Your Alluring Love (The Bennett Family 6)

***

“That went well,” Alice exclaims toward the end of the day, when most of the group is preparing to leave.

“Yeah, I got far fewer death threats than I was expecting.”

“Am I being childish to be nervous about tomorrow?”

We’re visiting my mother tomorrow. She was very excited when I told her we’re going over. Being surrounded by this loud and boisterous clan, I can’t help feeling guilty for not visiting her more often, even if she lives three hours away.

“I can guarantee my mother will not issue any threats. Unless she tries to feed us marshmallows.”

“Oh, crap. I remember her marshmallows. They’re hard as stones. A threat on their own.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Alice

Next morning, we leave at the crack of dawn, or so it seems. I love sleeping in on Sundays, and though I doze off, Nate wakes me when we arrive and I scramble to put myself together, jumping out of the car and following him blindly as he leads me inside Babette’s property. I’m so out of sorts I’m not even taking in my surroundings.

Calm down, Alice. This will go just fine.

When Babette meets us on the doorstep, she pulls me in a very tight hug, acting like she’s never seen me before.

“Mom, you already know Alice,” Nate says.

“Nah, I knew a teenage girl with a sharp tongue. Let me look at you. My, my, you’ve grown up beautifully.”

“Thank you. I still have a sharp tongue, I’m afraid.”

“Tsk, tsk! Never apologize for that. Best weapon to get you through life.”

“You look great!”

“Add ten years and subtract ten pounds, a second divorce, and a pug, and you got a brand-new Babette.”

Last time I saw Babette, she looked completely different. Her hair was dyed jet-black, for one. Now it’s chocolate brown, and this color suits her much better. The black was too strong, painting her delicate features in a sharp light. She seemed to have a permanent scowl on her face back then, her mouth always set in a grim line. Now she’s beaming, holding her overweight and totally adorable pug, Felicia, in her arms.

“So good of the two of you to come visit me. Want to see the house, Alice?”

“Sure.”

She gives us a quick tour of the bungalow, which is small but very quaint. It’s clear Babette is very proud of it.

“I made lunch,” she announces once we’re out on the back patio. “You kids hungry?”

“Starving,” I reply, elbowing Nate, who inspects the food with skepticism. Babette never was a great cook, and still isn’t, if the dry-as-bone chicken we’re eating is anything to go by. At least there are no marshmallows.

Over lunch, we chat about Nate’s job, my restaurants, and her life here in the town.

“I’m so glad I decided to move here,” she says. “Small towns have a charm all of their own.”

“I imagine they do,” I reply, and Nate and I exchange accomplice glances. We’re both such city junkies that the mere thought of living in a town with a population of only three thousand makes us feel claustrophobic.

“Of course, it also has downsides,” Babette says, glancing at the pug, which is in her arms again. She only put it down while she ate lunch. “The president of the pageant organizing committee, Clarissa Lawson, is out to get me, I swear. Felicia didn’t win anything in any of the pageant competitions.”

Nate told me all about his mom’s new hobby—dog pageants—on the way, but part of me thought he was pulling my leg. It appears not.

“No one has anything against you or your pug, Mom. But the dog is overweight.”