Carolina Moon

Dottie’d just be lost without that dog.”
    “Nothing’s wrong. She’s just been fixed.”
    “If nothing’s wrong, what needed to be fixed?”
    Wade dragged a hand through his hair while his mother poked in his refrigerator. “Fixed so she’d stop having a litter of puppies every year.”
    “Oh. Wade, you don’t have enough food in this house to keep body and soul together. I’m just going to pick a few things up for you at the market.”
    “Mama—”
    “Don’t Mama me. You don’t eat right since you left home, and you can’t tell me different. Wish you’d come home for supper more often. I’m going to bring you over a nice tuna casserole tomorrow. That’s your favorite.”
    He hated tuna casserole. Loathed it. But he’d never been able to convince her of it. “I’d appreciate that.”
    “Maybe I’ll take one out to little Tory, too. I just stopped over to see her. She looks so grown-up.” Boots put three eggs on to boil. “That shop of hers is coming along so fast. I don’t know where that girl gets the energy. God knows her mother never had any I could see, and her daddy, well, it’s best not to speak if you can’t speak kind.”
    Boots folded her lips and hunted up ajar of pickles. “Always had a soft spot for that child, though for one reason or another I never could get close to her. Poor little lamb. I used to wish I could just gather her up and bring her on home with me.”
    Love, Wade thought, made you helpless. Wherever, however it came. He walked over, wrapped his arms around Boots, and rested his cheek on her newly lacquered hair. “I love you, Mama.”
    “Why, honey, I love you, too. That’s why I’m going to make you a nice egg salad here, so I don’t have to stand around watching my only son starve to death. You’re getting too thin.”
    “I haven’t lost an ounce.”
    “Then you were too thin to start with.”
    He had to laugh. “Why don’t you put another egg on, Mama, so there’ll be enough for both of us. I’ll just go down and see to Sadie, and I’ll come back and we’ll have lunch together.”
    “That’d be nice. You take your time.”
    She slid another egg into the water, and glanced over her shoulder as he went out.
    Boots was well aware her son was a grown man, but he was still her baby. And a mother never stopped worrying about or looking out for her own.
    Men, she thought with a sigh, were such delicate, such oblivious creatures. And women, well, certain women, could take advantage of that.
    The doors of the old building weren’t as thick as her son might believe. And a woman didn’t reach the age of fifty-three without recognizing certain sounds for what they were. She had a pretty good idea just who’d been on the other side of that door with her boy. She’d reserve judgment on that matter, she told herself, as she sliced up pickles.
    But she’d be watching Faith Lavelle like a hawk.
    She was gone. Wade realized he should have figured she would be. She’d stuck a Post-it to the door, drawn a heart on it, and had pressed her lips to the center, leaving a sexy red kiss for him.
    He peeled it off, and though he told himself he was an idiot, tucked it into a drawer for safekeeping. She’d come back when she was in the mood. And he’d let her. He’d let her until he came to despise himself, or if he was lucky, until his heart was whole and his again, and she was just an interesting diversion.
    He stroked a hand over Sadie’s head, then checked her vitals, her incision, and stitches. Because she was awake now, her deep brown eyes glassy and confused, he picked her up carefully. He’d take her upstairs with him, so she wouldn’t be alone.

9
    S ex made her thirsty. In a much happier frame of mind than she’d been in, Faith decided to wander up to Hanson’s and buy herself a bottle of something cold and sweet to enjoy on the way to the market.
    She glanced back at the vet’s office, then up at Wade’s apartment windows. Blew him a mental kiss. She thought she might just give him a call later and see how he felt about taking a drive that evening. Maybe they could head over to Georgetown and find some pretty spot near the water.
    It was nice being with Wade, comfortable on one hand, exciting on the other. He was as dependable as sunrise, always there when she needed him.
    Memories of a long-ago summer when he’d spoken so easily of love and marriage, of houses and children, tried to wind through her mind, through her heart. She cast