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“Call me Prisha,” she says with a kind smile. “So this is where my son worked for so long?”
Nora gives her a gentle nudge closer to the counter as Allie finishes loading up our boxes of goodies. “Ma insisted on helping me set up my new place in town,” she explains. “But I think it was just an excuse to finally meet Jen.”
Prisha grins, her dark eyes twinkling. “Any woman who gets my son to knock on my door after so many years must be special.”
“Jen is special, all right,” Lily answers. “She’s a force to be reckoned with.”
“She’s down at the community garden,” I say. “You two would be welcome to come join, but be prepared for someone to hand you a spade or a paintbrush and put you to work.”
“Oh—is that today?” Nora asks, eyes wide. “I told Dorothy I’d help. I completely forgot.”
“She’ll forgive you if you show up with food,” Lily says, thrusting a box of goodies toward Nora with a smile. “Just pretend that was your plan all along.”
Nora gives her a grateful smile. We say goodbye to Allie and head back outside. The four of us pile into my car, and I drive back down the few blocks to the worksite. Lily’s eyes immediately stick to Rudy like glue, and I bite back a snarky comment.
She’s got it bad…and that’s not a good thing. Lily has other things to worry about right now, like the tiny human growing in her womb.
But I know it’s not my place to say anything, so all I do is turn off the car and help the other ladies get the boxes of food out of the car. Fallon appears beside us, one of his muscular arms curling around his mother’s shoulders as he gives her a tender kiss on the temple.
“Food’s here!” I call out.
The army of helpers looks up at me, and then the stampede starts. Rudy makes a beeline for Lily, who presents a paper-wrapped brownie to him like it’s precious. His smile is warm and secretive, and he says something near her ear that I don’t catch.
Mac, my man, manages to elbow his way closer to the boxes of sandwiches and treats, but he doesn’t stop there. He reaches me and wraps his arms around me, dipping me down and kissing me square on the lips. When he straightens me up again, I’m flushed. “What was that for?”
“You looked like you were in need of a kiss.”
“Gross, mommy!” Katie says, a smear of white paint across her jeans. She’s been helping with the fence, apparently.
“We got here while you were at the café,” Mac explains. “Toby’s not bad with a hammer.”
My son blushes, grabbing a sandwich from the box and scampering away. I smile, tilting my head as Mac lays another kiss on my jaw.
I look at the assembled crowd and see a real community. Everyone is laughing and eating and working together. Dorothy and Eli are having a heated debate, waving their arms as they gesture at a wrought-iron arch that will serve as an entrance to the garden.
Margaret has her head bent near Hamish, Mac’s father. Hamish, being the old biker he is, is wearing a leather vest and an old Harley-Davidson tee, and somehow beside Margaret’s classy, put-together outfit, it works.
Wes, Grant, and Blake are all topless and attacking sandwiches, while their respective women look on, smitten. I don’t blame them. There’s a lot of male flesh on display, and all of it is drool-worthy.
I lean my head against Mac’s shoulder and glance up at him. My kids are eating and laughing, my sisters are here, and even if Lily’s secret is weighing on me, I can’t deny that I’m happy.
Then my mother appears beside me and slips her hand into the crook of my elbow. I glance at her, brows arched in question. “Everything okay?”
She pinches her lips and glances at Lily. “Your sister still hasn’t opened up about what’s going on. She’s not herself, and I think something’s wrong. She tell you anything?”
I gulp. “No,” I answer. It’s not exactly untrue. Lily never actually said anything—I just happened to find a business card and Lily never denied it.
My mother hums, eagle eyes still narrowed on Lily.
Feeling protective of my little sister, I blurt out, “She’s going to some charity event with Rudy next weekend.”
Mom’s eyes light up as she turns to look at me. “She is?”
Uh-oh. Maybe knowing about the pregnancy would be better than my mother thinking she can play matchmaker. But I just nod and run with it. “Yeah. They went out on a date last night. She said it was fun.”
My mother lets out a squeal that is decidedly un-Lottie-like. “Fantastic. Great! I’m going to go tell Dorothy. She likes Rudy, even though he’s related to Agnes. I’m sure she’ll tell me all there is to know about him.”
As my mother rushes toward her friend, Mac lets out a chuckle. “You sure that was a good idea?”
