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“You raised that man, what do you think is going to happen?” she asked.
Shit.
He tried to make himself relax.
“I’ve looked them up, and I want us to take a ghost tour tomorrow night,” Manon said into the room. “You wanna go Pépé?”
“I don’t know, ma belle,” his dad replied hesitantly. “With the game, it’ll be a long day.”
Beau had scored them some tickets, so they were going to Tulane’s home game with a tailgate before that.
Guillaume nor Colette was going to the game, but they were going to the tailgate.
“Have you ever been on one?” Manon asked her grandfather.
“Of course not,” Colette scoffed, openly insulted by the very thought her husband would do anything so common.
Wyn’s fingers around his tightened.
“Why not?” Manon shot back.
“Tourists do that, darling,” Guillaume intervened with a gentle smile. “And we’re not tourists.”
“I’m going to do everything everywhere I am, even if I live there,” Manon declared. “If I end up in New York, I’m going to see the Rockettes at Christmas. If I end up in London, I’m going to that studio where they filmed Harry Potter. If I end up in Sydney, I’m going to learn every inch of the opera house.”
“Are we ever going to see you?” Wyn teased.
“Totally, since I’ll be all those places working for you as your scout,” she replied cheekily. Then she turned back to her grandfather. “Pépé, you should go with us. Grandma, if you’re not up to it, I understand. But you should come, Pépé. It’ll be fun, you’ll get to be with us, and you’ll have new anecdotes to tell during dinner parties.”
“I’ll think about it, mon bijou,” Guillaume replied.
“I must know about this young man you’re seeing,” Colette butted in, this aimed at Yves.
Remy got tense again.
“What do you wanna know, Grandma?” Yves asked cautiously.
“I’m not sure I want to know anything,” she replied. “Except I want you to know you should sample life’s delights. You seem enthralled with this person, but you’re only seventeen. You can’t possibly know if you’re truly enthralled if you haven’t been enthralled with someone else.”
Yves smiled at her, and it was genuine. “We aren’t getting married or anything. I’m in high school.”
“Are you enthralled with him?” Colette asked.
“He’s pretty enthralling,” Yves muttered.
“Listen to your grandmother, Yves. You’re an extortionately attractive young man. You’re only going to get more handsome. Look at your father.”
Remy’s fingers twitched in Wyn’s.
“And do what your father did,” she went on. “Enjoy yourself, but do not settle. Wait for the right one.”
The room went completely silent.
Colette, pretending not to know she’d dropped the bomb of uttering her first public acknowledgement that she approved of Wyn for Remy, turned to Guillaume who was sitting in an armchair across from where she was in another. “You should go with them tomorrow night, my love. I’m not up to it, but the children need to get back to school. This visit is short. You should make the most of it.”
“I shall go,” he murmured, not looking at her.
The guests were gone, appearances no longer needed to be kept. He wasn’t being cruel or rude, but Remy’s father also was not having it. And saying throwaway things that were nevertheless kind about Wyn weren’t going to crack the wall he was building between them.
His mother knew when she was stymied, so she turned to Manon.
Remy got tense again.
“At dinner, you spoke of someone you’re seeing,” she noted.
“Yeah, Benji,” Manon confirmed carefully.
“What does he do?” Colette inquired.
“He’s a graduate student, studying forestry.”
“What can a man do with such a degree?” Colette demanded to know.
“A lot, but it doesn’t matter what he does,” Manon retorted. “I know what I’m going to do. I’m going to follow in my mom’s footsteps, and it’s gonna be righteous.”
“Smart girl,” Colette sniffed, sending another ripple of surprise through the room. “Stick to that path and do not follow your grandmother’s. Don’t get me wrong, the happiest day of my life will always be when I first saw your grandfather. It was also the luckiest day. He was perfect for me. But before that, I wiled time away when I should have been making my mark. Learning about me. Take it from your grandmama, Manon. Know who you truly are before you ever give yourself to somebody. Or more importantly, create a family.”
At his age, his father’s jaw was not as firm as it used to be, but it was so solid right then, none of the grenades his mother was launching were going to shake it loose.
Colette scooted to the end of her seat and looked to her son.
Fantastic.
He was next.
“Did you enjoy tonight, Remy?” she inquired.
“Yeah, Mom. It’s always great spending time with the crew. Thanks for organizing it,” Remy replied.
“My pleasure,” she said quietly then let him off the hook, or purposefully didn’t bait him on it, and looked back to Guillaume. “I’m tired, darling.”
