Somebody to Love(43)

“So why the bad mood today?” Parker asked.

“Family stuff.” James set his empty plate next to him.

“Do you have a lot of family around here?”

“I have three brothers and a sister, all in Maine. My parents still live in the same house where I grew up.”

“Here in Gideon’s Cove?”

“No. About an hour and twenty minutes west of here.”

“Are you guys close?”

He paused. “Some of us are.”

“And Dewey, who owns the bar, he’s your uncle, right?” she asked.

“Yep. My mother’s brother. She’s one of seven. My dad has three sisters.”

She didn’t mean to interrogate him, but big families fascinated her. She’d only had her parents and the Coven, after all. “You must have a lot of cousins, then.”

“Nineteen.”

Parker smiled. “Sounds fun.”

“It was,” James said.

Was. Not is. He didn’t explain, though. “I always wished I had more cousins,” she said. “Four girls about the same age. It wasn’t pretty.”

“I remember,” he said.

Ah. Right. At Esme’s wedding, when they’d done a lot more than talk. Parker felt her ears heat up. Could be the wine.

It was getting dark; clouds had gathered off Douglas Point, and the wind kicked up a little, lifting her hair. A rumble of thunder rolled in the distance.

Parker’s phone cheeped. She looked. Oh, goody! A message from Ellen! Maybe her agent already had some interest in the Ark Angels.

Hey, Parker, sorry to say, they took a pass on the Ark Angels. It didn’t seem to have the same sincerity as the Holy Rollers. Back to the drawing board! Don’t worry. We’re all confident that you’re almost there! Just go with the flow, and something will hit you. Sooner is better, okay? Hope you’re having fun in Maine! Talk soon.

Well, bugger. Bugger and damn.

“Go with the flow”? She’d been waiting for the flow for some time. There was no flow. And “the same sincerity”? The Holy Rollers had no sincerity! Mickey the Fire Engine, which had been rejected by both her agent and publisher all those years ago…Mickey had sincerity. He was an extraordinarily sincere fire engine.

“Everything okay?” James asked.

“Sure. Yes.” She looked out at the water. “Actually, no. My publisher didn’t like my new series idea. So that’s not good.”

“But you’re a big hit, aren’t you?”

“I was.”

The phone cheeped again. Aw. Ethan had sent a picture of Nicky, standing in front of a giant redwood tree. Parker’s throat tightened at the sight of her son. There was another attachment, this one a drawing of two humans with giant heads and skinny legs. One had long hair, and one had spiky hair. They were holding the hand of a smaller giant-head person. Nicky had labeled them Daddy, Lucy, Me and written, “We Love You, Mommy.”

Crap. Her eyes were wet.

“You okay, Parker?” James asked.

“I miss my son,” Parker said, swallowing. The words didn’t do him justice. It felt as if a part of her was missing, that’s what it felt like, as if she was killing time until her real life started when he came back, and crikey, time had slowed to an absolute crawl.

“He’ll be here soon, right?”

“Eighteen days.”

“Eighteen days,” James repeated, looking at her.

“I’ve never gone more than two without seeing him,” she admitted.

“Must be tough.”

“Yeah. For me, anyway. Nicky’s having the time of his life. Swimming in the Pacific, seeing Muir Woods, horseback riding.” She shook her head. “Then he gets to come here, to this…shack.”

“It’s shaping up, Parker. It’ll be fine by the time he gets here.”

She set her plate down, glanced at James and his kind, dark eyes. For a second, she almost admitted what was on her mind, and a fear that had cropped up more and more in the past six months: that Nicky would ask to live with Lucy and Ethan full-time, and if he said that, it would kill her.

“What if I can’t sell this place?” she asked. “I mean, even if I can, there won’t be too much left over, and I don’t have that many marketable skills, Thing One. I was a double major in English and Ethics. Should’ve listened to my father and gone into finance.”

“Look where that got him,” James said.

Parker picked a splinter from the dock. “You know what the kicker is? Those miserable little Holy Rollers would’ve made me a ton. The movie comes out this summer—The Holy Rollers in 3-D! and they put that exclamation point there as part of the title, as if it wasn’t already dumb enough. And now, I can’t write anything, I can’t come up with anything decent, I’m completely and utterly stuck.”

Crap. Why was Thing One always around during her weaker moments? Swallowing, she pressed her lips together and looked away. The sky had clouded over, and it was darker in the west. Another growl of thunder came from the far distance.

A second later, she felt his hand on hers. Warm and calloused and…comforting.

“Everything will turn out fine, Parker,” he said. “This summer’s just a bump in the road.”