and her own feeling of optimism seemed linked, not to the wonderful summer weather they were suddenly enjoying, but to this man who was in her life while not being in it.
It was all beginning to feel like the scariest thing that had ever happened to her. In that nice scary way like anticipating someone jumping out from behind a bush at you on Halloween, or riding the biggest roller coaster at the amusement park.
Luke went to the window. “Brendan’s coming up from the barn now. I’ll catch a ride with him into town and mow Deedee’s grass.”
Nora wanted to scream no, the very same way she wanted to scream no as the roller coaster was inching up that final climb. But just like then, it felt as if it was already too late. She could see all their lives getting more and more tangled together.
Besides, when she looked at the simple bravery revealed in her nephew’s face, Nora knew she had to be as brave as he was.
She joined him at the window and saw Brendan striding across her yard.
“He must change for work later,” she said out loud, admiring the way faded jeans clung to his legs, to the leanness of his hips. A plaid shirt was tucked into his belt, but open at the throat. Her eyes skittered to the firm line of Brendan’s lips.
She had to be brave. Whether she wanted to be or not.
“It’s Saturday,” Luke chided her.
“Oh. Now that you’re on summer holidays, I forget sometimes.”
“That’s my flaky aunt. Who doesn’t know what day it is?” But he said it with gruff affection, then added, “Gotta go. I’ll call you later.”
Luke put his hand on her shoulder, dropped a casual kiss on her cheek. He squinted at the computer screen.
“It’s not because we’re giving him the wrong diet. Iggy ate something,” he said.
“Iggy? Luke, we try not to name the animals.”
“It’s not really a name, just short for iguana. Dr. Bentley’s going to have to x-ray him. How could an iguana swallow a house?”
And on that note, her nephew was gone, Ranger peeking out his hoodie pocket. He went back outside, and moments later, she heard him calling, “Brendan? I’ll come with you. I’m going to mow Deedee’s lawn. That’s if Deedee can look after my kitten.”
Nora twitched back the curtain just in time to see Luke hand Ranger to Deedee.
The old woman stared at the kitten. For a moment, she looked mad, as if she might give it back. But then her face softened, and she tucked Ranger into her breast and got into the car.
Brendan looked up at her, as if he’d known she was watching all along. He gave her a small smile and a thumbs-up. As if they were raising this boy together. She let the curtain fall back into place.
MIDAFTERNOON, NORA WAS thinking of Luke’s words while she stood in Dr. Bentley’s office looking at the X-ray of Iggy’s digestive tract, and not his words about mowing the lawn, either. About how an iguana could swallow a house. The X-ray clearly showed a little toy house lodged in the reptile’s digestive system.
“An iguana will eat anything,” Dr. Bentley said.
The vet donated many of his services to the animal shelter, but was not volunteering an operation on an iguana, and she couldn’t ask. Now what? They had a reserve fund, but to use it for an expensive procedure for an animal she had no hope of finding a home for?
She remembered being thankful, just days ago, that she had never had to face this situation.
Maybe you should have a plan. She hated it that Brendan Grant had been right. He had that look of a man who was always right. Who was logical and thought things through and never did anything impulsive or irrevocable.
We would be a well-balanced team, she thought, before she could stop herself.
“I need a minute to think,” she said.
“Take your time.”
She wrestled Iggy back into his cage and lugged him out to the waiting room. She had three choices. She could bring him home to die. She could have the vet speed up the process, which would be more humane. Or she could find the money for the procedure.
Her cell phone rang and she looked at the number coming in.
“Hey, Luke,” she said, trying to strip the conflict she was feeling from her voice.
“It’s not Luke. I borrowed his phone.”
“Why?” It was him, the one who was always right. Maybe she’d call him that. Mr. Right. Then again, maybe not. She did not want to be thinking of Brendan Grant as Mr. Right in any context.
There was no Mr. Right! It was a fairy tale to keep females from empowering themselves! Ditto for thinking she was falling in love with him. Just another fairy tale.
“Because we’re standing out in Deedee’s yard and he handed it to me.” A pause, and his voice lowered. “And because I wasn’t sure if you would answer if you saw it was me.”
“What would make you say that?” she said cautiously.
“I thought you were avoiding me.”
Was she that obvious? It was embarrassing, really.
“Why would I be avoiding you?” she asked.
Silence. She thought of the boldness of taking his lips with her own, and shivered. She thought of the word love coming unbidden to her after she had kissed him.
He moved on without answering the question. They both knew exactly why she was avoiding him.
“I told Luke I’d take him for a milkshake. He did Deedee’s lawn and then started on her shrub beds. They’re pretty overgrown. He’s worked really hard. I can’t believe you’ve lived here six months and not been to the Moo Factory. His exact words were ‘we never do anything fun.’”
“We do fun things,” she protested.
“Oh, yeah? Like what?”
We played a few hands of poker, once.
She knew it said something simply awful about her life with her nephew that, aside from that, nothing came to mind.
“We rented Star Wars last week.”
“Really? That sounds like fun redefined.”
“Are you being sarcastic?”
“It comes naturally to me, like breathing.”
“We play Scrabble,” she said triumphantly. “When I can get him away from the computer.” Too late, she remembered they had invited Brendan to play Scrabble. He’d been
