“My husband and I are so excited about the engagement,” she said. “Shawna’s our only child and we’re all very close, so this is going to be a family affair.”
A knot formed in Jax’s stomach. Great—so it wasn’t just Shawna who was being played by Harris’s irresponsible proposal.She reached for her water and took a sip, wishing she’d refused the lunch invitation.
“It’s nice when a mother and daughter are close,” she murmured, going for neutral rather than honest.
“We are,” Shawna said happily. “My mom’s always been there for me. When I graduated, I had several job offers. I took the one here because I could still be near to my folks.” She glanced down at her ring. “And because of that, I met Harris. Everything is perfect.”
Lindsey squeezed her hand. “It is, and now there’s going to be a wedding.” She looked at Jax. “I’m honestly not sure how things are supposed to go between us. Of course I have friends who have been divorced, but no one in the family has gone through that. We just never thought Shawna would have to deal with stepchildren and an ex-wife.”
While the words were perfectly polite and the tone still seemed friendly, Jax couldn’t help feeling a little judged. “I wasn’t expecting Harris to be getting married anytime soon,” she said before she could stop herself, then immediately felt bad so added, “Young love. Isn’t it amazing?”
Lindsey nodded. “It is. But you can understand why I wanted to meet you.”
Not really, Jax thought, but nodded.
“I’ve been doing some reading online,” Lindsey added. “About blended families. Shawna’s a teacher so she’s used to dealing with children who have problems. That will be helpful.”
“Excuse me? What problems? Gentry and Xander are fine.”
Shawna touched her mother’s hand as she turned to Jax. “Sorry, that’s not what my mom meant. It’s just a divorce is hard on every child. Even when things work out. But you and Harris have worked so hard to make sure Gentry and Xander feel loved and safe. The living arrangements are unusual, but I can see why you went in that direction.”
Jax was less and less settled by the second. There was nothing wrong with her kids and she resented Lindsey’s implication that there was. The woman hadn’t even met them!
“Oh, I didn’t mean to imply you’d done anything wrong,” Lindsey said, as if reading her mind. “In fact I’m very excited to meet them both. It’ll be like having grandchildren. Won’t that be fun?”
Grandchildren? Jax didn’t want to think about that—or having to tell her mom that Shawna’s mother was butting into her territory. She rubbed her temple as she felt the beginning of a headache.
She decided a change of topic was required. “How’s the wedding planning coming?” she asked.
Shawna and Lindsey shared a glance and they both smiled.
“It’s daunting,” Shawna admitted. “There are so many moving parts, but we’re excited.”
Lindsey nodded. “The timing is a problem. Shawna doesn’t want to wait a year and yet there aren’t a lot of good options. We thought about a holiday wedding.”
Shawna wrinkled her nose. “I think it could be beautiful but then for the rest of our lives, our anniversary will be competing with Thanksgiving and Christmas. I would hate for something that special to get lost in all the going and doing.”
“Spring is always lovely,” her mother said. “But Shawna only gets a week off for break and that’s hardly enough time to deal with a big wedding and the honeymoon.” She paused. “I suppose you could take a belated honeymoon.”
Shawna shook her head. “I don’t want that. I want all the things, Mom. Just like you and Dad had.”
Jax was more caught up on theBword. “You’re planning a big wedding?” she asked. “I thought you’d said about two hundred people.”
Shawna grinned. “The guest list is growing.”
Lindsey patted her daughter’s hand. “That’s as much my fault as hers. She’s our little girl and this is the only wedding we’regoing to have in our family. It has to be everything we’ve both dreamed of. There are a lot of people who will want to be there.”
Jax’s stomach lurched. This was so, so bad. If Harris didn’t grow a pair and tell Shawna the truth, she was going to keep planning her dream wedding only to have it all fall apart at the last minute.
“At least next summer gives you plenty of time to get everything done,” she said, trying to sound happy rather than concerned.
“It does. When did you and Harris get married?”
Jax looked at Lindsey. “In, um, January. Harris was playing for a minor league baseball team and we needed to avoid the season.”
“Excellent.” Lindsey smiled at her. “We wouldn’t want Shawna’s wedding the same month as yours.”
The server came by and talked about the lunch specials. Jax wasn’t hungry anymore, so picked a salad she could easily pack up and take home for later. When they were alone again, Lindsey offered a faint smile.
