good deal, being family and all. Where was I? Oh, yes, even if you don’t buy that one, you should consider buying or building rather than renting. Much better investment of your money.”
“Thanks for the advice, Aunt Doreen.” He searched his mind quickly for a change of topic. “How’s your sciatica been lately?”
“Don’t get her started on that,” Kathleen cut in quickly. “I agree with her on the buying versus renting. I’ve done both, you know, and when I was younger, I preferred owning my own place. Now that I’m older, it’s just too much upkeep. The senior living apartments Doreen and I are in now are perfect for us. But because you have no plans to leave Little Rock, you might as well invest in a nice house where you can settle down and raise a family.”
Mitch noticed that Jacqui was focusing studiously on her tea mug, as if reading futures in the dregs there. He wondered whimsically if she could see his.
Kathleen’s eyes narrowed on his face when he didn’t immediately respond to her comments. Another one of her “feelings”? “You aren’t planning on leaving Little Rock, are you, Mitchell?”
“I get tempting offers from other places occasionally, but I don’t have any specific plans to move,” he replied lightly. “I just like keeping my options open, you know?”
His mother made a funny little sound, as if she, too, had heard a hint of restlessness in his voice that was new to her. “Mitch? You’re thinking about leaving Arkansas?”
Had she really just paled a shade at the very possibility? He tugged lightly at the collar of his white shirt. He’d left the top two buttons unfastened, but it still felt as if it had just tightened somehow. “I said I have no real plans to do so, Mom. I’m just trying to make the best decisions for my future. It hasn’t even been a week since my place burned down and I’ve been pretty busy at work since. You can’t expect me to buy a house in only a couple of days.”
Taking pity either on him or their mother, Madison interceded then. “Tell our aunts about the trip you’re taking to Peru, Mitch.”
He appreciated the effort, but he wasn’t sure that was the best change of subject. His mother was already fretting about whether he would be safe on that trek with his buddies, even though he’d assured her it was not a dangerous trip. Certainly not on the level of climbing Mt. Everest or some of the other risky adventure vacations he could have taken. Downplaying even a hint of peril, he gave his aunts a quick description of the trip his friends had mapped out for a five-day trek to Machu Picchu.
“I’m leaving in about six weeks with some friends. I’m really looking forward to it,” he added candidly. “I need the break.”
He answered several questions about his plans, promising everyone again that he would be perfectly safe. Seeing that his mom was looking a little tense again, he was relieved when Alice launched into a chatty description of her visit to Europe with her mother the previous summer. Mitch figured Alice had been quiet for a while to let the others talk, probably in an attempt to not monopolize the conversation, but now the pent-up words tumbled out of her. He was selfishly pleased when the aunts began to question her instead of grilling him about his plans. Ostensibly, they were prompting Alice for more information about her vacation, but he knew they really wanted to hear more details about the woman who’d previously been married to their niece’s new husband.
Even if Alice suspected their motives, which he doubted, she didn’t mind. She enjoyed talking about her mother, making it clear she had few resentments toward the attorney who had chosen a career path that had taken her so very far from her only daughter. Seth really had done a good job of keeping the lines of communication open between his daughter and his ex-wife, Mitch mused. And Meagan supported that agenda completely.
Which only proved, he thought, that families didn’t have to live right next door to each other to remain close and connected. Not that he was planning to leave any time soon—but if that was what it took to fill that growing emptiness inside him, then he liked to think he could do so without sacrificing what he had here.
Looking around the table at the smiling faces surrounding him—his family—he paused on Jacqui. She was smiling, too, as she paid attention to Alice’s stories, which she’d probably heard many times before. But there was an expression in her eyes that looked all too familiar to him. As if she, too, was still looking for something she couldn’t quite define.
Or was he letting himself be overly influenced by Aunt Kathleen’s “feelings”? To be perfectly honest, he had no idea what Jacqui was thinking. Which only made her all the more intriguing to him.
“That was very nice of you to cook for my aunts this evening,” Mitch said to Jacqui much later that night. Alice was already in bed, and Jacqui had been checking to make sure the back kitchen door was locked before turning in herself when Mitch wandered into the room.
She hadn’t seen him for the past couple hours since his family had left and he’d excused himself to do some work at the desk in his room. She’d spent those hours cleaning up from the impromptu party, watching Alice swim and play with Waldo for a little while, then completing her latest knitting project for a short while after Alice had gone upstairs. Maybe she’d still been wired from the somewhat hectic day; only now, at just after eleven, did she feel relaxed enough to attempt sleep.
Because she’d already turned off all the lights except the night-light over the stove, the room lay in deep, hushed shadows. Even Waldo had gone to bed, judging from the silence in the backyard. A more fanciful person might imagine that she and Mitch were the only two people on the street still awake at this hour.
“You did an amazing job putting together a dinner party on such short notice. The food was excellent, as always.”
She had a weakness for compliments about her cooking. She did try very hard to prepare good food that other people enjoyed eating. “I’m glad you liked it. And it wasn’t much trouble. I didn’t mind at all helping your mom out.”
“I could tell she was grateful. She already liked you, but now you’re her new best friend,” he said with a chuckle.
She smiled. “I like her, too.”
Her smile faded when she tried to think of a tactful way to phrase her next question. “Does your mother look—well, healthy to you, lately? I mean, it’s probably a silly question with all three of her children being doctors, but she’s just so thin.”
Although he looked a little surprised, he shook his head. “It’s not a silly question. I appreciate your concern for her. She’s been a little stressed with the aunts here visiting, but I think she’s fine. She’s always been slim, and she tends to forget to eat when she has a lot going on. Remember how thin she got that last month of my grandmother’s life? We were all fussing at her then.”
Jacqui did remember. She hadn’t seen as much of LaDonna then because that had been before Seth and Meagan married, but she had seen enough to be concerned. Not even quite sixty yet, LaDonna looked young for her age normally, but that sad and stressful time had taken a toll on her. Since Seth and Meagan’s wedding, she’d looked happier and healthier—but the past couple of times Jacqui had seen LaDonna, she’d thought she noticed a change again. And not for the better.
Maybe she was just overreacting to a couple of pounds’ weight loss. As much as Jacqui liked all of this family, she supposed she was a little too concerned about their well-being. Her job was simply to take care of this house and watch out for Alice occasionally. And if none of LaDonna’s three physician offspring were concerned about their mother’s health, then who was she to question their judgment?
“I’ll remind her to take care of herself,” Mitch said. “That’s her problem, you know. She’s always so busy caring for everyone else, she forgets to see to her own needs.”
Jacqui smiled wryly. “And she raised three caregivers. What a surprise.”
He chuckled. “Maybe she influenced us a bit.”