“I notice you didn’t answer the question.” She smoothed her honey-blonde hair, now layered in a fashionable style. It gleamed with good health and he supposed some high-end product from a high-end salon. Alec couldn’t be happier at this proof she was taking an interest in her appearance again.
“Even your dad noticed you looked…animated,” his mom continued. “He thought the young lady was very pretty too.”
Alec shot a glance at his father, seated a table away. Vic Thatcher had passed on his big-boned, lean build to his sons, and there was no stoop to his shoulders despite having recently celebrated his sixty-fifth birthday. He kept himself in shape by golf, hiking, and participating in day-long beach clean-ups on a monthly basis. “Dad expressed an interest in Lilly? You better watch out, Mom,” he teased, knowing Miranda didn’t have a bit of concern on that score. His dad bought his mom flowers every Monday and left her love notes each time he left for a round of golf.
“So her name is Lilly…” Miranda said, casting him a curious glance. “Now that I have a name, you know I have to learn the rest.”
Alec brought his beer to his lips, and swallowed his sigh with a swig of craft brew. Now that his mother had her verve for life restored, she wasn’t going to give up. Lowering his bottle to the table, he scooped up some peanuts out of a bowl and tossed a couple in his mouth.
“Alec?”
Yeah, she wasn’t going to give up. “Lilly Durand.”
His mother beamed. “She’s French.”
Hmm. “Maybe so.” It might explain that exotic dash about her. And there was something lurking beneath the cadence of her speech that made him wonder now if she’d grown up in a household with another language besides English. Maybe the lullabies she’d heard as a baby had been sung in French.
“You’re looking animated again,” his mom said.
Christ, he hoped that wasn’t a euphemism for aroused. Because this morning he’d been pretty damn close to having a boner at the bar when he’d been stroking Lilly’s skin and holding her hand. He shifted in his chair and took up his cold bottle again. “Mom—”
“For goodness’ sake, just tell me how you met her! Is that so much to ask?”
He laughed. “Then you’ll let it drop?”
“How come it’s such a big secret?”
Making her work for it was just feeding her curiosity, he realized. “It’s no secret. She was to be the maid of honor at Jacob’s wedding. Her best friend Audra was the bride to be.”
His mother’s face fell. “Oh, that must be terrible for the poor girl—being jilted at the last minute.”
“Yeah. So Lilly happens to be here at the resort with Audra for some post-cancelled-wedding R & R, I guess. We’re mere acquaintances.” And he’d had to accept she wanted to keep it that way. “Satisfied?”
His mother sipped contemplatively from her margarita. “Then how about Tina?” she asked, sending a significant look in the direction of the blonde bombshell—and daughter of old family friends—whom he’d once dated and who’d interrupted his conversation with Lilly at the bar.
Alec groaned. “Mom.”
“What?” she asked, all innocence.
“Tina and I were over and done with five years ago. So drop that, okay?”
“I can’t help myself. I’m at the age where I need to believe there’s hope of future grandchildren.”
“When is Jojo expected to arrive?” he asked, referring to his sister Joanna. “You can go to work on her about grandkids.”
“Jojo won’t be here until a couple of days from now,” Miranda answered. “And since her divorce, she’s been very distrustful about romance and marriage.”
“And you think I’m an enthusiast?” His mom had to know he hadn’t been pursuing anyone or anything seriously outside of work.
“I think you’re spending too much time at the office,” she said. “I think we all retreated to our preferred refuges and now it’s time to step out of them. You could go see my—”
“Mom, unless you’re about to recommend a masseuse, I don’t want to hear about it.” He rubbed at the itch at the back of his neck. There was only so far he’d let his mother into his personal life, no matter how much he loved the woman. “Can we talk about something else?”
“Have you ever tried online dating?”
“Oh my God, you’re insatiable.” He glanced around, trying to catch the eye of someone to save him from this conversation. Then his gaze found Kane Hathaway threading his way through the tables, in one hand the end of a leash attached to a roly-poly fluff of chocolate brown with short legs and a pink, wet tongue.
“Hey, Auntie M,” Kane said, greeting Alec’s mom. “Thanks for letting me show off your new puppy.”
Alec stood to give Kane his chair and then bent to rub his palms over the wiggling, boisterous chocolate Lab. Twelve-week-old Buster went ecstatic at the attention, his velvet-furred body quivering with joy as he tried to bathe every inch of Alec’s available skin in puppy slobber.
“Give him to me,” Miranda said, and Kane scooped up the dog and lifted it onto her lap. Alec’s mom kissed the top of the puppy’s head and hugged him close, her clear joy in the little guy written all over her face.
One of the resort’s other guests—not of their party—came over with a small child in tow, and Alec and Kane moved off so the kid could have a chance to admire and pet the squirming creature. They both watched the antics and Alec knew he wore an identical smile to the one on his second cousin’s face.
“It’s so great to see Auntie M like this,” Kane said. “And with a new pet besides.”
“Yeah.” Glancing over, Alec saw his dad was smiling at the sight too. “I think she’s turned the corner.”
“I think she’s passed it by a few blocks,” Kane said.
“You joining us for dinner?” Alec asked the other man.
He
