Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 108531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 434(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 434(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
“Are you picking her up?” His mother had an egg white omelet with fruit and turkey bacon she claimed wasn’t all that bad. Naturally Jayna had suggested the brand. “We could send a car for her if you need to prepare for your case.”
“She drove herself to the airport and parked there. Her car was ready and while I offered, she said she wanted the time alone to think.” She’d gone to Dallas to interview for the job with the law firm there. She’d stayed for a couple of days, and they’d had three stilted conversations over the phone that led to absolutely no conclusion.
She’d liked the small firm, liked the people there. She’d had dinner with the man named Mitch and his family. His wife had turned out to be Lila LaVigne and Lisa Guidry’s sister. It was such a small world, but he feared it would be slightly too large for their relationship to survive.
His mother frowned. “There’s no need for her to drive herself. We pay people to do that.”
“I don’t think Jayna considers herself part of the we yet, Momma,” Paul explained. “I think we’re a little intimidating to a woman who recently got burned by a family like ours.”
“We are not those obnoxious new-money Shales,” his mother said with a frown.
“No, we’re worse. We’re super old-money snobs,” Paul replied. More and more often Quaid was seeing his brother push back against some of their mom’s worse tendencies. Since that night in the hospital, Paul had shown he could take care of her, including in ways that made her angry with him. It had oddly led to what seemed like a deeper relationship between the two of them. In pushing back at her, fighting with her over her own health, his mother seemed to see that Paul truly loved her.
“I am not . . . All right, I will admit I have some work to do,” his mother said. “I am an old dog but I can easily see that if I don’t learn a few new tricks, I will be letting my sons down. I don’t want to be the reason you lose Jayna, but I’ll be honest. I don’t understand what makes her uncomfortable about us. I’ve been nice to her lately. I’ve come to enjoy her frankness, and I had a little talk with Celeste Beaumont when she came to visit. She was open and honest with me about how having Seraphina Guidry in her family has made it stronger, not weaker. She told me I could change with the times or be a mean old biddy for the rest of my life. I thought that was put a bit rudely, but there’s truth in it. I want grandbabies before I die. I want some young people around me again, and I don’t think Paul is ready for that.”
Paul put a hand over his heart. “I am still a child myself. Nope. That’s going to have to fall on big brother. He’s definitely the one with the biological clock ticking.”
“I don’t even know if Jayna wants kids.” He did. They’d talked about it and she’d told him how much she wanted a family that included a couple of kids, but he wasn’t going to put pressure on her to make his mother happy.
“Well, at least she has those little nieces. They don’t have fathers. They need more family,” his mother said with a wistful sigh.
“They have fathers. They see them every now and then.” Sienna had them almost all the time from what he could tell. Her ex-husbands weren’t all that active with the kids. They had their mom and grandma and aunt and were happy and well adjusted.
“But that doesn’t mean we can’t love them, too. It doesn’t mean we can’t be a family. That’s what Celeste made me see. We rely on blood, but what happens to the people who don’t have blood families? What happens when your family is mostly gone?” His mother’s eyes had gone watery in the early-morning light. “I only have my sister left, and we’re not so close. She seems to tolerate me because we’re family. It should be more. I miss your father. I miss my parents, and I can either spend the rest of my life wishing for something I can’t have again, or I can make something new. I can either be the woman who looks down on everyone or the woman who helps people up again. I’ve lived in this town most of my life. It’s about time I took care of it in a way that doesn’t include planting flowers. Flowers are pretty but they die. Trees stay long after the one who planted them is gone. Trees provide shelter for generations. It’s time for me to plant trees, Quaid. And Jayna needs to see that, too.”