AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Aunt Cynthia gave a little cough. “I might have exaggerated a little in dithering about the salesmen and how I let them take advantage of me. That was me taking care of you.”
Huh? But on further thought, he had a sneaking, uncomfortable feeling Aunt Cynthia was telling him the truth, and about to tell him even more truth that would be hard to hear. “It was?”
“At first I was glad to see you striking out on your own, but you soon showed every sign of burying yourself in your work, cutting yourself off from anyone and everyone around you.”
“I had to. I had to haul the company back from a cliff. I had to — ”
Aunt Cynthia cut him off with uncharacteristic vehemence. “I wasn’t going to let you live a life where you’ddiealone,eitherhatedorforgotten,depending on the mourner who wasn’t mourning, the way your father did.”
“Oh.” That meant Aunt Cynthia had made him think he had to move her in to his place to take care of her when she didn’t need it at all. She had orchestrated the whole thing so she could take care of him. That couldn’t be. Time to change the subject.
“Are you sure Brock won’t hurt you again?”
“You’ll dismember him if he does.” Aunt Cynthia laughed. Then her face smoothed over into serenity.
How could she be calm at a time like this? Her whole life was about to change. Maybe Brock wouldn’t know how to make sure she didn’t give away a fortune to every door-to-door salesman still left on the planet. Wait a minute. Aunt Cynthia had said that was a ruse anyway. This was all too confusing.
“People who love each other still hurt each other sometimes,” his aunt said.
His hands fisted.
She folded her hands around his and unknotted them. “We all have the right to expect our beloveds will try not to hurt us, and work it out if they do, if we do, and I know that’s how it will be with my beloved.”
Van pondered that. The thought seemed familiar, nowthathisaunthadputitintowords.Maybehewas comingtobelievethatwashowthingswerebetween him and Mary.
He shuddered. That sounded — did that have the elements of something permanent? Heaven forbid. Or … Maybe something a little bit on the longer-term side wouldn’t be so bad. Suddenly, he felt lighter.
“There’s my boy,” Aunt Cynthia said. “It’s so nice to see you smile. You’re doing it so much more since you met Mary, and I love it. You were always so serious as a child.”
“Things felt serious, until I came to live with you.”
“You did lighten up a little when you asked me to take your dog.”
“Dog? I didn’t have a dog. At least not until I adopted Lancelot so he could be with Guinevere.”
Aunt Cynthia gave him an odd look. “Van, you did have a dog when you were a child. You adored that dog with every fiber of your grubby little boy being. I never understood why you wanted me to take him. Then you came to live with me, and you refused to have anything to do with the poor thing, and I didn’t understand that either.”
“I didn’t,” he protested.
It was strange she remembered something like that and he didn’t. It was unnerving. He started to ask more about it, but Brock’s best man knocked on the door.
“If it pleases you, madame,” he said with a flourishing bow, “we’ll await the pleasure of your presence at the altar.”
Aunt Cynthia’s answering smile was one of the most beautiful things Van had ever seen. His doubts about her bridegroom slipped away. Any man who could bring that smile to his aunt’s face —
Van stood up, drew himself together and offered his arm to his aunt. She accepted with novas in her eyes.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Whispers of thePast
T
HAT NIGHT, MARY SNUGGLEDagainst Van’s shoulder and into the hollow of his neck. She could think of nowhere she’d rather be than naked in bed with him. She felt sheltered and safe, and she’d happily burrow against his warm body forever.
If she’d ever thought forever was a possibility for them, she’d break out into a full-throated purr too. She could still luxuriate blissfully, certain she had some time yet before he shattered her heart.
Van cleared his throat, and she moved closer still. The rumble in his chest tickled a little, and it felt wonderful.
