I met her as she stepped to the street, drawing in a breath of her perfume as I pressed my lips to her cheek in a perfectly appropriate kiss.
"Thank you, Nash," she said, as she passed her bag to me and opened the passenger door. I knew she was thanking me for more than storing her luggage in the trunk.
"Anytime, Parker. You know that."
"I do," she said when I got back in the driver's seat. "And it means a lot. I know this is... Complicated."
Complicated didn't cover it, but I was betting that time woulduncomplicate things. We just needed a little more. For now, I was content to be beside Parker, greedy for her company, happy just hearing the sound of her voice.
"When was the last time you talked to mom?" I asked.
"A few days ago. She sounds like she's having a wonderful time in Paris."
"She is. Do you remember her mentioning Martine? A friend she went to school with?"
Parker thought for a moment. "I think so. Didn't she marry a man who lives in a chateau with an actual moat around it?"
"You have a good memory. I forgot about the moat. She did, and she invited Claudia to stay for a few weeks. So, Claudia didn't tell you about the poodles?"
"No!" Parker turned to me, a bright smile on her face, her eyes dancing. "Tell me! What poodles?"
I spent most of the ride entertaining her with a story I'd heard the night before from my mother, involving Martine's very spoiled poodles, and a party that ended with most of the guests in the pool. Fully clothed. At least it hadn't been the moat.
Parker was giggling by the time I was done. I'd pay a million dollars to hear Parker laugh like that at least once a day. No, more. It had been a lifetime since I'd really heard her laugh. Being the one who gave her that? I couldn't put a price on it.
"Was Claudia angry?" she asked, her eyes bright with amusement.
"Not once she'd found her bracelet at the bottom of the pool. Then she thought the whole thing was a 'hoot', as she put it."
Parker let out a sigh. "I miss her. I'm so glad she's having fun, and it's better she's not here, but I miss her."
I knew Parker had lost her own mother before she'd turned ten, and my own mother had always longed for a daughter. The two of them had been close for years. This was exactly the kind of time a woman probably wanted her mother close by, and Parker must have felt like she had to pull away from Claudia. I glanced over at her pensive expression as she watched the city fly by.
"She misses you too, Parker."
Another sigh. "She's disappointed about the divorce."
"Not the way you think she is."
Parker turned her serious eyes to me. "What do you mean?"
"She's disappointed in Tyler, not in you. She thinks you're doing the right thing."
"Is that you guessing? Or did she say that?" Parker pressed.
"She said it," I told her with complete honesty. "She's feeling guilty that she encouraged you to stay for so long."
Parker reared back, her eyes going wide. "Does she know about–" Her hand fluttered up to wave at the side of her face.
My jaw clenched at the memory of her swollen cheek. I shook my head. "No. Not unless you or Tyler told her." Something occurred to me. "You told Angie, though. Right?"
"Yes, of course. She took pictures. She, um, said she might ask you for testimony." Parker thought for a second. "That's not what she called it. An affidavit? I don't know. I was a little overwhelmed when we went over all of this. I'd been thinking about divorce for a long time, but thinking about it and doing it are not the same thing."
I knew what she meant. Turning into the parking garage of my mother's building, I waited for the gate to scan the tag on my car. Parker fell silent as we parked and rode the elevator to my mother's floor.
Years before, when the building went co-op, my father purchased a spacious apartment. A few years later, he'd purchased another, right above the first, and finally the penthouse, directly above the other two.
One massive renovation project later, he'd been the proud owner of one of the largest penthouses in the city of New York. Now that he was gone, my mother didn't need all this space, but I doubted she'd ever sell it. When I'd asked, she told me, "I raised my family here, and while to others it might be a prime piece of New York real estate, to me its our home."
