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That had come to her when she’d sort of, she wasn’t sure actually what to call this thing that she could do. And she assumed, since she’d never mentioned it, that Edmond hadn’t told her about the vine thing, either. She was ready to tell her that she was sorry but she and Edmond had plans for the day when she started sobbing.
“I wish that I’d…well, it’s too late for me to be mending bridges with you now, I suppose.” Mac asked her why she’d care to mend anything. “I deserve that as well. I was picking at that man of yours when he finally told me to shut up. Just as if he’d known me all my life, he told me to shut my mouth and do something rather than just thinking it’s too late. I like him for that.”
“He grows on you, I guess.” Mac hadn’t noticed that Edmond had taken her car keys and went out to her car. He wrote on a napkin that he was going to warm it up so that she’d not be cold when she got in. “Since you’re already in town, we’re going to go get some food. If you want to join us that is.”
“I found out that a friend of mine, she’s not a friend, but I knew her grandparents. Brandy Conner Frazier. Oh my. Do you think that they’re related?” She told them that they were brothers and sister-in-law. “Well, isn’t that a nice little tidbit?” After a few seconds of her not saying anything Grandma did speak again. “I’m sorry. I’m working on not being a snob. But I do know Brandy. And if she’s related to your mate or whatever he is then he’s more than likely got a bit of money too.”
“He doesn’t. Just because his sister-in-law and his brother have it doesn’t mean that he’s suddenly rich either.” She wanted off the phone. Mac wanted to rescind her offer of breakfast. Before she could say that she was going to be too busy with today when she started crying again.
“Mac, honey, don’t shut me out. Give me a chance to make it up to you. I’m working on it, I promise.” She told her that it was all right. “No, it wasn’t. I was being a bitch again, and I’d appreciate it if you were to point it out to me when I am.”
“Then you’d never be able to finish a sentence, Grandma.” The burst of laughter from her grandma had her smile. “Let me ask Edmond, and I’ll get right back to you. Hang on, he’s just come back in the kitchen.”
Asking him what he wanted to do, he said that things were perfect and that he had to meet his family at the hotel as well for late breakfast now. Relaying that to her grandma, she said that it was good for her, too. She’d see them there. Hanging up the phone, she screamed.
It was what she did each time she spoke to her grandma. It let out all the steam that she had built up while trying to be at least a little polite with her. It was difficult at times, but she did try. Edmond laughed with her.
“I was talking to her earlier, or I might not understand why you’re screaming. She’s trying, she kept telling me. I’m assuming that you don’t have a very good relationship with her.” She told him what they were to one another. “I can see that, too. She is a snob, as she said, but you don’t know why she’s working on the way that she’s treated you then?”
“No. The last time she was in town, all she did was pick at me until I told her to go home. She started off talking to me, this time picking…she never liked my dad. She never thought that he was good enough for her daughter. Markus Pendleton is my dad’s name. But he didn’t seem to care if she liked him or not, but Dad had a great deal of fun at her expense when she was around. Mom, her name was Nancy Kensington, let Dad do it because he was so good at it. When they come around, the first thing that my dad asked me is if Caroline is around, he was getting rusty with his insults.”
“So, where are your parents? I’m assuming since you said that they don’t come around often is because they live far away.” She told him where her parents were. “Oh, that’s wonderful. Delegates for this country while in Ireland is a great position to be in. I guess.”
“I don’t know. Dad only came into politics after I was born. I’m the baby of the family but there are only a couple of years between my brothers and me each. I kinda wish they were around more, but I think that we’d just argue about how the boys, what they still call my brothers even though the oldest is in his early thirties, are still getting into trouble.” Mac stood up. “I’m starving, so if you don’t mind meeting my family, they’re a lot, just so you know.”
Edmond stood up. “I have four more brothers at home. Meeting them is going to be a nightmare, too. However, they’ll be very nice about it. Just loud. You can handle loud, right?” She told him that she’d find out. “Good. I’m glad that you’re keeping an open mind. All right. Your car should be warmed up by now. I’m ready when you are.”
This wasn’t going to be pretty, Mac thought to herself, not pretty at all. But if he was willing to go meet them, it might be the best thing to do it now rather than later. If she were to fall in love with Edmond, it might be best if he knew what he was getting into from the very start.
Chapter 3
Lica wanted to dislike the elderly woman, but he just didn’t have it in his heart to tell her to fuck off. She’d been off and on picking at everything that Mac had done, said and even how she had looked since she sat down with them. But she gushed over him and Brandy—because she was monied, the woman told her.
