hadn’t known. Still, her mother. Married.
“Does Dad know?”
“What does it matter if your father knows that I’m going to remarry? He has nothing to do with my life.”
“Mom, if you remarry Dad will quit sending you a check every month. How are you going to get by?”
“I’ll take care of her,” Yves popped up, moving to stand protectively by Violet.
“And how are you going to do that?”
“I run a health-food store on the square.”
McKenzie had read about a new store opening on the square, had been planning to swing by to check out what they had.
“He more than runs it,” Violet bragged. “He owns the store. Plus, he has two others that are already successful in towns nearby.”
So maybe the guy wasn’t after her mother for a free ride.
“You know I don’t need your permission to get married, McKenzie.”
“I know that, Mother.”
“But I had hoped you’d be happy for me.”
McKenzie cringed on the inside. How was she supposed to be happy for her mother when she worried that her mother was just going to be hurt yet again? She’d seen her devastation all those years ago, had watched the depression take hold and not let go for years. Why would she want her mother to risk that again? Especially with a man so much younger than she was?
She must have asked the last question out loud because her mother beamed at Yves, placed her hand in his and answered, “Because for the first time in a long time, maybe ever, I know what it feels like to be loved. It’s a wonderful feeling, McKenzie. I hope that someday you know exactly what I mean.”
Lance hit McKenzie’s number for what had to be the dozenth time. Why wasn’t she answering her phone?
He’d driven out to her place, but she wasn’t home. Where would she be? Cecilia’s perhaps? He’d drive out there, too, but that made him feel a little too desperate.
Unfortunately, he was the bearer of bad news regarding a patient she’d sent to the emergency room earlier. The man had been in the midst of a heart attack and had been airlifted to Atlanta. When the hospital hadn’t been able to reach McKenzie they’d called him, thinking he might be with her.
He would like to be with her. He should be with her. Instead, he’d sat through the last meeting before the Valentine’s Day dance. They had everything under control and the event should be a great fund-raiser.
But where was McKenzie?
He was just getting ready to pull out of her driveway when her car came down the street and turned in.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, getting out of her car. “It’s almost ten.”
Yeah, he should have gone home. He didn’t have to tell her tonight. Nothing would have been lost by her not finding out about the man until the next morning.
“I was worried about you.”
“I’m fine.”
“I’ll go, then. I was just concerned when you didn’t answer your phone.”
“Sorry. I had my ringer turned off. I was at my mother’s.”
Her mother that he’d not met yet.
“She’s getting married.”
“Married?”
“Seems after all this time she’s met the man of her dreams.”
“You don’t sound very happy about it.”
She shrugged. “He’s growing on me.”
“Someone I know?”
“Unlikely. He just opened up the new health-food store on the square.”
“Yves St. Claire?”
Her brows veed. “That’s him. You know him?”
“I met him a few days after he opened the store. Great place he has there. Seems like a nice enough fellow.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“Doesn’t he seem too young for my mother?”
“I’ve never met your mother so I wouldn’t know, but age is just a number.”
“That’s what she said.”
“If I were younger than you, would it matter, McKenzie?”
“For our intents and purposes, I suppose that depends on how much younger. I don’t mess with jailbait.”
He laughed, leaned back against his car. “Glad I have a few years on you, then.”
“Do you want to come inside?”
Relief washed over him. “I thought you’d never ask.”
February the thirteenth fell on a Friday and McKenzie was convinced that the day truly was a bad-luck day.
Today was it. The end of her two months with Lance.
She’d promised herself there would be no fuss, no muss, just a quick and painless goodbye. He had his dance tomorrow night and no doubt by next week he’d have a new love interest.
But she couldn’t quite convince herself of that.
Something in the way Lance looked at her made her think he wouldn’t quickly replace her but might instead take some time to get over her.
Unfortunately, she might require that time, too.
Lots and lots of recovery time, though perhaps not the three decades’ worth her mother had taken to blossom into a woman in love.
Her mother was in love. And loved.
Over the past several days McKenzie had been fitted for a maid-of-honor dress and had met Yves’s best friend for his tux fitting. Her mother was getting married at a local church in a small, simple ceremony the following day.
“You’re not planning to see me at all tonight?” Lance asked.
She shook her head. “My mother’s wedding-rehearsal dinner is tonight.”
“I could go with you.”
“That
