Midnight Bayou

yourself you’ll step on the shards and be worse off than I am. I’m sorry your welcome’s so disrupted,” she said to his parents. “I’m just going to sweep up this mess, then I’ll be on my way.”
    “Where are you going?” Declan demanded. “You promised food.”
    She wondered if he could hear her teeth grinding together. “Pour what’s in that bowl into a skillet, turn on the burner and you’ll have food.” She yanked open the broom closet. “Why aren’t you getting your parents coffee or a cold drink after their long trip? They raised you better than that.”
    “We certainly did,” Colleen agreed.
    “Sorry. Seeing the woman I love bleeding all over the floor distracted me.”
    “Declan.” Though her voice was low, Lena’s warning was loud and clear.
    “Coffee sounds great,” Patrick said cheerfully. “We came here straight from the airport. Wanted to see this place—and you, too, Dec,” he added with a wink.
    “Where’s your luggage?”
    “Had it sent to the hotel. Son, this place is enormous. A lot of space for one man.”
    “Lena and I want four kids.”
    She heaved the broken shards into the trash and rounded on him.
    “Okay, three,” he amended without a hitch in his stride. “But that’s my final offer.”
    “I’ve had enough of this.” She shoved the broom and dustpan into his hands. “You clean up your own messes. I hope you enjoy your stay,” she said stiffly to Colleen and Patrick. “I’m late for work.”
    She strode out the back because it was closer, and fought off the towering urge to slam the door until the windows cracked.
    “Isn’t she beautiful?” Declan said with a huge grin. “Isn’t she perfect?”
    “You annoyed and embarrassed her,” Colleen told him.
    “Good. I tend to make more progress that way. Let me get the coffee, then I’ll show you around.”
    A n hour later, Declan sat with his mother on the rear gallery while Patrick—who’d lost the debate—made sandwiches.
    The worst of the hangover had receded. Declan imagined he had whatever mysterious potion Lena had given him to thank for it—and the pleasure of seeing her in the same room as his parents.
    Jeez, he’d missed them, he thought. He’d had no idea how much he’d missed them until he’d seen them.
    “So,” he said at length, “are you going to tell me what you think?”
    “Yes.” But she continued to sit and look out over his gardens. “Warm, isn’t it? Early in the year to be so warm, I’d think.”
    “Actually, it’s cooler today. You should’ve been here a couple days ago. You could’ve poached eggs out here.”
    She heard the way he said it, with a kind of pride. “You were never a big fan of the cold. Even when we went skiing, you’d prefer rattling around the lodge to charging down the slopes.”
    “Skiing’s something people invented so they can pretend snow’s fun.”
    “See if we invite you to Vermont this season.” But her hand moved over, touched his. “The house is beautiful, Declan. Even what you haven’t gotten to yet is beautiful, in its way. I liked to think your fiddling with tools and wood and so on was a nice little hobby. I preferred to think that. As long as you were a lawyer, it was probable you’d stay in Boston. You’d stay close. I dreaded seeing you go, so I made it hard on you. I’m not sorry. You’re my baby,” she said, and touched him in the deepest chamber of his heart.
    “I don’t have to be in Boston to be close.”
    She shook her head. “You won’t come swinging in the house unexpectedly. We won’t run into you in restaurants or at parties or the theater. That’s a wrench in me, one you’ll understand when you have those three or four children.”
    “I don’t want you to be sad.”
    “Well, of course I’m sad. Don’t be a boob. I love you, don’t I?”
    “You keep saying so,” he said playfully.
    She looked at him, gray eyes steady on gray eyes. “Lucky for both of us, I love you enough to know when to let go. You found your place here. I won’t deny I hopedyou wouldn’t, but since you have, I’m glad for you. Damn it.”
    “Thanks.” He leaned over, kissed her.
    “Now, as for this woman . . .”
    “Lena.”
    “I know her name, Declan,” Colleen said dryly. “As a potential mother-in-law, I’m entitled to refer to her as ‘this woman’ until I get to know her a little better. As for this woman, she’s nothing like what I’d imagined for you. Not when I imagined you climbing up