her liquor license because her waitress
looked the other way and served you.”

Since he noticed that Nate had been watching him curiously ever
since he’d declined the drink for himself, Mitch decided to forgo the rest of
the lecture about underage drinking. Instead, he raised his glass in a
toast.

“To Nate and Jo,” he began. “I hope you have many wonderful
years together and, Nate, I especially hope that the two of you are blessed with
as much happiness as your mom and I had.”

“Hear, hear,” Luke echoed, lifting his own glass of sparkling
water. “To Nate and Jo. I’m not losing a brother. I’m gaining a really smart and
probably successful sister.”

“Could I make a toast?” Jo asked softly, her expression
uncertain.

“Of course,” Mitch said. “This is your celebration, after
all.”

“To Amy,” she said, her gaze resting on each of them in turn.
“From everything Nate has told me, she must have been an incredible woman. I
truly wish I’d had the chance to know her.”

“To Amy,” Mitch said, his voice choked by her sweetly
sentimental tribute to a woman she’d never even met, but respected just the
same. It told him a lot about his son, too, that Nate had talked about his
mother so glowingly.

“To Mom,” Nate and Luke echoed. Nate leaned over and kissed his
fiancée. “Thank you.”

“I just wanted to acknowledge that she’s very much with us
today,” Jo said, proving once more what an amazing girl Nate had found.

Since there was a drive ahead for both Nate and Luke, they
wrapped up the meal quickly after just one drink. Mitch knew Nate would go for a
run to work off that single glass of champagne before getting behind the wheel,
and Luke likely would go with him. The two had an ongoing challenge to see if
they could best each other in every sport. Once it had been baseball and
football. They’d even had a go at tennis. These days it was running. Nate had
always been the stronger athlete, but Luke was quickly catching up to him. He’d
entered his first triathalon, scheduled for later this spring, and had been
taunting his brother about it for weeks now.

As they headed out of Sullivan’s, Mitch was surprised when Luke
and Jo walked on ahead, leaving Nate behind to walk with him. “Why didn’t you
touch the champagne, Dad? Is it because of what happened to Mom?”

Mitch was surprised that it was Nate who’d picked up on it.
“Not entirely,” he said.

“There’s no beer in the house, either.”

Mitch gave him an annoyed look. “You taking inventory?”

“No, I went to grab one after my run yesterday and I noticed,
that’s all. You always kept the fridge stocked.”

“And now I don’t,” Mitch said flatly.

“If it’s not because of the drunk driver, then what’s going
on?” Nate persisted.

Mitch studied his son with annoyance. “You’re not going to let
this go, are you?”

Nate shook his head. “Look, right after the accident, Luke and
I noticed you were drinking a little more than usual. Was it a lot more?”

Mitch sighed. Of course they’d noticed. He hadn’t done much to
hide the difficulty he was having dealing with his grief and the sorry way he’d
chosen to drown it. “For a couple of months, yes,” he admitted. “Eventually I
realized I was getting too dependent on alcohol to take away the pain, so I
stopped. It’s no big deal.”

“Did it bother you that I wanted to order champagne at
lunch?”

He smiled at the worry in his son’s eyes. “Not at all. It was a
celebration. It deserved a toast. And I could have had a glass of champagne if
I’d wanted one, but I’ve lost my taste for alcohol. I think it’s best left that
way.” He hadn’t wanted to disrespect Amy’s memory by turning into a drunk, and
he’d seen for himself the danger of that happening the more he’d wallowed in the
pain of losing her. The irony, not lost on him, was that even an alcoholic haze
hadn’t helped with the grief. Not really. He’d still had to feel it down to his
soul to start getting past it.

Nate regarded him sympathetically. “I wish I’d come home more
often right after the accident. I just couldn’t. It hurt to be in the house
without Mom there.”

“Believe me, I know.”

“And that’s what I’m saying,” Nate said earnestly. “I should
have seen how much harder it was for you. I’m sorry for being so selfish and
clueless.”

“Stop that this minute,” Mitch chided. “You’re neither selfish
nor clueless. You were doing exactly what you should have been doing—going to
school, living your life, meeting a terrific girl.”

Nate clearly wasn’t ready to let it go. “Luke knew. He came
home more than I did.”

Mitch grinned. “Because he was broke more than you were. Don’t
paint your brother as a saint. Not that I wasn’t glad to have him home, no
matter what the reason.” He deliberately sought to change the subject. “By the
way, have you and Jo talked about where you’ll live once you’re married?”

Nate gave him a long look, but then moved on. “It depends on
where she goes to school next year. She’s been accepted at Stanford.”

Mitch’s step faltered at the news. “Stanford, huh? That’s
incredible.”

“But a long way from home,” Nate said, sounding unhappy. “I’m
hoping she’ll choose someplace closer to here, but it’s up to her.”

“Don’t try to influence her,” Mitch cautioned. “It’s an
important decision and she should make the one that’s right for her.”

“She says we’re a team now and that the decisions have to be
right for both of us.”

Mitch continued to be impressed with Jo’s maturity. “Well,
then, I know you’ll work it out.”

As they reached the house, Nate touched his arm, stopping him.
“Just one more thing, okay? If you need us here—me or Luke or both of us—you
just have to call.”

“I’ll remember that,” Mitch said, touched yet again by the
sensitivity Amy had ingrained in their sons.

In a way it reminded him that she would always be with them. It
also reminded him that with her generous spirit and warm heart, she would be the
first to tell him to move on with his life, to find happiness.

