“And that’s something you have to fix with her, Ethan.” Pearl frowned, followed with a sigh that made Ethan regret once again his attitude as a teenager. “She must know I wouldn’t let your father do anything to hurt him.”
“I’ve assured her that we won’t let anyone upset Noah. I want to get to know my son.”
“Do you think she’d mind if I called in and said hello?” His mother’s heart was in her eyes. It was a toss-up which one of them had been more hurt when Mari ran away.
“I think she’d love to see you, Mom. I got the impression that’s the reason she came back to Cherry Lake. To reconnect with us and because she said it’s the only place that felt like home.”
Chapter Five
Mari unlocked the back door early the next morning so Ethan would have access to the ballrooms and then busied herself getting Noah ready for school. “Your lunch money is in the front pocket and there’s some of Bella’s cookies in there too if you get hungry. Don’t forget to hand in your science project this time. It won’t do you any good having it sit in your backpack, will it?” She zipped up his bag. “You don’t want to get low marks for not turning it in when you’ve done such a good job on it.”
“Yes, Mom.” He shoveled cereal into his mouth. A bang came from downstairs and he looked up. “They’re here.”
“Certainly sounds like it. You need to remember what I said. Stay clear of the workers, Noah. I don’t want you distracting them or getting in the way. It can be dangerous on a building site and the last thing I want is you getting hurt.” She propped his backpack up on the couch. “They have a lot to do and we all want to get it over and done with as soon as possible. I have a wedding almost ready to book in and we can’t afford to have any holdups with injury or site closures. The last thing I want is you getting hurt.”
“I can look though, right? If I stay out of the way, I mean.” He stared at her with serious eyes so like his father’s.
“Only if I’m with you. We can make a point of checking progress together each night when the builders go home for the day, okay?”
He nodded and finished breakfast.
“Don’t forget to do your teeth, Noah. Two full minutes of brushing, buddy.”
“Yes, Mom.”
Once he was ready for school, she herded him downstairs to the back door and followed his progress to the bus stop outside the back of the hotel.
“Excuse me.”
Mari ducked out of the way letting a guy carrying a ladder through.
“Thanks.”
“No problem.” So many new faces.
Christian told her the builders would all be the team that Ethan worked with so it was doubtful she would recognize any of them. Yesterday, she was far too preoccupied to take any notice of who he had with him. Not that she had to explain herself to them, only to Ethan.
Mari gave herself a mental shake. She’d prepared herself as best she could for that moment, meeting Ethan again and telling him about Noah, but still she had nerves pinging around in her stomach. It’d made sense to her even if she didn’t like it. Now they’d passed that hurdle, she had to get used to him being around while he refurbished the hotel for her. She stood there imagining for the millionth time what it would look like once it was finished, anything to get her mind off the coming conflict, the moment that cut to her heart the most. Meeting Pearl again.
“Good morning.” Ethan walked through the door carrying a large tool case in each hand.
“Hi.”
He gave her a wide grin that had memories rushing back of his easygoing nature. The joy she found when he was around. Can we ever get that back? Would he even want to after what I did to him?
“If we get on your nerves, say so. Obviously, we’ll do the best we can to minimize noise and dust but, as with all renovation, we won’t be able to do the job without some disruption.”
“I know, Ethan. It’s okay, really. The restaurant doesn’t open until after five anyway and I’m limiting it to a few days a week until the renovations are done. I’m sure we’ll manage without getting on each other’s nerves too much. We survived yesterday, we can survive anything.”
“I know we will. Listen, I talked to Mom last night. Expect a visit from her today. She was beyond excited to hear you were back in town. Well, after she had a meltdown about Noah that is.” When he smiled, it reminded her of sitting together on the bleachers watching the game, his jacket around her shoulders and his whispered words grazing her ear. “Just so you know, I told her about my part in all of this so don’t think she’s going to blame you for everything.”
“Really? I thought she’d be so angry with me.” She bit her lip. “I know it’s cowardly but when I came back, I desperately wanted to go and see her. I wanted to show her Noah and tell her all about him. I chickened out so many times and then found out they were away on vacation, which was a blessed relief, and then I got a case of the dreaded denials when I heard they were back. I was still trying to work out the best way of doing it when you arrived day before yesterday.”
He put down the toolbox. Ethan touched her on the arm. “Take one day at a time and don’t let it worry you too much. Mom is fine. You’ll see, even though she did wonder why you didn’t get in touch with her when you couldn’t get
