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My mother pressed her lips together but remained quiet.
“So I came up with an idea that would let him have both. The distribution with Fortress, which will give him enough money for him to travel and expand and help his family,andthe ability to keep the meadery in town. I want him to have choices, you know? To know someone has his back. I want him to have…” My voice came out clogged with emotion, despite my best efforts. “…whatever he wants most.”And I want that to be me.
“Oh, my darling.” Mother’s eyes were round and shining with some emotion I’d never seen in her before. “You… you really do care about him, don’t you?”
I nodded once.
“But if you and he are together for the long haul…”
My mouth twisted up. “I don’t think Flynn’s ready to commit to that.”
“Yes, but once he is,” she insisted, and I had to smile at her assumption that the world would always spin exactly the way a Wellbridge wanted it to. “Would you move here? Would you give up your job?”
“Of course not,” I said immediately. “I’m about to get promoted.”
She nodded in agreement. “So, then?”
I rubbed my chin and let myself think about it. A future where Flynn had agreed to the Fortress contract and fallen head over heels for me… what would that even look like, practically speaking?
I rubbed my chin. “I couldn’t move here full-time, no. The hours are long—longer once I make vice president—and I can’t work from home. It’s a competitive industry, and I need to be in the office so I can stay in the loop. Plus, I need to travel. A lot.”
“Is it possible Flynn would leave with you, then?” Mother asked. “Follow you to New York?”
I shook my head instantly. “Not a chance. Hell, I can barely get the man to take a vacation. He’d never leave his family or Honeybridge.”
It would have to be a long-distance relationship for the time being. A relationship filled with goodbyes. Knowing what life with Flynn’s parents had been like, I could only imagine how rough that would be on him. And hell, I wasn’t much better. Thinking about leaving him tomorrow was already killing me.
“That’s one thing Flynn and I have in common.”
I frowned distractedly. “Hmm?”
Mother lifted a shoulder, looking almost… embarrassed. “Your father and I have had many chances to leave Honeybridge over the years. Your father would say, ‘But Patricia, there’s so much more diversity in New York, more museums in Boston, more political opportunity in Washington.’ But I could never understand running off to find something better when I could simply improve what was already here.”
I blinked at her in surprise. “The Honeybridge Diversity Committee? The Friends of the Arts Council? That’s what those things are all about?” I’d assumed that all of those organizations were simply excuses for my mother to chair another committee.
She inclined her head regally, and the feathers on her hat dipped and swayed in the breeze.
I grinned at her—a real, full-on grin—for the first time in years. “That’s… truly impressive, Mother.”
“Hmph.” I caught sight of a tiny smile playing about her lips before she ruthlessly suppressed it. “When a Wellbridge wants something, Jonathan, we don’t allow ourselves to be limited by circumstances,” she said imperiously. She gave me a significant look. “We make our own.”
I nodded slowly. It turned out Pop Honeycutt wasn’t the only one in Honeybridge who could turn a conversation into a life lesson.
“Now.” She folded her hands in her lap. “What can I do to help you with your endeavor?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. Truly. Just… Keep it under your hat.” I tweaked one of her feather plumes. “I’ll figure it out. Somehow.”
She nodded solemnly. “Of course you will.”
I tilted my head. “And you’re really willing to accept me dating a Honeycutt? Really?”
Mother sighed. “Obviously, it wouldn’t be… anidealconnection. But I want you to be happy and to do the Wellbridge name proud, Jonathan. In that order. So if dating one of those Honeycutts helps you achieve that purpose and helps you to be in Honeybridge more, too… well, I suppose there are stranger things in the world.” She shrugged like she couldn’t imagine any of them.
Then her brow lowered as if a thought had just occurred to her. “Just to be clear, though… at the softball game this afternoon, will you and Flynn be playing on opposite teams, or…”
“Oh, heck yeah. I’m gonna make him eat dirt,” I said cheerfully. “The town sign is gonna say ‘Home of the Ultimate Softball Champion Wellbridge Family’ by the end of the season. Flynn wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Mother smiled and reached out a hand to cup my cheek. “You’ll make me proud.” She pulled away a second later and wrinkled her nose. “You smell like honey and oranges,” she said. “And something decidedly… earthy.”
