Page 100 of The Rescuer

“Whatattorney?”

“A guy in Las Vegas who specializes in Nevada family law.” As he uttered the words, he realized how stupid they sounded. When his mother’s eyes and mouth formed an O, he wasn’t surprised.

“You’re using someone you’ve never met before? Why didn’t you call Jill Carlisle? She’s been our family attorney forever.”

Her answer wasn’t the one he’d expected, and he tried to regain his balance. “I was trying to keep it a secret.” He added an eye-roll for good measure.

“Don’t you roll your eyes at me, young man.” She jerked the hem of her sweater. “First of all, she’s an attorney. She can’t blab people’s business all over the place. And if she doesn’t know the answer, she’ll know where to send you—and it won’t be some fly-by-night in Las Vegas with a brand-new shingle, for heaven’s sake! Reece, sometimes I wonder if a rock dropped on your head when you were scaling mountains as a kid.”

The memory of Neve calling him a mountain goat bobbed into his brain, and he smiled to himself. Another thought ran over it and made his stomach clench. Would he be able to mountain-goat in Vermont? Stowe Mountain was aquarterthe height of the peaks in the San Juan Mountains.

Okay. So their mountains are smaller, but the terrain has to be as steep if it hosts a ski resort, right?

His mother nudged him back to the present. “So you’re not sure this ceremony you and Neve went through—the same one that’s legal for your brothers—is binding?”

He shook his head. “We kinda had too much to drink. This wasn’t planned.”

“Then make it legal!” Her face corkscrewed into a disappointed frown, and it struck him like a knife to the heart. Her anger would have been easier to face. But disappointment? That gutted him.

“Mom, it’s not that simple. And if it turns out to be real, it’s temporary.”

She tilted her head. “Temporary. I’m not sure I like the sound of that. What makes it temporary?”

“We plan to … end it. And that’s a process. We can’t just wave a wand and make it disappear.”

She tucked her arms across her chest. “Charlie and Joy’s wedding wasn’t planned either, but they seem happy enough about it. Many of the best things in life are surprises.”

“Yeah? Well, I don’t think this is one of them. Neve didn’t want this. She doesn’t want to be married to me.”

“Oh, cookie crumbles! She’s wanted to marry you since the day she set eyes on you—and you were still in diapers. Don’t you remember when she used to coerce you into playing house? She declared that this was going to be real someday, that you were going to be husband and wife and raise a passel of kids. She even had the proposal all mapped out. Do you remember that? Something about you on bended knee by the creek where she claims you rescued her from the water once, with fairy lights all around. I never did understand what she was talking about, but I do know that little girl had a plan from Day One.”

He fought a sudden grin that wanted to sprout. He’d forgotten those games, but his mom was right. Neve had had a plan back then, and that plan hadalwaysincluded him. But they were older now; priorities had shifted seismically.

Mom continued. “I, for one, was rooting for her the whole way. I always hoped you two would marry, but the older you got, the more I lost hope you’d findanyoneto build a life with.” Her voice softened, and he thought he detected a quaver, which set his alarm bells clanging at a higher decibel level. “Do you ever see yourself getting married? Raising a family?”

The swiftness of his answer surprised even him. “Yes.” He had always envisioned himself with a wife, kids, a home. That his life didn’t seem to be tracking in that direction left him a little deflated, as though he was failing at something important.

“And what kind of girl do you picture yourself marrying in this scenario? Can you picture her?”

Dumbfounded, he stared at his mother as the shimmering silhouette of a lithe blond woman with a smile warmer than the sun popped into view.

Neve.

Instead of sharing his unexpected epiphany, however, he quipped, “Yeah. She’s pretty and she puts up with me.”

Also Neve.

“When that rock fell on your head, it knocked common sense out of it.” She pushed up on tiptoe and rapped him hard on the head.

“Ow!” He rubbed the spot. “Wait. Did a rockactuallyfall on my head when I was a kid?”

Agitatedly, she flapped her hand at him. “Not when I was around, but one must have done so when you were out of my sight.” She pointed a finger at his face. “You need to make this right, Reece Hunnicutt.”

“By that, I’m guessing you mean Neve and I stick together?”

“Of course.”

“Look, Mom, if I decide to marry for real, Neve is the—”

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