Page 68 of Full Coverage (Boys of Fall)

“Great. I’m all ears.”

“Well, tell me where you most want to propose to her.”

Nolan felt his eyebrows shoot up. “Propose?”

“Youaregoing to propose to her, right?”

“Well…”

“Nolan.”

“Yes. I was thinking about proposing.” He paused. “You’re going tohelp mepropose to Randi?”

Teresa straightened. “Randi is a wonderful person and you should grab her and marry her and never let her go.”

“You know when I say Randi, I mean Miranda Doyle? The cute mechanic. The one that you said wasn’t good enough for me a few weeks ago.”

Teresa frowned at him. “I’m starting to wonder ifyou’regood enough forher, frankly.”

“Is that right?” Nolan was thrilled, of course. But this was interesting, to say the least.

“It is right. And let me tell you something else, Nolan Phillip Winters,” Teresa said. “If you’re going to live in this town and just sit around and write books and columns, then you’re going to need to give some money to community projects or volunteer for some committees or something. You need to give back. We’re all a part of the people and things that come out of this town.”

Nolan was definitely going to get this story later. But right now, he needed to find Randi. He crossed to his mother and pulled her into his arms. “I love you, Mom. And I would like to have a doctor give you a full psychological workup. But I will give money and time to whatever you ask me to. Now will you please tell me your idea for how I can get Randi back?”

He thought he heard a sniff, but he had to be wrong. Teresa Winters didn’t cry.

“Yes. Let me finish these cookies and I’ll tell you all about it.” But she squeezed him before letting him go.

“Cookies?” He moved back to the table and sat down to the last three bites of pie.

“Someone ate the pie I made.” Teresa got busy with her cookie dough again.

“Why do you need to have sweets?”

“Because I have friends coming over for coffee later.”

Nolan swallowed his bite of pie hard. “You…do?”

“Yes.”

“You and Monica were going to eat a whole pie?” As far as Nolan knew, Monica Williams was the only friend Teresa had.

“I have more friends.”

“Since when?”

“Since about a month ago.”

He wanted to ask her how. He loved his mother, but he knew she wasn’t the most popular woman in town. Instead he asked, “Why?”

“Because someone helped me see that being a part of something can be pretty great, and once I started looking around, I realized Iama part of things here. And I decided to try to enjoy it instead of resenting it.”

“I…um. Wow.”

She looked over her shoulder at him. “It’s amazing what you miss when you don’t call or visit for so long, huh?”

Apparently.

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