Maybe that was with Lynn. Maybe not. But he was finally ready,
he thought, to find out.

* * *

“You’ve been avoiding me,” Helen declared, catching Erik
in the kitchen at Sullivan’s on Sunday when he couldn’t escape.

“I see you every day,” her husband reminded her. “We sleep in
the same bed at night.”

“But I can’t cross-examine you at night, because just when I
open my mouth with a question, you find some clever way to distract me. Call me
crazy, but I think it’s deliberate.”

“Maybe I just can’t keep my hands off you,” he suggested, a
twinkle in his eyes.

Helen rolled her eyes in response. Flattery wasn’t going to get
him off the hook. “
And
every time I bring up my
mother, you find some excuse to take off.”

“You’re exaggerating,” he said, though there was a hint of a
smile on his lips.

That blasted smile of his exasperated her as much as his
obvious avoidance of a conversation he clearly didn’t want to have.

“Step away from the food processor,” she ordered in a tone that
was usually effective in intimidating witnesses in the courtroom. When he’d
reluctantly done as she’d asked, she said, “Now tell me what you know about my
mom dating.”

He actually managed to feign a surprised look. “Flo’s dating?”
he asked, his tone almost believable. Almost, but not quite.

“Oh, don’t even try that with me,” she said, waving off his
blatant attempt at feigning innocence. “I know she tells you all sorts of things
she’s never mentioned to me. You’re her hero who can do no wrong. I’m her
daughter. She won’t say a thing to me about something like this because she’s
afraid I’ll disapprove.”

“You do have a history of being pretty stuffy when it comes to
her having a social life,” he suggested gently.

“That doesn’t mean she should hide it from me. Now tell me who
she’s dating. Or is it a whole lot of men? That might be better,” she said,
considering it. “She’d never sleep with a lot of men.” She shuddered at the
thought of her mother sleeping with
any
man.

Erik shook his head. “And you wonder why she keeps secrets from
you. Listen to yourself.”

“It’s just weird, that’s all. She’s past seventy. Should she be
having a sex life at that age?”

Erik chuckled, but quickly tried to hide it. “If she wants one,
I’d say the answer has to be yes.”

Helen barely resisted the urge to stamp her foot. “I knew you’d
take her side.”

“Because it’s her life. She’s entitled to live it however she
wants to. Weren’t you the one who was always telling me how many sacrifices she
made to get enough money to send you to college and then law school? You moved
her down to Boca Raton and bought her a condo so she could finally have the kind
of life you thought she deserved.”

“I was thinking about her swimming and relaxing in the sun,
playing cards with her friends, going shopping. Dating and sex never once
crossed my mind.”

“Because that was something else she sacrificed during those
years when you were her whole focus,” he suggested.

Helen frowned at his reasonable attitude. “What if it were your
mother? Would you be sounding so blasé about it?”

“I’m pretty sure my mother and father are still getting it on
like bunnies,” Erik said with increasing amusement.

Helen poked him in the ribs. “You do not believe that.”

“I do. My dad looks pretty darn happy whenever I see him.”

“Why are you not taking me seriously?”

“I do take you seriously. And I know you’re all worked up out
of concern for your mother and not because you’re a prude, right?”

“Right,” she said, albeit not entirely truthfully. “Do you
really not know anything about what’s going on?”

“Nothing I can share,” he said. “Talk to Flo. At least pretend
to be interested, rather than getting on your high horse and ripping into
her.”

“I do not get on a high horse and rip into my mother,” she
protested. At Erik’s raised eyebrow, she sighed. “Okay, sometimes I do. I’ll try
not to this time.”

“I’m sure she’ll appreciate that. Now, is it okay if I go back
to making dessert for the many customers who might be expecting something
delicious on the menu?”

“If you must,” she conceded. “You have flour on your cheek, by
the way.” She stood on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to the spot. “Right there.” She
grinned. “And a little here.”

“For a woman who’s all worked up over her mother having a few
innocent dates, you surely do seem intent on getting me riled up where anyone
could walk in on us.”

“It’s a contradiction, isn’t it?” she said cheerfully. “See you
tonight. We’ll finish what I tried to start.”

He grinned. “Looking forward to it.”

Helen left Sullivan’s humming. She might not have gotten
everything she wanted from her husband, but she surely did have the promise of
an interesting evening ahead.

* * *

Flo woke up to the smell of coffee brewing. She tried to
recall a single other moment in her life when a man had been that considerate.
Helen’s daddy surely hadn’t been. He’d been a good man, but in his view certain
tasks were women’s work. And in those years, she hadn’t had enough gumption to
call him on it.

None of the other men who’d passed through her life had had
much to recommend them, either, not even in the short-term. Now there was
Donnie, who’d surprised the heck out of her by being not only an incredible
dancer, but about as thoughtful as anyone could possibly be.

She sighed, stretched and was about to go in search of that
coffee when he came into her bedroom carrying a cookie sheet with a napkin on
it, a plate filled with food, coffee and a rose he’d obviously nabbed from the
bush in front of her apartment building. It took a lot to rattle her, but the
gesture brought tears to her eyes.

“Why’d you do this?” she couldn’t help asking, even as she took
her first sip of coffee. It was black and strong, just the way she liked it.

“Because you’re a woman who deserves to be pampered,” he said.
“I know there hasn’t been much of that in your life, but now you have me.”

“Do I?” she whispered. “Have you, I mean?”

“Darlin’, what do you think’s been goin’ on these past months?
I’ve been courtin’ you the best way I know how.”