him my best seductress smile. “Aren’t you coming?”
It was the longest, most pleasurable shower I’d ever had in my life.
We were getting ready to head out the house, me in his comically large T-shirt and pair of shorts, dress folded over my arm, when a knock sounded at his door.
He looked back at me. “You expecting anyone?”
“Nope. I hadn’t had any plans to be here.”
He flashed me a grin. “What a difference twenty-four hours makes.”
With a protective hand on my arm, he moved ahead of me to answer the door. At his height, he had to stoop to use the peephole. His shoulders rose, stiffened. Something like regret colored his expression when he turned back to me.
“I’m sorry, Zora.”
“What? Why?”
He opened the door, revealing my mother on the other side of the door. She held her third-best cake stand and wore her snarkiest smile.
“I just wanted to check on you, Nick.”
We sat around the kitchen table, plated slices of cake in front of each of us.
None of us had taken a bite yet.
I wasn’t fooled by my mother or this cake. Everyone in Green Valley knew a freshly baked cake was the best tool, the most effective weapon, for prying the choicest bits of gossip from even the most close-mouthed neighbor. She came to ply with him cake and blackmail him for details about my reaction to their shared secret.
“I knew you and Zora needed to have The Talk. Walker told me he saw the two of you having an . . . intense conversation at the coffee shop. I thought I’d just check in.” Her swift perusal of me lingered at my shoulder, which peeped from the neck of Nick’s oversized shirt. “I see I didn’t need to worry.”
Oh, God. Kill me now.
Nothing ruined the afterglow more than your mother showing up for post-coital conversation, and no one was better skilled at low-key shade than Ellie Leffersbee.
Nick swallowed a smile. “Yes, ma’am, we’ve talked. I think we’ve worked things out between each other.”
My mother gave me her shadiest side-eye. “Uh-huh. I see.”
Nick’s mouth twitched.
“I’m glad you came by,” I said, meeting her gaze and raising the stakes. “I’ve been wanting to learn more about this secret you’ve been keeping all these years. From your own daughter.”
She and Nick exchanged a quick glance.
“I understand you’re upset.” My mother laced her fingers together on the table, always a signal she was about to employ her famous diplomacy. “You have every right to be upset, I would be too. But I hope—”
I held up a hand. “I’m not angry. It hurts more than a little, yes, knowing you and Dad kept this from me all these years, even when you saw how upset I was.”
My mother suddenly looked tired. “It weighed on us, on all of us.” She exchanged another look with Nick. “But I gave my word—”
“You don’t have to explain. I don’t want to put you in the position of having to explain that you love us both. I know. More than anything, I’m grateful you and Dad were able to help him. I wouldn’t have wanted him alone in the world, without our help, whether I’d known or not. So, thank you for taking care of him, and loving him the way I couldn’t at the time.”
Nick reached for my hand across the table, squeezed.
My mother looked at our joined hands at the table and a faint smile curved her lips. “How I wish Bethany had been here to see this. It would have done her heart glad to see one of life’s injustices righted. Privately, the two of us always rooted for you two.”
Nick let out a sigh. “I wish she was here, too.”
My mother eyed our untouched plates. “What, y’all aren’t hungry?”
My stomach picked that unfortunate moment to loudly growl. “Yes, but we haven’t eaten breakfast yet.”
Her mouth twisted, eyes going small with sarcasm. “Looks like you’re more than used to having your dessert first, from where I’m sitting.”
My jaw dropped.
Nick ducked his head. A smothered guffaw escaped him.
“Mama, you’re gonna call me out like that? Imply that I’m—”
“What, carrying on, unmarried, in broad daylight?” She made her face innocent. “Never.”
She rose from the table and Nick stood. “Please, you don’t have to go, Mrs. Leffersbee.”
“Nick, I can see the filthy thoughts in my daughter’s eyes. I best head out before she has a chance to act on them.” Inwardly, I laughed at the twinkle in her eye. Right. As if I could entertain any prurient interest