But she exhaled instead. “Do you have any children, Janita?”
Children? Where did that come from? “No ma’am.”
“Don’t have any,” Reecie advised. “You can dote on them and give them the world in a basket, but it’ll do you no good. They’ll turn on you in the end. And only because you made a decision that was best for you and, you believed, them too. But they didn’t like the decision. And because they didn’t like it, she was supposed to give up on the very idea of it. Thank your lucky stars you have no children, young lady,” she said.
But it was more bitterness than advice to Janita. And if her words were any clue, Janita was certain it had something to do with her husband and his infidelities. But that was an area she knew to steer clear of. She leaned back and looked out the window at the blackness surrounding them, just as Mrs. Webster was doing.
But that interaction stuck with her as she entered Hawk Webster’s home. And why on earth did Mrs. Webster tell that man she was her assistant? What was that about?
“Have a seat, Janita,” Reecie said as Janita entered the beautiful, all-white living room. It was obvious, given the furnishings, that Hawk Webster had no children either.
She sat down on the sofa next to Mrs. Webster. She wasn’t necessarily a warm, talkative person, but Janita somehow felt comfortable around her. It was like she understood her even though their lifestyles were a zillion miles apart.
Hawk closed his door and made his way to his uninvited guests. “Would you ladies care for something to drink?”
“What have you been drinking?” Reecie asked her son.
“Vodka,” Hawk said.
“Oh how dreadful. I never have vodka after seven. I’d rather not drink at all, thank you.”
It wasn’t the only kind of beverage Hawk had in his house, but he knew his mother. She’d rather come with drama than just say she wanted nothing to drink.
He, instead, turned his attention to Janita, even though he was still reeling from his initial response to her. “What would you like to drink, Miss Cooper?” He asked her with a look on his face that seemed to suggest he was asking her a whole lot more. Like where did that jolt come from, and why did he experience it?
“I’m good,” Janita said. All she wanted was to get away from there, take that dreaded flight back home, and be done with this trip forever.
Even Reecie noticed her nervousness. “Sit down, Hawthorne,” she said. “You’re making the girl nervous.”
“I didn’t mean to make her anything,” Hawk said as he sat in the chair near his sofa. “I want to know why you’re here. Are my siblings okay?”
“Yes, Hawthorne. Everybody’s fine. We’re gearing up for the first wedding in the family and excitement’s in the air.”
Janita looked at Hawk. It was no secret in Brackenridge that the bride wasn’t Mrs. Webster’s child, but was her husband’s out-of-wedlock child. Why would she be so excited?
“Isn’t that something, Janita?” Reecie asked her.
Janita was shocked that Mrs. Webster would ask her anything. She hardly ever had any back and forth with her whenever she and her brother Von were chauffeuring her around. But now, on this trip, she was actually including her in the conversation? “Ma’am?” she asked her.
“I have six children,” Reecie said. “Five boys and one girl. All of my children are in their thirties. Hawthorne here is nearly forty! Yet, none of them have given me grandchildren. None of them has given me a wedding to attend. None. Nada. No one. Nothing! Isn’t that remarkable?”
Actually it was, Janita thought. “Yes ma’am,” she said honestly.
Now Hawk’s impatience was showing. He crossed his legs. “Mother, what is this about because I know it can’t be aboutthat?”
Reecie looked at him, and Janita could see that sadness return. “Nobody told me anything.”
Hawk frowned. “Told you anything about what?”
“That shooting. I’m browsing the web and I see where my child,my child, was nearly killed this morning.”
Janita was shocked. He was nearly killed? She looked at him.
But he looked more put-upon than concerned. “Oh mother! That was absolutely nothing.”
“Nothing? A gunman fired what they believe were several rounds at my child, and that was nothing?”
“I wasn’t injured at all. My guys took him out before I could even get off a round myself.”
