“I’m sure.”
Their conversation lagged again until Carl cleared his throat. “You know…your mother misses you. Talks about you all the time. She’s so proud of how you held the family together after your father passed. That couldn’t have been easy. You were still a kid.”
Seth felt his throat tighten. “Someone had to step up, and I was the oldest.”
“She says you made sure your brothers stayed in line, that the yard work got done, and that the house didn’t fall apart around her. That’s not something many teenagers could manage. You were basically a father to the other boys when you were still growing up yourself.” Then Carl’s smile turned wry. “And Jack and Connor’s romantic life aside, they turned out just fine.”
Seth grimaced. “They’re good men. They just…need to grow up.”
“I’m sure you worry about your mom, especially after the way you and I met.” Carl winced, clearly still embarrassed that Seth’s first introduction had been when he’d walked in on Carl fucking her on the kitchen table. “Our relationship may have seemed sudden to you, but she waited a long time to open her heart again after losing your father…”
“A very long time.”
“I understand. I lost my wife to breast cancer eight years ago. I thought I was done with love.”
“But it wasn’t done with you.” Seth understood. When he’d lost Autumn at twenty-four, he hadn’t planned on ever getting involved, much less married, again. But he was living proof that things changed.
“No. I resisted my attraction to your mother for weeks, but the more I tried…the more I fell for her. She made me re-think everything. She’s a good woman.”
“The best. And if she finally said yes to you after all these years, she must be sure.”
“How do you feel about that? Danny, Matt, and the twins have all accepted us, but…in hindsight, I should have asked for your blessing before I proposed to your mother.”
Seth softened. “Mom has always been her own woman. If you make her happy, that’s all I need. I’m actually glad she won’t be spending the rest of her life alone. She belongs with someone who knows how special she is.”
“She is, and I don’t know how I got so lucky. I can’t wait for her to meet my kids.”
“You’ve got two, right? Mom said your son lives in Japan and your daughter is going to Notre Dame.”
Carl nodded as the tailor pinned his sleeve. “My son Blake is thirty. He works construction management in Tokyo. My daughter Catherine—she prefers Cat—just turned nineteen. She’s a sophomore.”
Seth raised an eyebrow. “She must be smart.”
“Too smart. She gets that from her mother. Cat is pre-med. Wants to be a pediatric surgeon. Anyway, they’ll both be flying in for the wedding. Blake is excited to have brothers. And after my wife passed, our house was awfully quiet, so Cat is looking forward to having big holiday celebrations again.”
That tracked, but Seth had other things on his mind. If he had to spend “quality time” with his mother’s fiancé, maybe he should make the most of it and gather some intel.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.” Carl stiffened. It was subtle, but impossible not to notice.
“When Mom asked me to fly out here and talk to Jack and Connor about their behavior, she was hysterical. She seems calmer now, but she’s threatening to cut those idiots out of her life. I’m trying to keep the family together.” Seth watched Carl’s face carefully. “You were there. What’s your take on this mess?”
“You know Grace’s upbringing. Her faith. She sees the world through a very specific lens, so she was shocked.”
“I know. But how do you see it?”
Carl hesitated, glancing around to make sure the tailor was out of earshot. “I’m…more of a lapsed Catholic. Honestly? I’ve experienced enough to accept that happiness doesn’t always look the way we expect.”
True that. If it did, Seth wouldn’t be sharing Heavenly with Beck. But now he didn’t want his future any other way.
“Look, that girl between Jack and Connor might have been screaming, but…” A sly grin flirted at Carl’s mouth. “She definitely wasn’t protesting.”
His answer gave Seth a spark of hope. “So…you don’t have a moral problem with it?”
“Not my place. I know Grace never pictured the twins sharing a woman, but they’re grown men—well, mostly—and Gia is an adult. If that’s what they want, who are they really hurting?”
“No one,” he agreed. “I’ll talk to them about being more circumspect…but I won’t have the family torn apart over this.”
