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NATE’S DOOR OPENED. He looked up, ready to rip into whomever had violated his privacy. The words died on his lips. “Mom! I didn’t know you were coming home.” He rose, ready to hug her.
She held up a hand to stop him. “Just what have you been up to? I’m hearing rumors about you and that pretty nurse out there? World War III Hospital Edition, is that what it’s being called?”
He winced. “Where did you hear that from?”
“I don’t know; half my friends tell me something’s going on with the two of you. Yet I hear nothing about it from you—or my other sons.”
“Perci and I...we don’t exactly get along. That’s all it is. People are making more of it than is actually there. How long are you here for?” He was not going to discuss Perci with his mother. Period. He wasn’t discussing Perci with anyone, especially before he had how he felt for her fully figured out.
“As long as I am needed. I understand I have a sweet little daughter-in-law who’s going to make me a grandmother soon and isn’t feeling well. She’ll need some pampering. Someone who understands what she’ll be going through. I want to meet her as an adult—I delivered her and her sister, after all. I delivered all the Tyler girls. Every last one of the Tyler girls in this county, I believe. I’m here to help.”
He winced internally. Pip was three months pregnant—it was going to be a long visit then. Nate loved his mother, but she could be intense. Meddlesome—especially when she thought it was best for her sons. That meant she was going to be staying.
He hoped his sisters-in-law were ready for the tornado about to invade them all. “We’ve missed you, Mom. I’m glad your back.”
“Glad to be back. Now. I’m going to go grab that beautiful little nurse out there. Take her to lunch. I’m sure she can fill me in on how well you’ve run my hospital since I’ve been gone.”
Nate winced.
The idea of his mother and Perci possibly teaming up together against him absolutely terrified him.
***
NATE MASTERSON’S MOTHER terrified her. Perci knew that two minutes after Rhea dragged her the mile down to the cafe. The owners had replaced the window that had been destroyed when John Rutherford had tried to kill Pan—and almost had killed her cousin Nikki. It made Perci leery to sit in one of those window seats ever again.
After they ordered, and Mrs. Masterson spoke to several people in the town, Nate’s mother stared at her. “Well. Now we can talk. Woman to woman.”
“Yes.” Tylers were not cowards, she wasn’t about to be afraid of this woman. Perci wouldn’t let herself be. Now confused...that was a better word. “Can I ask, why did you invite me to lunch today? You could have asked any of your sons, and Pip is over at Matt’s clinic right now.”
“Because it’s you that concerns me.”
“Excuse me?”
“I know you and Nate are struggling together. I am here to help. He always has been a contrary boy.”
“We’re not... I mean...there’s nothing...Nate and I just don’t get along, that’s all.” How was she supposed to tell Nate’s mother exactly how the man twisted her into a thousand knots?
She smiled softly. “I know. But I was also there the first time he saw you. It’s one of the reasons why I left.”
“Excuse me?
“I left to get out of his way.” Rhea waved a hand dismissively. “He would never have gotten involved with a woman he worked with if I was around and in charge of everything. I left, thinking the two of you would work closely together and things would evolve. That’s how I planned things, anyway.”
Perci took a sip of her soda. Mostly to buy herself some time to come up with a response. The older woman had left rather abruptly all those months ago. Everyone had talked about it. No one had known why. They’d assumed it had something to do with the memories of her husband. Apparently, they’d all been wrong. “I’m sorry, but that doesn’t make any sense.”
“Yes, it does. Nate is the type of man to resist any kind of change in his life. He fights from morning until night because of that fear. I knew when he saw you, you’d give him the greatest fight of all. I honestly hadn’t expected the fight to last this long, though. I was not planning to stay away as long as I did.”
“That’s...crazy. Nate and I...it’s just never going to happen.”
Yet she’d kissed him back, not even a full twenty-four hours earlier.
“You sure about that? I do have to admit I’m surprised—and thrilled—that my other three sons found their own happiness, with your sisters. I never expected that to happen. And now I’m going to be a grandmother. That’s why I came back, instead of giving you and Nate more time. I can think of only one thing more perfect—and that is for my Nate to get his head out of his ass. So tell me: any ideas on how to help him do just that?”
Perci just sat there and stared.
She’d thought Nate was a piece of work. He didn’t hold a candle to his mother.