Part 16 (1/2)
”What?” Lori prodded.
”Guys notice your mom. That's not the problem. Your mom is the problem. I watched her give men the cold shoulder for two summers.”
”I know.” Lori sighed heavily. ”I worry about her. She works so hard between the store and her baking. Nana's Alzheimer's is progressing and it's getting harder all the time for my mom to take care of her. I'd feel much better about going back to school if only Mom had a man around to help.”
Chase understood her concern. He felt that way every time he thought about his mother in Eternity Springs without his dad. Supposedly Mom lived at home again and commuted to Eternity Springs for a night or two each week. Both she and his dad had told him that they had reconciled and were in the process of working out their problems. That might be so, but he knew his parents, and he didn't see how this commuting thing was gonna last.
Chase and Lori exited the truck and made their way to the Timberlake front door. Chase used his key, opened the door, and called out, ”Dad? Mom? We're here. Stephen?”
No one responded.
”Bet they're in the backyard.” He led the way through the house, and as they pa.s.sed a wall filled with framed candid photographs, Lori paused. ”Oh, wow. I didn't see these the last time I was here. Aren't you guys too cute? This must be your brother and your sister.”
”Stephen and Caitlin. I'm the well-behaved child.”
She gave him a sidelong look and drawled, ”As evidenced by the photo of you jumping off the mailbox wearing a Batman cape and the one of you perched on the roof of the house with ... Is that a backpack?”
”I was a World War II pilot. It was my parachute. Stephen, the tattletale, took the picture because he wanted proof to rat me out. My dad about walloped the life out of me when he found out about it.”
”I guess that's one good thing about growing up without a dad. I didn't have to worry about dad wallops. Mom swats were bad enough.” Grinning, Lori continued her perusal of the wall. She gestured toward one of Stephen in his high school baseball uniform. ”Your brother is hot.”
Chase scowled at her. ”If you say so. Personally, I think he's too pretty for a guy.”
Humor flittered at her lips. ”You look like your dad.”
Mollified, Chase dipped his head in acknowledgment. ”For an old guy, he is a stud. Don't you think?”
”Fis.h.i.+ng, Timberlake?” Chase flashed her a grin, and Lori rolled her eyes, then studied a recent photo of Chase's sister. ”Caitlin is a doll. I see both of your parents in her.”
”She's the favorite. They try to deny it, but Stephen and I know. It's really a pain because she's our favorite, too. She has the best heart of anyone I've ever met.”
Sobering a bit, he added, ”This situation with our folks has. .h.i.t her harder than she lets on. A lot harder than my parents have realized. I think that's part of the reason Caitlin has gone gaga over Mr. Frat Daddy. She and Mom have always been so close. I'm surprised Mom has missed seeing it so completely.”
”Maybe this is the summer for change,” Lori replied. ”A friend told me that sometimes when mothers and daughters are especially close, they do some really weird things as they go through the whole separating thing when the daughter grows up.”
”I don't think my mom left my dad because she and Caitlin fought about Caitlin cutting her hair,” Chase replied, his tone dry.
”Your mom and sister had that argument, too?”
Chase gave her a droll look, then said, ”Come on. Let's find my folks.”
Mac Timberlake was in the backyard pool playing Frisbee with his dog. Lori and Chase watched for few minutes through the kitchen window before making their presence known. The dog stood at the end of the diving board, and when Mac threw the Frisbee, he'd leap, catch the disk, then swim to the steps where Mac waited. Gus dropped the Frisbee, bounded out of the pool, shook to send the droplets flying, then raced for the diving board to do it all over again.
”I still can't believe my dad got another dog,” Chase said.
When Mac Timberlake climbed out of the pool and reached for the beach towel draped across a nearby lounge chair, Lori let out a little sigh of appreciation. ”You are right. He is a stud.”
”That's sorta creepy, Lori.”
”Hey, you brought it up.” A teasing light entered her eyes as she added, ”I wouldn't mind being Miss May if I could find a Mr. December like your dad. Just saying.”
”Hey, you have Mr. June right here. What's wrong with me?”
”You live in Colorado and I go to school in Texas, for one thing. Another, we're too young.” She slipped her arm through his. ”Do me a favor, Chase. If you're not married in eight years, look me up.”
”Eight years, huh?”
Lori shrugged and grinned. Chase opened the door and called a h.e.l.lo to his father. Mac pulled on a s.h.i.+rt, then approached them. The two men shook hands and Mac exchanged greetings with Lori. Chase asked, ”Where is everyone?”
”Stephen made a run to the store. Mom isn't home yet.”
”Oh. What's for supper, Dad?”
Mac gave Lori a rueful look, then said, ”Some things never change. I'm grilling tonight. Steaks. That okay with you?”
”Rib eyes?”
”Strip.”
”Awesome.”
”It'll be a little while, though. I thought we'd wait on your mother. Her plane is running late, but she should be here by eight.”
Lori asked, ”Did she say how the meeting went with the chef?”
”No,” Mac responded. ”She didn't say much about it at all.”
At that point, Stephen arrived home with a six-pack of beer and one of Diet c.o.ke. Chase introduced his brother to Lori, and the conversation turned to their respective educational pursuits for a time. Then Chase asked Lori if she wanted to swim, and soon a water gun fight had commenced between Chase, in the pool, and Stephen, who had access to the water hose. Much laughter and frivolity followed, and even Mac got in on the act.
After Mac set aside his water pistol, Chase saw him watching the clock and knew he was thinking about his mom. Lori picked up on it, too, because she swam over to Chase and said, ”I hope you know how lucky you are to have such a great family.”
”I do. Nothing wrong with your family, though. I love your mom.”
”I'll trade you,” Lori cracked as she hooked her elbows over the edge of the pool for support and allowed her feet to drift up in front of her. ”Just kidding. I know she's great. I worry about her, though, because she's so alone.”
”I don't know, Lori. From what I've seen, she has lots of friends.”
”Friends, yes. But she needs someone in her life like your dad, and she won't let it happen.” She sighed heavily while making little flutter kicks with her feet. ”One of the reasons I want to find my father so much is because I've spent my entire life watching Mom turn away opportunities for love. Celeste told me that she thinks Mom needs to make peace with her past before looking toward her future.”
”That sounds like Celeste,” Chase observed.
”Well, I need to find Cam Murphy fast, because Mom is running out of future. In just a handful of years, she'll be staring down the face of forty.”
His gaze on his father, Chase said, ”You're right. It's best she get settled soon. People do some crazy things in their forties.”
The phone on the wall of the backyard kitchen rang, and Mac answered it. When he hung up a few moments later he relayed the news that Ali's plane had landed and she was leaving the airport. As he fired up the grill, Lori asked, ”What can we do to help, Mr. Timberlake?”