Casimir said, “We have to seethis.”
Arthur nodded so hard that his short black hair wiggled around his temples. “It’s practically our responsibility to make sure he does it right. And we can ride onhisplane for once. My plane is in London and couldn’t possibly get here in time. Besides, I told Gen she could use the plane if she wanted to go anywhere.”
Casimir’s eyebrow lowered. “How did you get to Nice if you didn’t fly on your plane?”
Arthur shrugged. “I couldn’t say.”
Maxence chuckled. Of course, he couldn’t.
Dree shot an angry look at Arthur that would have scorched the eyebrows off a lesser man, but she turned back to Maxence and smiled brilliantly before he could ask her why. “I can hardly wait to show you New Mexico.”
Chapter Seven
The Dubious Mama
Dree
When Maxence was safely gossiping with Casimir and Arthur about friends and acquaintances from their boarding school days, Dree borrowed Maxence’s phone. She sneaked into the bedroom for privacy and dialed her parents’ home phone number from memory.
Hey, millennials and zoomers could remember phone numbers when they had to.
Her mother answered. The weird dubiousness in her voice was probably due to the long international phone number showing up on her caller ID. “Hello? Who is this?”
“Hey, Mama. It’s me, Dree.”
“Hello, baby!” More muffled, she said, “Hey, everybody! It’s Dree! My baby called me!” And then into the phone again, “How are you doing, baby?”
Dree looked down at the white couture gown lying on the bedroom floor at her feet, which had been shredded into rags when she’d been kidnapped and tied up all night with the expectation of her imminent death, and at the white sundress she currently wore that Marie-Therese had ripped when they’d fought. The deep scratches on her shoulder itched, and she was so exhausted from not sleeping for almost two full days that she was woozy. “Fine.”
“Oh, good. I’m always so happy to hear that. I love it when my baby is doing fine.Details, please?”
Those last two words were the point of all that talking.
“So, Mama, I’m still over in Europe. Mandi mentioned that, right?”
“Yes, your sister mentioned that because she calls home far more often than you.”
“Yes, Mama. So, I met a guy here, and he’s really great. I want to bring him home to meet the family.”
“Oh?”
Jeez, she didn’t have to be like that about it. “Yeah. I hope you’re gonna like him.”
“Europe is so far away.”
“It’s not that far. There’re flights to Albuquerque every day.”
“You hardly come visit us from Phoenix as it is.”
“Yeah, well, about that. Working at the hospital didn’t leave me a lot of time to come home. If I moved here and worked as his secretary in his government office,”—yeah, that was a good way to put it—”I could set my own schedule, and I might be able to come home more than if I just lived over in Phoenix. I mean, it takes about ten hours to drive it now, with stops. Half the time I make the drive, I have to stay the night in Las Cruces with friends because it’s too long for one person to drive straight through. So, really, it takes me two days to get home and then two days to get back to Phoenix. It would actually be quicker to fly to Albuquerque and rent a car to drive the four and a half hours to the farm. I can do that in one day, easy. When you think about it, it’s actually faster for me to get home from Europe than to get home from Phoenix. There’s a good chance I would visitmoreoften.”
Her mother harrumphed. “Well, when you put it like that.”
“So, can we come see you pretty soon? Because I want you to meet him?”
“You know you are always welcome at home. You just bring this boy you’ve met on home with you, and we’ll take a look at him.”
“He might be bringing some friends.”
