It had been so much easier when they were younger.
“All I’m saying is you should cut Harry some slack. He’s been on his own for a long time,” Cal explained. “He’s fine. You don’t have to worry about him. Now, I can’t get back to New Orleans this evening. That’s so sad. Well, I’ll have to take a three-day weekend, I suppose.”
“Or you can work from here.” She loved her oldest, but he could be terribly lazy.
Harry was safe. She let herself relax. Perhaps a night at that terrible motel with no one but his dog for companionship would teach Harry to plan more carefully.
Cal groaned. “Maybe it’ll be clear by morning.”
Because of course he wouldn’t want to work with her. She shook her head his way. “I’m going to check on supper. I’ll be right back.”
She walked out. She might have one glass of wine tonight. Though she was happy she knew where her nephew was, she wouldn’t be satisfied until she’d seen him and ensured that he was truly all right.
“You know why she’s worried,” she heard Cal say.
“I do,” Angie replied quietly. “She can’t stand to not know where any of us are. I understand it but it can be suffocating. I’m going to lecture the hell out of Harry about keeping his damn cell phone charged.”
“I don’t know that would have helped this particular time,” Cal said.
She knew she shouldn’t eavesdrop, but she couldn’t stop herself. She went still, not wanting to tip her kids off. Honestly, if she didn’t eavesdrop, she would never know anything about their lives. She and her husband had done an excellent job of making them emotionally independent. With the exception of Wes.
“What do you mean?” Angie asked.
“Well, I happen to know that he’s not alone.”
Harry was seeing someone? She was definitely interested in that. She hoped the young woman was in New Orleans because she couldn’t think of a local girl who would be right for him. And she’d tried.
“Who’s he with?” Angie had that excited tone she got when she was talking about juicy gossip. No matter how many times she’d pointed out that gossip wasn’t ladylike, Angie couldn’t get past it. “Is it Deb? Or one of those waitresses? I heard they were all over him at Dixie’s the other day.”
There was a pause before Cal answered her. “LaTonya said he went to New Orleans with Seraphina.”
Angie sighed. “Damn it. I hoped she would stay away from him. Mom will lose it if she finds out they’ve been sneaking around.”
“Finds out? Are you telling me this is more than him helping her out?” Cal asked. “The way LaTonya told it, there was a mix-up and they had to use the same truck.”
“Well, he’s been spending most of his afternoons over there,” Angie explained. “He’s sly about it, but I run through there, too, and I’ve seen him working on the house. I was hoping he was just being a nice guy.”
Cal snorted. “No guy is that nice around a woman with boobs like Sera. Trust me. If he’s over there, he’s looking to get in her panties. Hell, I would try to get into them if it wouldn’t freak Mom out. She’s hot.”
Celeste moved back into the room, feeling ice come over her heart. “She’s also the reason your brother is dead.”
Cal turned, his eyes wide. “Mother, I’m sorry you heard me say that. I didn’t realize you were listening.”
But Angie stood up. “She’s always listening, Cal. Always. And she’s being utterly ridiculous about Sera. I have to wonder, Mother, if you would have blamed one of the many boys in high school and college who broke my heart if I’d gotten into a car accident and died. Would it have been their fault?”
She shook her head. “That’s a ridiculous comparison.”
“Why?” Cal asked, his jaw going mulish. “Wes basically died in a car accident. Sure, it was a Humvee and he wasn’t joy riding, but Sera wasn’t behind the wheel.”
“She was the reason he was there in the first place,” Celeste insisted.
Angie’s hands were fists at her sides. “Really? Because honestly, I kind of think it was your fault he was there.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Her daughter didn’t back down. “It means you babied him. It means you gave him everything and he couldn’t handle it when he didn’t get what he wanted. Don’t get me wrong. I loved my brother, but he was an entitled brat.”
How could she even say that? “Wes had problems fitting in. Problems you and your brother never had.”
“That’s so untrue, but we didn’t run home to you every time we had a problem,” Angie replied. “Probably because you were far too busy doting on Wes.”
She’d had to dote on Wes. Ralph had been so hard on the children, and even from a young age she’d been able to see how sensitive Wes was. Cal was stronger. Angie was honestly in many ways beneath Ralph’s notice since she was only a girl. Wes had been the one to take the brunt of Ralph’s mean nature. “Not only was your father hard on him, the other children at school were cruel to him, too.”