The Newcomer (Thunder Point #2)(82)

“He doesn’t seem to be.”

A couple of days after that conversation, Gina pulled the business card with the cell phone number out of her pocket and called Eric. “Hi,” she said. “It’s Gina. Ashley’s doing very well after a real challenging spring. She had some major heartaches, but she’s so smart, so strong. And I told her about you. Eric, I think it’s time. She’d like to meet you.”

* * *

“Do you have a date tonight?” Mac asked his Aunt Lou.

“Why? Do you need me for something?”

“I want to take you to dinner.”

She backed away from the kitchen sink, put a hand on her hip and looked at him suspiciously. “Now this has never happened before.”

“I’m sure it has,” he said. “Hasn’t it?”

“I don’t think so. And the kids?”

“Let’s throw a pizza at them—they’ll be fine. I want to talk to you alone. It’s about me and Gina.”

“Oh, dear God, you haven’t screwed that up, have you?”

He made a face. “Do you ever get tired of being so judgmental? No. I didn’t screw up, just the opposite. It’s time to talk about the future, which happens to link to your future. We have to get on the same page, you and me.”

“Are you at least going to take me somewhere nice?”

“Will you settle for Cliffhanger’s?”

“If I can sit at a table,” she said. “I’ll need thirty minutes. Lucky for you, Joe’s working tonight and I’m free.” And then she pulled a couple of frozen pizzas out of the freezer, set the oven, opened the boxes.

“That’s a lot of pizza.”

“If Landon doesn’t show up, hell has frozen over. I should speak to Sarah—her brother clearly has a tapeworm.”

Forty minutes later they were seated at a table in Cliffhanger’s and Cliff was at the table personally to take their drink orders. “Bring Lou a white wine and I’ll have a beer,” Mac said.

“Hold on,” Lou objected. “I want a mojito. Do you know how to make a mojito?”

“Yes,” Cliff said tiredly. “I went to bartending school.”

“Excellent,” she said. “He’s buying. I’m not pinching pennies here.”

“Really?” he asked. “Are you sure I haven’t ever taken you out to dinner before?”

“Like this? A completely adult dinner? Just the two of us? I can’t remember a time.”

He just shook his head. “You’ve done everything for me. I haven’t done anything for you.”

“You gave me a home,” she said softly.

“You had a home.”

“I had a house, Mac. I had two great nieces and a nephew I rarely saw because you were married to a woman who hated me and considered me an interfering old crone. I never once wished your marriage would fail, I hope you believe me. But in spite of the pain of it all, I had a family again.”

Mac reached for her hand. “You will always have a family, Lou. You’ll always have a home. I swear to you.”

“I’m not worried that you’re going to throw me out, Mac,” she said. Their drinks arrived and they ordered dinner. Then she lifted her mojito to his glass of beer. “Cheers, Mac. Congratulations.”

“For...?”

“I assume you’re getting married.”

He put down the beer. “We have to get the families together. I’m not sure how we’re going to pull this off. And what if someone protests?”

“Who would protest?”

“Well, when Eve first found out about me and Gina, she got a little crazy. Afraid she’d be put through another traumatic situation, like when she was little and Cee Jay left.”

“She panicked, that’s all. If she takes three deep breaths, she’ll realize this isn’t the same thing at all. She loves Gina. And Gina loves her. Besides, Eve is in a serious relationship, like Ashley was last year. She might not admit it but Landon has become a priority.”

“Where are we all going to live?”

“We could squish everyone in our house,” she said. “It would be crowded for a while, but not forever. A year and three months from now at least one of those older girls will go off to school, maybe both of them, although I’ve been working on Eve to do her first year of college at community college. Or, maybe I’ll move out. Not far, just out.”

“With Joe?” he asked.

She laughed. “Oh, he’d love that. I’ve been trying to save Joe from being stuck with an elderly woman when he’s still young enough to have fun, but he might be the one to bite the dust first. Not only is he a trooper, his blood pressure and cholesterol tend to be high and he’s pretty lazy about it, too. Have you ever seen a man who enjoys butter more than Joe?” She shook her head. “I think his arteries might be completely clogged by now.”

Mac smiled. Joe ignored her just as he did.

“Maybe Carrie would take me on.”

“That sounds awful,” he said.

“Seriously?” She laughed. “Two working women of a certain age who are tidy and like the same wine? One of whom loves to cook? A room of my own in an adult household where my boyfriend can spend the night without destroying the values of the younger generation? Please, Mac. You must think us so boring. Besides, I don’t want to discourage you in any way, but I might not be completely interested in a household of seven. I had my own small house in Coquille, remember. I took you on when you were ten, and when you were twenty-six, I got you and three small children. I’m surprised the walls of that little house didn’t blow out.”