Ean smiled. “That’s an understatement.” He sobered and held his mother’s gaze. “But I like this assertive, independent businesswoman. I always thought I’d inherited my stubborn ambition from Dad. Now I wonder whether I got it from you.”
Doreen’s dark eyes twinkled with mischief. “You got your stubbornness from your father and your ambition from me.”
Ean chuckled. “My change of mind is purely selfish, you know. Now that I’ve moved back to Trinity Falls, I have to make sure that my taxes are spent responsibly and that I’m getting the services I need.”
Doreen placed her free hand on her heart. “I promise that if I’m elected, the roads will be maintained. The mail will arrive on time and the water will be properly treated.”
Ean nodded, satisfied. “You’ll have my vote.”
Doreen sighed. “I wonder if I’ll have Leo’s.”
“Coach is pretty old-fashioned, but he cares about you, Mom.” Ean patted his mother’s gloved hand. “He’ll come around when he sees that this is what you want to do.”
“I wish I had your confidence.”
They were quiet for a time. The neighbors’ porch lights eased the creeping dark. Several of them had banners or flags announcing the town’s upcoming 150th birthday. Ean breathed in the fresh, cool scents of Trinity Falls at night.
“After your father died, I was so lost.” Doreen’s voice was low. Ean had to strain to hear her. “It’s unfair that your father got sick one year after he retired. He’d worked hard all of his life. His retirement was supposed to be our second honeymoon. Instead, he suffered with cancer for a year, then died.”
Ean’s stomach muscles knotted with the thought of the pain his father had endured. “I wish I’d known.”
“He didn’t want you to see him like that. He said there wasn’t anything you could do, anyway.”
“I know. But I still don’t understand.”
“Your father had his reasons.” Doreen sniffed several times before continuing. “After Paul died, I felt as though, at the age of sixty, I had to rebuild my life from scratch.”
“I’d have come home sooner if you’d called me.” Ean’s response was just as quiet.
“It’s my life, Ean.” She cleared her throat. “I had to rebuild it on my own.”
But she hadn’t been on her own. Megan had been there, presenting her with a career opportunity. Leonard had offered her a new love life. Ean had been on the outside, unaware of what his mother had been going through. Could he ever forgive himself for allowing his career in New York to keep him so disconnected from his family and friends? Only if he never let it happen again.
“Do you think that you’ve rebuilt your life now?” His mother’s house was paces ahead of them. Ean glanced across the street. Lights shone in Ms. Helen’s house.
“Not yet. But at least I have a direction.” Doreen released her hold on Ean’s arm to dig her house keys from her handbag. “What about you?”
“I’m on my way.” Ean followed his mother up the walkway to the front steps. “I should be able to open my practice soon.”
“Congratulations.” His mother’s grin made him feel even prouder than when he’d earned his college scholarship.
“But I wish my relationship with Megan was as easy to figure out as my law practice.”
Doreen held the door open for Ean. “Uh-oh. Is there trouble in paradise?”
Ean unzipped his coat as he crossed the threshold. “Sometimes she seems a little distant, as though she’s not quite sure whether things between us will last. I think she’s waiting for me to leave Trinity Falls again.”
“That doesn’t make sense. Why would you open a law practice here if you were planning to leave?”
“I wouldn’t. That’s what I told her.”
“I know she cares about you.” Doreen shrugged out of her coat and hung it in the closet. “Give her time, Ean. Actions speak louder than words. When she realizes you’ve settled in, she’ll stop pulling away.”
“I hope so.”
But how much time would Megan need? He was growing tired of being under suspicion. What more would he have to do to earn her trust?
Ramona knocked three times on Quincy’s office door Thursday morning. “Am I interrupting?”