“Ever since we found out I might have cancer, you’ve been all over me all the time.”
“That’s not true. The cancer scare is real, and it sucks, but it’s not why I’m always over here.” He’d been spending more time with her since Rita had passed a few years ago, but not that much. Clingy? Really? “Mom, I hate to remind you, but you’re seventy-one. There are things you can’t do.”
She huffed and poured them both cups of coffee. Pushing his toward him, she said, “That’s a load of horseshit.”
“Mom?” His motherneverswore.
“I’m seventy-one, not dead. My knees are good, my hips work just fine, and my heart is in tip-top shape. I’m biking every day, and I swim. Yes, I get tired faster, but that’s true of anyone who’s not in great shape. And I know I’m older. I can count, Evan. Seventy-one is older than seventy, which is older than sixty-nine and sixty-eight, etcetera, etcetera. But my age is not why you’ve been so intolerable lately.”
He gaped. “Me? Intolerable? What?”
“I’m a grown woman entering the second great love affair of my life. I don’t need or want your permission.”
He just stared, unsure of where her animosity was coming from. “Mom, this isn’t about Jerome.”Whom he hadn’t met yet.“I don’t disapprove, I just—”
“Just what? Think I need a nursemaid? I’m older but not in my dotage, and you are most certainlynotmy father. I don’t need your approval, Evan. I’ll date who I want when I want. And you can’t tell me what to do.”
“Um, okay.” Was she getting senile? He hadn’t said a bad word against Jerome. “Do I ever get to meet this paragon?” Whoops, and he’d been doing so well…
“Not with that attitude.”
“You’re not making sense. This isn’t about Jerome.”
“You’re right.” She wore the same mutinous expression he’d often seen in the mirror.
He blew out a breath. “Are you at least going to your doctors’ appointments?” Even if she’d blown off the checkup yesterday morning, she should have had an important one last week involving some blood work. He only knew because he’d snooped on his way out of the bathroom earlier and checked her day planner.
“Evan, dear, I don’t want to fight.”
“Then don’t.”
She smiled. “I’m also not willing to let you run over me like a steamroller if I don’t answer your questions fast enough. This isn’t the Marine Corps, you know.”
He snorted. “Trust me, I know.”
“I’d like to share breakfast with you.” She sighed. “Sadly, I can’t because my favorite foods are absent. Not even an apple fritter, honey roll, or breakfast cookie to make an old woman feel young again.”
“Now you’re just playing for sympathy.”
She made a sad face, her mouth turned down, her blue eyes cloudy with regret. She just stared at him.
A minute later, he threw up his hands. “Christ. Fine. I’ll go get them. Don’t expect me back for a few hours.” He stomped out of the house and drove to the crowded bakery, groaning at how long it took to find a place to park. Then he waited in line, mindful of how masterfully she’d played him. And how they still hadn’t talked about her doctors’ appointments or her new beau.
He shifted on his feet, made small talk with the people standing around him, politely informed two of the women his girlfriend was waiting on him—Kenzie, I wish—to avoid any awkwardness, and picked up his mom’s pastries and a half-dozen cookies, unable to stop from hoping he might win a kiss later from a woman he wanted like no other.
By the time he returned to his mother, she’d forgotten her odd pique and accepted him—and the sweets—with a hug. They ate, talked, and laughed as if nothing had happened.
But before he left, she arranged for him to meet Jerome next week.
A date and time he committed to memory.
* * *
At two o’clock, Evan stood in the middle of his living room, surveying the posh condo with pride. He wanted to impress Kenzie, so he’d pulled out all the stops. His high-end apartment, normally clean but a little dusty, gleamed. Chrome, white walls, leather, and dark woods decorated his manly bachelor pad.
Yet as he looked around at it, he found himself preferring Kenzie’s colorful mishmash of home.
He wiped his palms on his pants, annoyed with himself for being so nervous. He’d gone over and over today in his mind, coming to the decision that he’d let Kenzie lead the way their relationship progressed. They both knew their chemistry was something special, off-the-charts hot.
