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“So, how was the rest of your ‘date’?” Valerie asked when they were alone.
David took a bite of his macaroni, mainly to buy a few seconds before tackling the loaded question. “It was good.”
Valerie’s smile practically lit up the room, which was bad enough, but her eyes also took on a suspicious sheen.
“Don’t,” he ordered sternly.
“What? I can’t be happy that your date was good?”
“No, you can’t.”
“What?”
“You heard me. I don’t want you getting your hopes up.”
“It’s too late for that.”
“Mom, please. We went over this just last night—Paige and I are casually dating, remember?”
“Of course I remember. I thought it sounded like bullshit then and my opinion hasn’t changed. If anything, it’s only getting reinforced every time you tell me how casual it is. So, why don’t you tell me what’s really going on?”
David leaned back in his chair and sighed in frustration. He briefly thought about introducing his mom to Mrs. Harte—they’d probably get along like a house on fire. “I’ve told you what’s going on. There’s nothing more to say.”
Valerie didn’t respond to that and at first, David was grateful. However, when she continued to be unresponsive, he began to grow extremely uncomfortable, to the point that he finally had to glance over at her. As soon as he did, he knew he’d made a tactical mistake when he found her staring at him with an I’m just about done with your crap expression on her face. It was the look she’d always given him whenever he’d been working her last nerve; it was a look he was very familiar with.
“Fine.” He pushed his bowl away and rested his arms on the table, conceding defeat. “What’s really going on is that I have a plan, but it’s—”
“What kind of a plan?”
“To make a life with Paige.”
Valerie’s eyes grew even more damp and she quickly wiped at them. “You have no idea how happy that makes me.”
Hearing her say that wasn’t surprising, and yet … “You really don’t think that’s weird?”
“Not at all. In fact, I think it would be perfect,” she said, then changed the subject slightly. “You know, when you asked me about marrying Ashley, and I told you only to marry for love, part of my saying that was because you didn’t love Ashley. But part of that was because I’ve always hoped you and Paige would find your way back to one another. And now that it could really happen—”
“Could being the operative word, here, Mom, so slow down a little. Actually, slow down a lot. My plan is rather complicated and there are a bunch of moving parts … and while I have high hopes it’ll work, there’s no guarantee my plan actually will work,” he told her. “Paige and I might be technically dating, but I’m not joking when I say it’s casual, or that it might not go anywhere.”
“Why do you think it might not go anywhere? It seems like it already is going somewhere, since you two spent the night together.”
He did not want to be having this conversation with her. Rubbing at his face, he said, “I’m not going to say our spending the night together wasn’t a step in the right direction, because it was. But it’s like the first of a thousand steps in my plan, and anything can happen from this point on, including … nothing.”
“I don’t believe that. You’re meant to be with her.”
“I agree, which is why I’m going to do everything I can to, uh … reel her in. But that doesn’t mean I’ll succeed.”
“Well, I have faith you will, because I’m sure you know how to … reel.”
David inwardly groaned, knowing an innuendo when he heard one, and gave Valerie a blank look. “Mom.”
She gave him an innocent smile in return. “And if there’s anything I can do—like watching Jacob—let me know. I’m more than willing to have him stay with me anytime, so that you can have some quality … reeling … time with Paige.”
Getting to his feet, he ignored her amusement and picked up his empty bowl and took it to the sink to rinse it out. Down the hall, he could hear Jacob in the bathroom, sounding like he was engaged in demolition work, instead of gathering rubber bath toys and putting them in a plastic bucket. When David turned back, it was to find Valerie now looking serious.
“Can I ask you something?” she asked, her voice low.
“Sure.”
