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On the flight back they didn’t talk much about the trip. He got the feeling she didn’t want to in front of Lincoln. But her comment about not being property made him realize that his thoughts of wanting her with him more or in the future were best kept to himself.
“Like watching out for me?” she asked.
He laughed. He felt bad that Caleb asked him that. Almost embarrassed, but he wasn’t going to keep it from Laine either. It wasn’t his way.
“As I said, you can watch out for yourself.”
“That was a nice way to answer my father,” she said. “Did you really tell him you were my backup dancer?”
“I did,” he said. “When you and your mother went for your walk he took that time to bring it up.”
“Not surprising. What was Stewart’s response?”
“He didn’t say anything,” he said. “Why would he? What did you and your mother talk about?”
“A long overdue conversation,” she said. “I asked her if Stewart knew my mother still loved my father.”
He smiled softly. “Laine. Anyone in that room can see it. No one is doing that great of a job hiding it. Stewart seems like a smart guy.”
“I don’t know how he does it,” she said. “I told my mother that I don’t think I could be civil to you if you left me.”
“I don’t plan on leaving you,” he said. She didn’t seem to have much of a reaction when he said that so he didn’t worry that it was too much. Besides, she started it with her first comment.
“I don’t think my parents planned on it either, but life happens.”
“That’s right,” he said. “They made their choices.”
“My fathermade his choices,” she said. “My mother had no choice but to go along with them.”
“And now your father knows what he lost,” he said. “He can see it as easily as I could see how much your father still loves your mother. But Stewart is confident enough to know that your mother loves him too. He got the girl in the end. You could say it gives me hope that the good or nice guy doesn’t always finish last.”
“I don’t know about that,” she said.
Carson put his hand to his heart adorably. “Don’t make me feel bad about being a nice guy.”
She laughed and gave him a playful shove after she put the last of the food away. “Never feel bad about being a nice guy. The other thing my mother and I talked about was children.”
“Why she didn’t have any more?” he asked. He’d thought of that too.
“Yes. I always thought it was because my mother didn’t want to hurt my father. I even asked if my mother started to date Stewart to make my father jealous.”
“That’s a bit intrusive,” he said.
She sighed. “My mother said something to the same effect and didn’t answer me. But she did say Stewart and she tried for a year for children though my mother admitted that she didn’t want to start over.”
“Maybe she felt Stewart accepted so much in her life that she was giving him something,” he said.
“I believe that. I think both of my parents sacrificed so much.”
“Pride has a way of doing that,” he said. He knew that firsthand too.
“A good point. But she did tell me that she’d thought it was her that couldn’t get pregnant and it ended up being Stewart. He was in his early forties and my mother feels some guilt that maybe she waited too long.”
“There is no reason to look back and try to change things from the past,” he said. “You’d know that.”
“Trust me,” she said. “I do know that. It’s all about the here and the now and living in the moment.”
He picked her up and carried her to her sunroom and put her on her feet. “Like having sex with the moon shining through the windows and a beautiful woman surrounded by a halo of light?”
