“Just wait until I tell your father,” she complained. “He’s going to have a thing or two to say about this.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Tom murmured. His father had acted as her unofficial enforcer as far back as Tom could remember. He’d never quite figured out the dynamics of their marriage or why his otherwise strong father so readily did his mother’s bidding.
“What did you say?” his mother demanded irritably.
“Nothing, Mother. Look, I’m sorry about the conflict, but there’s nothing I can do about it. We’ll get together another time.”
“The following weekend,” she said at once, seizing on the opening. “I’m having another dinner party that Friday. Something smaller and more intimate for a few of your father’s business associates. I intended to discuss that with you when I saw you, but since you’re obviously so busy these days, I’d better get it onto your calendar now.”
Tom was no more inclined to accept that invitation than he was this one, but he knew better than to offer another excuse. If he expected his mother to respect the things—and people—that mattered to him, then he had to show her the same courtesy, at least often enough to keep peace.
“We’ll be there,” he told her.
“We?” she asked suspiciously.
“Jeanette and I.”
“Tom, that’s entirely inappropriate.”
“Inappropriate?” he repeated, his tone icy. The last of his good humor vanished. “If Jeanette’s not welcome in your home, then perhaps I should rethink whether I belong there, either.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, bring her,” she said impatiently. “But don’t blame me if she doesn’t fit in.”
“I will blame you if you don’t do everything you possibly can to make her feel welcome,” he warned. “Please, Mother, do this for me.”
“I can only do so much,” she claimed, though with far less antagonism.
“Mother, we both know that your guests will take their cues from you. See that you send the right signals, or you can count me out for the rest of the holiday festivities.”
“You are an incredibly stubborn and willful young man,” she accused, but there wasn’t much heat behind the words.
“I learned from two masters,” he replied. “Tell Dad hello for me, okay?”
“Of course, though I don’t think I’ll mention how obstinate you’ve been.”
Tom laughed. “Of course you will. You won’t be able to resist. I love you, Mother.”
She sighed dramatically. “And I you,” she said.
Despite her words, it was obvious that he’d put that love to the test. Something told him that as long as Jeanette was in his life, there were going to be a lot more tests. What he didn’t understand was why his mother had taken such a dislike to her. He knew in his gut that it went beyond that ridiculous incident at Chez Bella’s. And he also had this odd feeling that it wasn’t even about Jeanette personally, but about what she represented.
That’s where he got hung up. What could his relationship with Jeanette possibly have to do with his parents? Did they see her as some kind of threat to his relationship with them? That would only happen if they persisted in being antagonistic toward her.
Obviously if things with Jeanette progressed the way he hoped they would, then he was going to have to sit his mother and father down and work this out. He wanted them to appreciate her as he did. If they couldn’t, well, he didn’t want to think about what that might mean. He would wait and cross that road when he got to it.
* * *
Jeanette was finishing up a huge stack of paperwork in her office when she looked up to see a vaguely familiar man standing in the doorway. That he looked like an older version of Tom was even more of a shock. Even if she hadn’t seen him at a distance weeks ago, she would have recognized Tom’s father, though what he was doing here was beyond her.
“Mr. McDonald, what can I do for you?”
He seemed surprised that she’d guessed his identity. “You know who I am?”
“You and your son look a lot alike. And we almost met on your first visit to Serenity. Would you like to come in and sit down? Or we could go out on the patio if you prefer.”
“Here will do,” he said, striding into the small office and making it feel even more cramped.
He perched on the edge of a chair across from her and regarded her with blatant curiosity. “I can see what my son sees in you,” he said eventually. “You have a certain elfin appeal.”
Jeanette had no idea how to take the comment, so she said nothing.
“You’re all wrong for him, you know.”
“A few weeks ago I would have said the same thing,” she responded.
“Really?” He sounded startled by her candor.
“Our worlds are pretty far apart,” she continued. “But Tom’s almost convinced me that we can bridge the divide.”
He seized on her phrasing. “Almost?”
“He’s a pretty persuasive man.”
Her comment clearly distressed him. His gaze narrowed. “What would it take for you to have a change of heart?” he asked.
“Excuse me?” Surely she hadn’t heard him correctly, or at least he hadn’t meant what the question implied.
“My wife tells me you’ve lived in Paris, so you’re not just some little country girl who naively believes that love conquers all, am I right? You know how the world works.”
“I’d like to think so,” she said cautiously.
“Okay, then, what will it take for you to break things off with my son?”
“What will it take?” she echoed. “Are you actually offering me money to stop seeing Tom?”
“Money, a job in some other city, whatever it takes,” he confirmed. “My son has a brilliant future ahead of him, once he gets this crazy idea about working for local government out of his head. To achieve his full potential, though, he needs the right woman by his side, someone with social stature.”
Jeanette
