Moonlight Road (Virgin River #11)(44)

He leaned toward her and kissed her cheek. “You’ve made this old fool very happy.”

“Do you know what I find myself wondering lately? If Patrick and I would ever have achieved this kind of life. He died almost the moment the last of five sons was out the door. And you know what else I realized? Our marriage was strong and there was a lot of love between us, but it was all business. We worked so hard to keep the family going. Not only didn’t we have a lot of leisure—we didn’t talk much.”

“I’ve been told I talk too much,” George said.

“Pah! That’s almost the best part of our relationship!”

He grinned. “I’m glad you said almost.”

“You are very pushy,” she said with a smile. “If you weren’t, I never would have had lunch with you, much less moved into your motor home. If you’d bet me a year ago I’d be doing this, I would have put my life savings against it.”

“We have a dinner date with your sons tonight,” George reminded her. “Luke isn’t very cagey—it’s always obvious when he has something serious on his mind. They’re going to give us a talking-to. Want to guess what it’s about?”

“Living in sin?” she asked with a wink.

“Do you think so?” he wondered.

“It’s just what I deserve. I would have been hell on wheels if any of them had informed me they were cohabiting with a woman without vows. George, why didn’t I start minding my own business years ago? No wonder they couldn’t stand to visit me for more than three days at a time.”

“Easy does it, sweetheart. If they wanted to live with a woman without the benefit of marriage, I’m sure they did as they pleased, even if they moved her out when you made that rare visit. Didn’t you say they usually came to you?”

“Usually.”

“And Sean stayed with Francine and Rosie for weeks, once he learned they were a family, though they weren’t married.”

“They did. And didn’t I just give them trouble about it for a while. Though Sean told me to get over it.” Her mouth formed a slight smile. “I was proud of him for staking his claim like that. Mothers shouldn’t be telling children over thirty how to live.”

“There you have it. Now, do you want to make this easy on them? We can always get married.”

“Yes, I think we should. But not for a year. This is a good idea—making sure we’re right for each other. We’re both too old to take ridiculous chances. Besides, I think God’s too busy with other things to worry about this much.”

He kissed her cheek. “As you wish. You can make sure I don’t have an alter ego who’s difficult and annoying.”

She put a hand on his bristly cheek. “I’m the one with the alter ego—she’s bossy and judgmental.”

“She’s been very well behaved lately,” George replied sweetly.

Much later that day, they went to Luke’s and had an extremely nice dinner with Luke, Shelby, Sean, Franci, Rosie and Art. After dinner, with the coffee and pie, Luke brought up the subject weighing on his mind. “So, Mom. George. We have some concerns about this plan you have to travel the world in an RV….”

George and Maureen looked at each other in sudden surprise.

“You have concerns, Luke,” Shelby said. “It isn’t necessarily unanimous.”

“I’m a little concerned,” Sean said.

“I’m not,” Franci weighed in.

Suddenly George and Maureen, eyes still locked, burst into laughter. When they finally quieted, Luke asked, “Is that funny?”

George pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped his eyes. “Well,” he said. “Sounds like a hung jury.”

“Listen, I mean this in a very respectful way, but you’re seventy, and that’s a big rig you got there,” Luke said, leaning forward earnestly.

“It is,” George said. “I took a training course. It’s not something you can jump in and parallel park, you know. And I wanted a house on wheels. Your mother and I—we’re really not much for roughing it. And by God, we’ve earned some good times, I think.”

“I’m going to take a similar course on driving it, in case George is ever indisposed…” Maureen said. Then she chuckled.

“What about this is so goddamn funny?” Luke asked with irritation.

“Oh, it’s just that we thought you were going to hound us about not being married and living together,” she said.

“No one at this table would have the b—” Shelby cleared her throat. “No one should hound you about anything,” she said. “Especially a man who flew Blackhawks and rode motorcycles for over twenty years.”

“Shelby, if you don’t mind,” Luke said.

“I do mind,” she said, straightening and rubbing her hands over her huge middle. “I’m so happy about Maureen and George and their wonderful plans. It sounds like fantastic fun! And there’s no reason to worry. Now, if either of them were in the least infirm, we could talk about it, but…”

“I’ll drive slowly and only make right turns,” George put in. Then he grinned largely. He was clearly not taking the boys seriously.

Luke took a drink of his coffee and leaned toward them both. “You’re worse than having a couple of teenagers. I just want you to be safe. I don’t want to worry about you sliding off some mountain in that monster or ending up at the bottom of the Grand Canyon because your reflexes are a little rusty and you took a turn too wide.”