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“Your father is such a great guy,” Ethan said. “He deserves to be happy.”
I never said he didn’t, I thought. I just don’t know if he will be.
Ethan asked if there was anywhere in particular I’d like to go. Almost without realizing it, I directed him to follow the roads that would take us past my cousin’s home. Ethan continued to talk about our future, things he’d like to be able to do someday, and places he’d like to visit. This job, this whole new opportunity for him, was like Columbus launching his ships for the New World. His excitement was infectious, but the closer we got to Shane and Royce Norman’s home, the more nervous I became. A part of me wanted Ethan to know who lived there, but another part of me feared that he would be so shocked I had taken him there that he would be turned away from me. After all, my memories of his reaction in the motel were still quite vivid. I said nothing as we rode by. I was happy that neither Shane nor Royce was anywhere in sight.
Later, we found an intimate restaurant with a small patio overlooking acres of beautiful prime Kentucky property. We could see the horses grazing near a small pond. It looked like an oil painting, because the clouds were so still and the horses looked so content. Ethan’s enthusiasm for his work and for our continued relationship was, as Daddy would say, just what the doctor ordered. We drank wine and had a wonderful dinner. The restaurant had a violin player who went from table to table. At our table, perhaps because he saw how we were holding hands and looking into each other’s eyes, he played “La Vie en Rose.”
“That’ll be our song from now on,” Ethan said. He leaned forward to kiss me.
Could the day have turned out any better? I did feel swept along but very happy about it. On our way back, we occasionally held hands but said little. For me as well as for him, I suspect, it was like soaking in a warm bath, only our bath was full of love. We weren’t home late, but when we arrived, the house was quiet. Every statue looked asleep. The lights were dim, the old grandfather clock barely sounding its ticktock as if it were Heaven-stone’s slumbering heart.
“They’re both probably feeling it,” Ethan whispered as we went up the stairway. “I’m sure it’s exhausting. They’ll really need to get away after this.”
I could see that Ethan was fading himself. I knew he was trying to remain energetic for my sake, but I told him to go to sleep and get a good night’s rest. He did have a big day tomorrow. Besides, I thought, we were soon to be the master and mistress of this house. Daddy and Lucille would be on their honeymoon. It was no secret that both Ethan and I were thinking we would have a sort of honeymoon ourselves while they were gone.
“Go get ready for bed,” I told him. “I’ll be in just to say good night.”
“Just good night? We’ll see about that,” he joked, but by the time I got ready and into my nightgown and went to his room, I found him in bed and already in a deep sleep, so deep that when I kissed him good night, he didn’t wake. His eyelids didn’t even flutter. I fixed his blanket, stood back, and looked at him, at that perfect handsome face, for a few moments to confirm in my own mind that he was really there and that we were really thinking of a life together. Then I turned off his lights and closed his door softly.
To my surprise, when I stepped back into the hallway, I found Lucille standing by my door. She was in her robe and had her face covered in one of her special expensive skin creams. In the hallway light, her face had a yellowish glow, and her eyes seemed more catlike.
“What is it?” I asked. “Something wrong with my father?”
“No, no. He’s fine. I think we should talk,” she said. “I won’t have much time to spend alone with you after tonight. We have all sorts of last-minute preparations tomorrow and then, late in the day, the wedding rehearsal. As you know, your father and I will be gone for ten days immediately after the wedding.”
“Talk about what?”
“Your future,” she said. She opened my bedroom door for me and stood back.
I looked at her as if I thought she was crazy, but I went into the room. She followed and closed the door behind her.
“My future?”
“You can get into bed,” she told me.
How odd, I thought. What was I, her little girl now? Nevertheless, that was just what I did. I was tired, and I did want to go to sleep. Maybe if I closed my eyes, she’d stop talking and leave.
Instead, she stepped closer to the bed, fiddled with my blanket, and smiled.
“I’ve been meaning to have this conversation with you for days now,” she began. “I apologize for taking so long and being so wrapped up in the wedding arrangements. Half the time, I forget to eat lunch, not that I need it. I’m not going to be like so many women as soon as I get married and neglect my figure because I have my man or something. I can assure you of that. You’ll never be ashamed to be seen with me.”
“What conversation, Lucille?”
“The mother-daughter conversation you should be having. I realize I’ll never be what your real mother was to you,” she said, nodding at the framed photograph of my mother and me that she had bought me, “but I’m not one to neglect any responsibility. When I marry your father, I take on all his burdens as well as his pleasures, just like the vow dictates. I’ll mean it when I say ‘I do.’ ”
“I don’t like to think of myself as a burden for my father, Lucille.”
“No, I don’t mean you’re a burden. I meant his responsibilities,” she said quickly. Then she smiled. “My, I guess I do have to watch every word with you now. That’s good. You’re a sharp, alert young lady.”
“Really, what is it, Lucille? I’m tired.”
“Ethan,” she said.
“Ethan?”
“I know I told you that we trust you both to behave as responsible adults, and I’m sure you will, but I didn’t want to give you the impression that I was—or rather, that your father and I were—arranging your life for you. If Ethan is indeed the man for you and he continues to develop and mature, fine. If he’s not, I don’t want you to hesitate in coming to tell me otherwise. Or if you are confused and unsure about everything, please rely on me to help you. In short, I’d like to be your confidante in the same way a mother should be. I don’t expect you to throw yourself at me, but I just wanted to be sure you understood that I care about you and welcome being there for you.
“You are very young,” she continued. “What is good for the Heaven-stone Corporation is not necessarily good for you personally.”
