“My mother has eyes only for Joe, and when she sees Russell I think she’ll like him.”
Penny stepped out of Travis’s embrace. “I hope so, but then he does look a lot like you. If there’s one thing your mother loves, it’s you.”
Travis smiled. “Joe said Dad was going to give the divorce without a big court battle. Do you think he will?”
“I know he was quite taken with young Kim.”
Travis couldn’t help a grimace. “Bastard! Sneaking around like that! He knew where Mom was all these years. When I think of the trouble I went to in hiding from him I could—” He looked at Penny. “How do you know he liked Kim?”
“I talked to him. I showed her a photo of your father and she turned white. I knew she’d seen him somewhere.”
Travis nodded. “She came into the diner looking like she’d seen a ghost.”
“But she told you the story of how he pretended to be a caretaker?”
“Only after some persuasion.”
“Good,” Penny said. “Don’t keep secrets from each other. Your father and I never—I mean . . .”
“I know what you mean. His life has always been more with you than with my mother.”
Penny turned to look at Lucy and Joe sitting so close together on the cloth. “I’ve always disliked your mother. Not from something based on fact, but from what I assumed I knew about her. The old Travis family name made me think she lived in a world of garden parties and teacups. And I thought she’d like gentlemen who carried lace hankies.”
Joe Layton was as far from being a stereotypical “gentleman” as was possible.
“I’m sure Russ will be here soon, so maybe now’s a good time to brave it out with a face-to-face with my mother.”
“Did she bring any weapons?” Penny asked.
“Only a couple of machetes,” Travis joked, but when Penny took a step back, he laughed. “Come on, Kim and I will protect you.”
Travis stayed close to Penny as they walked toward the picnic area and his eyes begged his mother not to attack. But then, he realized that wasn’t fair. After all, Penny had had a child by Lucy’s husband. On the other hand, it wasn’t as though a happy marriage had been broken up. The truth was that Travis was so glad to have a brother that he didn’t really care about anything else.
As Travis sat down between his mother and Kim, he
looked at Joe for moral support. Joe took Lucy’s hand and his eyes seemed to say that it would be all right.
“Is there any beer in there?” Travis asked as he watched his mother. She was refusing to look at Penny. “Mom,” he said as Kim handed him a beer. “Kim told me you have a couple of brothers. Is that true?”
“Howard and Arthur,” she said. “I haven’t seen them, well, since I got married. There were harsh words spoken.”
Everyone was still, wondering if Lucy was going to say more, but she didn’t.
“So what are they like?” Travis asked. He would say anything to break the awkward silence. “I’d like to meet—”
“They’re here!” Penny said in a voice of relief and joy. She got up and started running.
“Who’s here?” Kim asked.
“It seems that since my little brother”—he looked directly at his mother, but she didn’t meet his eyes—“left us at breakfast, he has met a woman, fallen in love, and asked her to marry him.”
The others paused with food to their lips.
“Who is she?” Kim asked.
“I have no idea. Everything about my brother is a mystery. Shall we go meet her? It seems that she has a five-year-old son who loves fire engines.”
All of them got up and started walking toward the fire truck when they heard a squeal of delight, and a beautiful little boy was running toward them.