were to be honest with herself, it was. Her mother didn’t owe her any explanations. Avery certainly wasn’t ready for a role reversal in their relationship. Yet here she was, sounding like she was the old fogy who couldn’t deal with change.
Ugh. How unattractive was that?
Suzannah lifted her coffee again and smiled at her daughter over the cup. “Tell me, sweetie. Did you have a nice time here with David?”
“You mean did your lawn-watering, sink-clogging matchmaking work?”
“Well, yes. Though none of the morning’s plans were premeditated. Except, perhaps, using the sprinkler to send you to the kitchen door.” Another sip of coffee. Another smile. “So, when did you and David get so cozy?”
“About ten seconds before you walked in.” Avery had welcomed her mother’s interruption even as she’d hated it. She’d longed to go on kissing David forever. The feel of his hands, his lips, his tongue, even his body pressed to hers had resonated with an unexpected sense of rightness.
But as he’d said, she thought she had ruined his life. Even if he’d been exaggerating, what right did she have to feel anything but guilt and regret? If she hadn’t taken that disastrous risk with Johnny Boyd, David’s future could’ve turned out so differently.
Yet she shivered, remembering. She’d kissed David Marks. After ten months of circling, avoiding, retreating and hiding, it was all she could do to sit still knowing he lay on his back in the next room.
“It was nothing,” she finally said to her mother. “It didn’t mean a thing.”
“Oh, Avery, of course it did,” her mother argued. “A man doesn’t kiss a woman the way David kissed you without a measure of intent.”
Intent? What was that supposed to mean? How long had her mother been standing and watching, anyhow? “Mom, it was just a kiss. Besides, I’ve known David for years.” She waved a hand dismissively.
Suzannah sighed. “Don’t discount what might develop, sweetie.”
Avery looked at her mother quizzically. “Is this more of your matchmaking?”
“Of course not,” Suzannah denied, the very picture of innocence. Avery didn’t believe her mother for a minute. “Not that I don’t think you and David wouldn’t make a perfect couple, mind you. But I would never push the two of you into a relationship.”
“Thanks for that,” Avery said, really not liking this conversation. “I enjoy my life as it is. I doubt I even have time for a relationship. The bakery keeps me plenty busy and the hours are insane. You know that,” she finished, pleading her case.
“Yes, I know. But I like to see you happy.” Suzannah arched a brow. “And kissing David definitely made you happy.”
“Mother, please!” Avery felt a flush rise up her neck. She was not going to sit here and have a birds-and-bees conversation with her mother. “Kissing David has nothing to do with happiness.” In fact, she had no idea what it had to do with. “I don’t need a man to be happy.”
“No. Of course you don’t. I would never maintain that any woman does.” Suzannah’s expression grew wistful. “But it’s certainly nice to have a man with whom to share one’s happiness.”
An unexpected pang of sadness settled like a cloak on Avery’s shoulders. It was so hard to believe her father had been gone for five years—especially when she was in this room, on this floor of the house where they’d lived as a family for all of her life.
It was one of the reasons she loved the time she spent here so much. “I know, Mom. I miss him, too.”
Suzannah frowned. “Miss who, sweetie?”
Miss who? Miss who? “Uh, Daddy? Isn’t that who you’re talking about?”
With a slight, melancholy laugh, Suzannah shook her head. “Oh, Avery. I’ll always miss your father. But I was talking about you, dear. I want you to be happy, to know what I knew for so long, the joy of sharing that feeling with a man who loves you.”
Avery squirmed where she sat, thinking of loving David, of David loving her, wondering if he’d thought of her over the years as often as she’d thought of him.
And then Suzannah’s smile deepened, brightening her face. “Who knows? That man could be David.”
Rolling her eyes, Avery ignored the thumping of her heart that reminded her of David’s kiss. “You just told me you weren’t matchmaking.”
“And I’m not,” Suzannah insisted. “It’s just as I said. I want you to be happy.”
“And just as I said. I am happy.” Avery smiled reassuringly, telling herself that she was only listening for David because visiting