Page 11

Deb shook her head. “Oh, Lindsay might come around, but Molly . . . Well, her and Shane always did take sides against me. I didn’t think Gavin’d give a rat’s ass, but he’s all bristly about it too. I never dreamed I’d do something like this and disappoint my kids, but they’re grown. I can’t live for them anymore.”

“They’ll come around. You’re such a good mom. I can see that just having been here twice. They’re trying to protect you. It’s sweet, but we’ll prove they don’t need to. They just have to get over this hump is all, but they will because . . .” Cora thought of her own mother. “Some mothers don’t do much of anything for their kids, and you are not like that.”

“Oh, I like you, Cora. You’re a sweet girl, and there’s some good grit under that sweetness.”

Grit. Cora had never considered herself as someone who had anygrit. She liked that Deb thought so.

She pulled her portfolio from her bag to jot down a few notes. “Well. I’ll adjust the schedule. I think we could still make it all happen by end of September?”

“I can work with that.”

“And we’ll have those kids of yours throwing rice and doing jigs.”

Deb chuckled. “I don’t think you know what you’re getting yourself into there, sweetheart.”

“Maybe not,” Cora admitted. “I’ve only got one to deal with, and I’m not dealing very well.”

“You have a little one?”

“Not so little. Twelve going on . . . I don’t know. Surly adult.” At Deb’s shocked look, Cora smiled sheepishly. “I was a little on the young side when I had him.”

“Ah. I was a bit young myself when I had Shane.” She sighed, a wistful fondness in the sound. “That boy hasn’t given me an ounce of trouble since he was twelve. Well, until now.”

“Not anounce? Mine is giving me nothing but these days.”

“Don’t feel bad, the other two boys raised enough hell for ten. And my girls have taken regularly to breaking my heart.”

“So, what you’re saying is it never gets better?”

Deb laughed heartily. “Better and worse all at the same time.” Deb’s laugh died on a sigh. “I don’t know how to get through to them. After all these years, I don’t know how to get my kids to be happy for me. I’ve got this handsome young man who all but worships the ground I walk on after twenty years of doing all this on my own. Ben Donahue might not be the best man in the world, but he’s a good man to me.”

“Then, we will find a way.” If Cora had to face down five disapproving adult children to do it, well, she would. She was taking it as a personal mission.

* * *

“She couldn’t do it without the wedding planner. She’d have to put it off again until she found a new one,” Gavin suggested.

Shane stared at the wedding planner’s car as he and Gavin stood outside the barn, taking a break and drinking some water. That tiny compact car had been sitting in the drive in front of the house for well over an hour. Gavin had been grousing about not letting this happen for just as long, and Shane . . .

Well, he was frustrated beyond belief by a problem that seemed to have no solution. “The wedding planner isn’t the problem. Ben Donahue is the problem.”

“But you said so yourself, we go after him, that only makes Mom latch on harder.”

“Hence, stuck between a rock and a hard place.” But Shane was a problem solver. He just needed to keep looking at this from all angles until he found one. Giving up was not an option.

“We have to do something. I swear to God she put something in the coffee this morning. Maybe not poison, but I’m telling you.”

Shane slid a skeptical look at his brother.

Gavin held up his hands. “It tasted different.”

“You’re beyond paranoid.”

“Easy for you to say, you don’t drink coffee.”

The front door opened, and Mom and Cora stepped out onto the porch. They shared a brief hug that had Shane frowning. That was the problem with Gavin’s idea that they intercept the wedding planner. Mom befriended everyone, took everyone under her wing and made him or her feel good and welcome. They were too late to step in there since Mom had clearly already formed a friendship with Cora.

But as Shane watched, Cora didn’t get into her car. She started across the yard, walking straight for them.