His jaw tightened. “Absolutelynot.”
She laughed loud enough to startle a few people nearby. “Could you imagine? I think Uncle George would have a heart attack.”
“He wouldn’t be the only one,” Mathew muttered.
That caught Penny’s attention, and they shared a look. Their father wouldn’t approve either. They might not be Taylors byname, but their aunt had married one, and the Taylor-Meyers feud had become theirs by extension.
Penny sighed. “It’s so ridiculous. I don’t even know if anybody remembers why the feud started in the first place.”
“Have you asked Uncle George?”
“Are you kidding? I don’t have a death wish.” She laughed, then took another sip of her coffee.
“What about Rose?”
Penny stared into her drink for a moment before lifting her gaze to his. “Maybe I’ll ask. But I doubt she knows. Apparently it started decades ago, and it just keeps getting passed down from generation to generation.”
She paused, then added, “Seriously, Matty. You should think about dating again. It’s been years.”
His eyes narrowed. “What is this obsession with you and my dating life? Did Mom put you up to this?”
Penny lifted one shoulder. “She might’ve mentioned wanting to give you her ring.”
His mouth went dry.
The ring.
The only piece of jewelry his ex-wife had ever really wanted, and his mother had never let him give it to her. She’d never offered a clear reason. At the time, he’d tried not to think too hard about it. But now that the marriage was over, maybe she’d seen something he hadn’t.
“Anyway,” Penny said after the awkward silence, “I have to get to work. I’ll catch you later, okay?”
He nodded, getting to his feet.
The whole drive back to his quiet, lonely apartment, he couldn’t get their conversation out of his head.
His mother was starting to lose pieces of her memory. And somehow, the things that mattered most kept rising to the surface.
The ring.
She wanted him to find someone worthy of it.
That felt like asking for a miracle.
2
RIVER
It was strange to think that a week ago, River Brooks had been living out of her truck.
Not that she’d ever admit it out loud. She’d run through her money faster than expected. Traveling had a way of doing that when there wasn’t a steady paycheck coming in.
She’d never tell Rose this job was the closest thing to an answered prayer she’d had in a long time. The urge to keep moving wasn’t as strong as it used to be. After bouncing from one foster home to another as a kid, she’d craved freedom the second she turned eighteen. But now she was pushing thirty, and all she really had to show for those years was a passport that was about to expire.
Didn’t mean she was done traveling forever. Just meant it might be nice to have a little money in the bank first. And Rose had made it sound like that if she took the job, she’d be able to take a couple weeks off every year for vacation.
No, the job didn’t pay great. But it came with room and board, and that was nothing to sneeze at. Two meals a day and a safe place to sleep had started sounding a whole lot better than having her pride. Add in a weekly paycheck, and River figured she could make this work.
It didn’t hurt that Rose was nice. Or at least nice to her. River had already gotten the sense Rose didn’t hand that side of herself out to everybody. The woman was a firecracker if River ever met one, and it wasn’t just her red hair that did it. She spoke her mind and didn’t seem too bothered by what anybody thought about it.