“Look.” Everyone turned to Edmond and he wondered if he was going to slap the other woman or not. He wasn’t sure, but he thought that the only reason that Brandy hadn’t was because he was holding her hand. “Caroline, I want you to not open that puss of yours until you think about what you’re going to say first. This just saying whatever is on your mind and then apologizing for it is just bullshit. Think then speak, or don’t fucking speak at all. Frankly, I’ve had enough of you, and we’ve only just met.”
“Here, here, young man. The best way to deal with Carol here is to slap her down.” Lica stood up when his brother did. While he didn’t have any idea who the new couple were, he’d bet his bottom dollar that they were related to Mac. The woman looked like she could be her younger twin. The man, who he assumed was her father, smiled at them before pulling out a chair for his missus. “Hello all. We heard that Mac here was entertaining her grandmother but didn’t hear about you others. My name is Markus Pendleton. This lovely creature is my wife, Nancy. We’re Mac’s parents. Do you have a hug for us, my dear?”
She told him that she’d wait on that because Grandmother was being rude again. Markus seemed to get a kick out of his mother-in-law a great deal. Almost as soon as they were seated, food was brought to them. They’d not ordered yet. They were waiting to see if they were going to have to go to jail for slapping around an old woman.
“Mom, please refrain from being a nasty sort of person before we eat. I don’t want to have indigestion, thank you very much.” For whatever reason, Lica found himself liking the other couple. When Nancy reached over and hugged her daughter, it was as if a wonderful settling feeling came over the table. “Now, would someone please introduce me to the young man here? And the other couple? Please?”
After the introductions were made, he shook hands with the man. After giving a small shake to the mother’s hand, they all started to fill their plates with the food that seemed to be never-ending. He’d had no idea that this place served food this way, country style, he thought it was called, and was glad that he’d not have to get up every time he wanted a refill on something to get it.
“My parents own this place. They have since I was a child.” Nancy told Mac not to be rude and that talking about money at the table wasn’t nice. “Yet here you are flaunting about how you have money by making someone tote and carry for you. Mom, just let me chill out and eat. And by the way, this is my future husband, Edmond Fraizer, his brother, Lica Fraizer, and his wife, Brandy Fraizer. Watch your comments, or I’ll have them leap on you. They’re all wolves.”
Again, there were introductions made. This time he was called the alpha, and Brandy was their alpha bitch. Brandy never seemed to mind the bitch part. He just realized and had to hold in his laughter when Carol, as Markus called her, tisked at them all. Mac asked why they were in town.
“I’d like to say that we’re here on vacation, but we’ve quit the delegate job. It was too stifling, and I was sick of going to dinner parties nightly and waking up in the morning sick. Not hung over, mind you, but sick. The different cooks and places that we ate had a terrible effect on our poor bodies.” Markus looked at Carol again before continuing. “You remember what that’s like, Carol? Eating other people’s food would make you positively ill. And we put in for our retirement.”
“What a vulgar subject, Markus. I can see all that delegating and being around people superior to you hasn’t made you any less nasty.” He told the elderly woman that he gave as good as she did. “I’m trying to change my ways so that my grandchildren don’t avoid me. I’m not getting any younger, you know.”
“Thank god for that. As for your grandchildren, I think that Mac would agree with me when she says that she’s never avoided you but the other way around. Wasn’t it you after Jacob died who told them at the funeral that you were going on holiday and not to bother you? Also, that you weren’t going to put up with their…Mac, what did she call it?” she told him, and Lica had to stifle a laugh. “That’s right, their shenanigans. And there I was hoping for my children to get into some shenanigans. Not as much as the boys have been, but Mac for sure. What are you up to these days, child? Learning something fun, I’m betting.”
They talked around the table, telling the new couple what they knew about living in Ohio. It was brought up a couple of times that they were looking for themselves a house so that they could be close to their children. After a few stories of the boys, the young men that were in the diner just yesterday, they decided that they’d be left where they were.
“They’ve forever thought that they had to protect Mac. I never saw that, that she needed to be protected. Mostly, she needed to be protected from them and their antics. Especially my grandson, Alan. Alan so loved his sister and was kind to her. He could lead the other three to trouble, and sometimes, he’d step back and laugh when they were caught up in whatever mess he concocted. I’m assuming that they’ve done something to Mac here. And you had to step in.” It was Edmond who told Nancy what had transpired. Lica had heard the story before, about the incident in the diner but he’d never heard his brother tell it. The only thing that he could think of was that his brother had some super strength before he’d met Mac, too. “You stabbed a fork through his hand? Whatever for? So? He’d knocked the food from your mouth. That sounds to me like he was just playing around. My goodness. Nancy, dear, what do you think of that?”
“Good for him.” That seemed to have shocked Caroline when her own daughter wouldn’t agree with her. “Alan will need to learn that not everyone is going to put up with his bullshit. And this is the man to do it. I’m betting that he doesn’t try any shit with him again.”
