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Lucy broke away with a shrewd glance at Nell. “I tell ya what, seeing as you two have some unfinished business, I’ll just take my luggage upstairs and get unpacked.” She kissed Nell on the tip of her nose. Her touch was as brief and light as a butterfly. “Come talk to me when you’re done.” And then she winked before prancing back to her luggage.
Nell felt Riley at her back as he watched Lucy. “Miz Lucy,” he drawled, “I’ll take your luggage up.” Ever the polite Southern gentleman.
Lucy dimpled at him, her delicate hands fluttering. “Aren’t you a sweetie? But I can see y’all are busy.” She tapped Nell on the cheek. “I’ll be fine. Y’all just go right on doing what y’all were doin’.” She winked at Nell and waltzed back through the front door and dragged her other suitcases in.
“I’m sorry, Riley,” Nell said after her mother had traipsed up the stairs. She tried to control her runaway emotions and keep the awful ache in her middle from exploding. She’d come so close to losing herself in him, and the memory of his smooth skin under her fingers sent her pulse racing. Now her mother had to show up and ruin everything just as she always did.
Riley pulled Nell into his arms. “We’ll continue this at a later date.” He kissed her, his mouth open and exploring, his tongue tangling with hers. Nell almost melted with the strength of her desire.
Pushing that desperate feeling in her stomach down, Nell tried to smile. “Promise?”
“Oh yeah,” he said, touching the tip of her nose with his finger. He pulled on his shoes and grabbed his shirt on the way out the door, and not until he was at the door and looking back at her with a look she couldn’t interpret did she realize how he brought her grandmother’s house to life.
Nell wrapped her arms around her middle, still not sure if she believed him. “I understand if you—”
“I always keep my promises,” he interrupted her just before he turned and headed out into the night.
Nell stood in the center of the living room listening to the sound of his car. She looked at the stairs leading to the second floor wishing she could put off the family reunion. A wave of foreboding washed over her as she wondered what she was going to do with her mother.
Lucy Evans was one of the big mysteries in Nell’s life. Always lingering in the background, but never really a part of her life.
Nell sighed as she walked up the stairs, down the hall to the bedroom her mother always occupied when she visited.
Lucy sat on the bed in her old bedroom, her legs crossed and a cigarette lighter in her hands. She flicked open the lighter and lit the cigarette dangling between her lips.
Nell snatched the cigarette out of Lucy’s mouth. “There is no smoking in my grandmother’s house,” she snarled and crumpled the cigarette in her fist, then threw it in a small trash can next to the night table.
Lucy’s eyes went wide. “My goodness, the little kitten has claws after all. Who’d have thunk it?”
Nell stared at her mother, not knowing how to answer. “Why are you here?” She tried to sound cordial, but her tone was strained.
“Sugar,” Lucy said with a tremor in her voice, “I came back to say a proper goodbye to my mama. You can’t be all by yourself now, grieving and all. I know you two were close. I thought you might be lonely. And I really just wanted to see you.”
Yeah right, Nell thought, her thoughts skittering around. “What do you know?”
“That it was sudden and you already had the funeral without me.”
Staring at her mother sitting on the double bed, Nell searched for signs of guile in her face, but she didn’t see any. Which confused her to no end. Usually her mother came back home with an agenda. An agenda Nell usually had no trouble figuring out. It had to be the money. She wanted her share. “Why didn’t you come to the funeral?”
Lucy stuffed the lighter back into her black leather purse. “I’ve been in the Bahamas working for the last three months and I just got back. I had major postal issues and didn’t find out she’d died until yesterday. As soon as I read the letter from Billy Ray, I hopped a plane and here I am.” She spread her arms wide. “I just can’t let you go through this difficult time all by yourself, baby.”
Nell snorted. Gee thanks. “The funeral was three weeks ago. I’ve already gone through this difficult time all by myself, Mama.”
Her mother took a big breath and smiled. “But, sugah, I came as soon as I heard.”
Nell folded her arms over her chest. Her gut feeling was her mother wasn’t lying, but that didn’t mean Nell was going to let her guard down. Eighteen-point-five million dollars was a lot of money to go around and it brought out the worst in people, even people Nell had known all her life. Though she felt badly thinking about Lucy’s greed, one thing Nell wasn’t, was a fool. “I really am fine.”
Lucy winked. “I can see that. Riley Martin in the living room completely undressed. And who knows what else is going on. I am surprised. My baby seems to be growing up at last.”
“I haven’t been a baby in a very long time.” As if Lucy even cared. She’d dropped Nell off when she had been a baby, appearing now and again during Nell’s life, and never once had she asked Nell how she was going on. “I don’t think I need any advice from you.”
“Is that why Riley was buck-naked in your grandmama’s living room doing things we don’t need to mention?”
“I’m twenty-five years old.” And she knew exactly what she’d been doing. If Lucy hadn’t arrived, she’d have done a whole lot more.
Lucy folded her arms across her chest. “And Riley Martin knows exactly how to plan an assault on a sweet woman like you.”
“A sweet woman like me!” Nell was incredulous. “You don’t know who I am.”
An odd look passed across Lucy’s face. “And I take the blame for that.” She bit her lip. Nell saw regret and hurt in her mother’s eyes and didn’t understand. “But there are a lot of things I want to share with you.”
That was a cryptic response and Nell didn’t want to know what had prompted it or even to know anything more about her mother’s life than she already did. Hell, why should I care?
“But,” Lucy said, examining her long, red fingernails, “that is a conversation for another time. How long have you been seeing Riley?”
Nell didn’t have a ready answer. “Not long.” Less than a day, but Lucy didn’t need to know.
Lucy gave Nell another searching look. “And he likes you?”
In a defensive tone, Nell said, “Maybe he likes me because I’m nice, kind and smart. Maybe Riley is one of those people who just understands what a woman needs. He doesn’t need my money, if that’s what you’re implying. He does very well for himself.”
“I didn’t ask why he’s seeing you, I just wanted to know how long you two have been dating?”
“I already told you,” Nell said, staring hard at her mother for whom, according to Grandmama, time had never been a prerequisite for a relationship. Nell put her hands on her hips, prepared to defend Riley passionately. “Riley is a well-known architect and historical preservationist. His services are in demand all over the South. People come to him to have their homes restored to what they were originally. He knows more about…” She stopped defending him in the face of her mother’s disbelief. “People can change, you know.” Everyone, that is, except her mother. Lucy was still self-involved. She would never change.
“Yes, I know that, sugah. Everybody can change, if they want to.”
What was her mother trying to tell her? Nell stared at her, unbelieving. What she really wanted to do was tell Lucy she could spend the night but in the morning she needed to get herself over to Chloe’s Bed-and-Breakfast, but Nell couldn’t. Despite her mother’s ways, she was still family and no matter what or who they were, family was important.
She felt a little irritated with herself for being so spineless. “I’ll let you get yourself unpacked. Good night, Mama.”
Nell stomped out, feeling as though she’d been outmaneuvered and went down to the kitchen to fix herself a snack.
Cold water pelted Riley’s skin. This erotic tutorial with Nell was going to be the death of him. He leaned his head against the slick wet tiles of his shower. What had started out as just a “kissing lesson” had turned into something he’d never be able to turn off.
He’d been in the shower for over thirty minutes and his body still ached for fulfillment. If not for Lucy barging in like a steamroller, he’d have had Nell exactly where he wanted her. Naked, on her back, with him buried deep inside her.
Since she’d gotten him out of his pants, he couldn’t stop thinking that maybe agreeing to the sex lesson wasn’t his best idea. On paper, the idea had seemed like a gift from the gods. But in actuality the plan wasn’t going his way. Oh, he’d get to sleep with Nell, but getting to that point was going to be hell with her mother back around.
Plus he had to take things slow, he didn’t want to spook Nell. He wanted her to be as ready for him as he was for her. He wanted to show her that sex was more than just heavy panting and carnal knowledge. He wanted to show her the romance as well.
The thought of her taking all the things they’d share and getting some other guy bothered him. Not that he wanted anything permanent. He couldn’t do forever again. He and Chloe had already given it their best shot and failed. No, he didn’t have room in his heart for a lifetime kind of love. When Benjy had died, he hadn’t thought he’d ever recover. He just went on with his day-to-day life, but something was missing. What Nell wanted from him was about all he was capable of giving.
Riley turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. Chester was sitting outside the shower stall whining. Guess the old boy must have been attuned to his mood.
Riley toweled himself off and dressed quickly. He still had some sexual energy to work off so he took Chester out for a long walk. As he and Chester strolled through the dark, quiet streets, Riley couldn’t seem to get Nell out of his thoughts.
The next morning, Riley almost raced out of the house in his eagerness to see Nell. Even though she was now a wealthy woman, she had decided to continue working at the diner until she sold it. Riley didn’t know why she wanted to keep working, but he liked that she didn’t intend to change her life too much. At least not yet.
The diner sat on a corner of the two-block-long downtown area of Wayloo. The sign, Granny’s Diner, was attached to the facade over the door and hadn’t been changed in fifty years. Inside, the diner was all chrome and red vinyl with black and white linoleum tiles on the floor. A fifties icon, the diner had the best food in Wayloo. Almost the only food in Wayloo.
The morning crowd was larger than normal. Nell worked the counter and as Riley entered, he saw that every stool was filled and he had no place to sit. He always sat at Nell’s station on the next to last seat near the pie display and his spot was filled.
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