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Paul looked up from his omelet. “Bad news?”
All the news seemed to be bad lately. “No, not really. Jayna texted me earlier that she was finally on the plane. She should be back in time for final arguments.”
“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 theweyet, 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’dtalked 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.”
He reached over and covered his mother’s hand with his own. “I hope she can, but I need you to know that I am proud of you for being open to this.”
“That was good, Mom.” Paul sniffled a bit. “Now I kind of do want a family.”
“Not yet.” His brother still had some growing up to do,but it looked like he was on the right path this time. “I appreciate all of this, Mom, but she has more problems with Papillon than just being worried about fitting in here. If I had time, we could make her comfortable. But I don’t think I can make her comfortable with her mother. They don’t understand each other. They never have. I think deep down in the back of her mind she’s still got this kid inside her who thinks she’s failed if she’s here.”
“Well, that’s ridiculous. She can have a perfectly nice life right here,” his mother replied, her chin coming up. “She can see the world and then come home where her family is. Quaid, I’m beginning to think the problem is you. Have you not told her you like to travel? That you’re not going to keep her cooped up here day after day?” His mother’s voice went low. “Are you properly taking care of her?”
“I’m sorry, what?” She couldn’t mean what he thought she meant. Not his mother. His mother would never speak of such things. Ever.
Paul snorted, his amusement plain. “I think she’s asking if you know what women like.”
“Now, you hush, you scamp,” his mother admonished. “I’m asking if he knows what Jayna likes. Not all of womankind. I leave that up to you. And you better stay away from married women, Paul. I can still put you over my knee.”
“You never put me over your knee.”
“And that is where I failed,” she announced. “Cavorting around town with married women. I hear gossip, too. That is how I know that Quaid has been sowing some oats, but those are forever oats, son. It’s all right to sow them if you love those oats. But you have to know how to properly tend to your oats.”
He was never telling Jayna his mother referred to her as forever oats. “Jayna and I are fine on that front. It’s really about timing. I didn’t get enough time with her.”
“Dallas isn’t so far away,” Paul pointed out.
“No, but combine the distance with the fact that she’ll be working all the time for the next couple of years and there’s not much of a shot for us. I’ve thought about moving to be closer to her.” He’d put the idea out there. He could get a place in Dallas and split his time.
“I would hate that, but I would also understand.” His mother sat back.
“I’m not sure it would work. We needed more time.” His heart ached at the thought of her taking that job. She might come back to Papillon to see her sister from time to time. Someday she would come home with a husband and kids of her own, and he was afraid he would still be alone because his heart was hers and he couldn’t give it to anyone else. He would look out the window of his office and she would be walking by looking prettier than ever, the happy successful woman she’d always wanted to be.
He wished he could get her to see that successful had a million definitions, that the idea of it could change over time. What she viewed as success when she was eighteen didn’t have to define her happiness now. She could find happiness in other places, satisfaction in a career that wasn’t high-powered, peace in a place that had none for her before.
