“This town is full of freaks and monsters.” Eli hisses.
“Eli, that’s pure nonsense. We have a vampire on the country club board of directors, and you know Miranda’s new husband is a yeti! You weren’t raised to take such dim views of those who are different.”
“It’s not that, Linda,” I interject. “It’s a dim view of anyone who upsets his perfect picture. A wife with a mom bod? Out. A grandson he can’t distract you with every few weeks to keep youfrom getting on his case and looking too close at his decisions? That’s a problem. Monsters and humans living in harmony when he can’t keep his own family together? They must be disgusting and creepy.” I swallow the tide of anger that’s pushing out of my soul, held in for way too long. “If you start now, and try really, really hard? You might be half the man Mercer is before you croak.”
Eli swivels from staring at his mother to getting in my space, his face reddish purple and screwed into a horrible expression.“You stupid, porky monsterfu—”
“Go. Eli. Go home now.” Linda throws Eli out before I have a chance to.
“Mom? I—”
“I am so deeply ashamed of you that I cannot look at you.” Linda closes her eyes and turns her head as if she’s in horrendous pain. She probably is. “I love you with all my heart, but you’re breaking it right now. You need to leave. Now. Before my grandson sees me give you the verbal thrashing you deserve!”
Mercer must have seen Eli invade my personal space because he’s out of the house and across the small front lawn in seconds, a living, heaving shield. “Do not ever speak to my mate like that again,” Mercer snarls in a voice that I don’t even recognize, like gravel in a thunderstorm. “If you do, then I will remove your ability to speak, and that will be awfully inconvenient as you’ll need it to beg her forgiveness.”
For a split second, I forget Eli’s even nearby. All I can do is try not to drool at my protective kraken.
“Fine! This is so stupid, I don’t know why I tried to come here anyway,” Eli shouts and sulks off, back to his car.
When he leaves, Linda sags. Mercer supports her and me, tentacles spread wide.
Zack chooses that moment to do what he does best—make my world better.
“Nana! Nana, Mercer is here, too! Grandma and Grandpa are going to be here so soon! It’s my birthday party! We can all eat cake! It’s the best day! It’s the best day!”
Linda’s arms tremble when she pulls Zack into a tight hug and buries her pale lips in his sunshine curls. “It’s the best day,” she whispers. “Yes, now that I can hug you again, it is the best day.”
“Can we make our cookies?”
Zack always bakes with his Nana, but I hesitate. “Oh, honey, Nana had a very long drive, and she’s probably worried about you eating so much sugar. There will be cake and ice cream at the party. You don’t need cookies, too. What would Nana say?”
Linda gives me a hesitant smile. “Nana says that if Mommy has cocoa powder, Zack and I can whip up a batch of double chocolate snowdrops by the time the party starts. We’ll have to clean up, though.”
“Okay! Mercer can help! I always sit on his shoulders when we cook.”
“Uh. Yes. Yes, I’ll be right in to help if Nana wants,” Mercer offers.
Linda looks at him, a slow, hopeful smile spreading on her face as her color returns. “I would like that very much.”
Zack leaps from her arms to cling to my legs. “The best day!”
“I don’t know how you have the energy, dear,” Linda murmurs later that night. The kids and my parents are catching lightning bugs in their hands and letting them go. Mercer is lifting Zack high above his head so he can catch the ones flying above the lawn.
“You did this. You were a single mom.”
Linda hesitates. “I was, true. But Eli was never close with his father. He was always working—working so hard that he gave himself a heart attack in the middle of a hostile takeover.”
I wince. “I never knew that. I mean, Eli rarely mentioned him, but I didn’t know the reason why. Or exactly how he died.”
“Oh, yes. And afterward, I had an angry fifteen-year-old son at home. I knew I was spoiling him. I knew his selfish streak was there. The ugliness in him, I saw it, but... But what could I do? Spoiling him kept him at home instead of out late, getting into trouble. I assumed an angry young man who’d just lost his father would lash out at the world. So... I made the world to his liking, as best as I could.”
I nod, trying to be understanding. “The trouble with that is that when they grow up, the spoiling and selfishness don’t go away, Linda.”
“I know that now. You’re younger and stronger than I was, and you're raising a boy who never knew life one way and had to adjust to another. And now,” Linda watches Mercer hand Zack to my dad, who makes him soar like a superhero in the twilight, “now he’s learning about a better life, a life he should have had all along.” She nods towards Mercer with a melancholy smile. “I like you and Mercer together. Listen,” Linda leans over conspiratorially, her hand resting on my arm, “this may be the oddest thing to offer, considering you were married to my son first, but Zack deserves a wonderful father who wants him, and who wants to be present in his life. I can tell that’s the kind of man Mercer is. So, when you two go on your honeymoon, I want to help babysit Zack. Do you have a date set for the wedding?”
“I...” I guess that at some point, Mercer’s role as “fiancé” slipped out again, or maybe Linda overheard more than I thought when she first arrived.
“Well, no matter. If it’s a week, two weeks, whatever, I’d like to split it with your parents. I’m thinking it makes sense if we all stay here to keep Zack in his familiar environment, but of course, we have some time to finalize things. We do, don’t we?”
