Page 24 of A Family Affair: The Vow
A quick shake of her head, followed by a firm “I’m not a good potato masher. Too lumpy. Nate says Mom’s are the best.” Her gaze slid across the table to her mother, her expression filled with love. “It’s true, too. They’re the bestandthey contain special ingredients,butthey’re a secret, aren’t they, Mom?”
Miriam forked a helping of potatoes, winked at her daughter. “Indeed, they are and it’s our secret.”
Vic dug into the mashed potatoes, tasted the creaminess of them with a hint of tang that woke up the senses. Was that sour cream with garlic? He’d been guessing at the secret recipe since he started eating at the Desantros’ two years ago when his mother sold the family home and headed to Charlotte, North Carolina. Gone were the home-cooked meals, the house repairs, the face-to-face conversations, and knitted sweaters unless he traveled to Charlotte. Sure, he made the trip a few times a year but it wasn’t the same as driving across town to see her.
Elizabeth Tramont had been a widow for eight years, had come to depend on Vic as much as he depended on her. She packed his freezer with meals, filled his refrigerator with fresh fruits, vegetables, lasagna, beef stew, chili, whatever he wanted. And then there were the cookies and his favorite: chocolate cream pie. How could a guy say no to that? His mother insisted it was her way of helping out until he found his special someone to take over. He could not tell her cooking and meal prep werenotthe highest priorities of the women he dated. Nope, he let that go because this was his mother and she believed he’d find a woman to share his lifeandhis dreams, ones that included marriage and children.
So, she cooked for him, watched his dog when he worked late, made pies, and even planted herbs in the pots on his deck. Vic became her fix-it man for whatever needed repaired: the fence, the toilet, the garbage disposal. It was a good partnership and it worked for a lot of years.
And then she met Pete Abernathy, CPA, and the food dwindled, the maintenance requests disappeared, and after a year of “friendship” the man proposed. The wedding took place four months later and six months after that, they moved to North Carolina for a “gentler” climate. Vic was happy for his mother. Pete was a decent guy who brought her pink roses and made her smile. She deserved that special someone in her life, but Vic missed her. No more simply hopping in his truck and driving to her house for a meal or to change the smoke alarm batteries. Now she lived 700 miles away with a husband and a rescue terrier mix named Gigi and in two weeks the three of them were heading west in their RV for an “adventure.”
When his mother moved to North Carolina, Miriam Desantro began inviting him to dinner once a week becauseI still can’t get used to cooking for two. Mrs. D, as he called her, was a whole lot more than a great cook and baker. She was an artist, a woodworker, a compassionate soul who forged her own path and didn’t care what people thought or said about her. He recalled the whole Charlie Blacksworth story and how it left Nate angry and unapproachable—until he met Christine. Who would have thought Nate and Blacksworth’s daughter would end up together? Nobody in Magdalena, that was for sure, but Vic had witnessed the transformation and it was something to see.
Lily was the true angel of Magdalena, but you had to watch her because she could sense what was in a person’s heart and wasn’t afraid to straight-out call you on it. Like now.
“Vic, what do you think about Rae Darlington?” Those blue eyes sparkled, her voice dipped with curiosity and intrigue. “Isn’t she beautiful? She could be a model. You know she works for somereallyhigh-end clothing place?” She leaned toward him, drew out her words. “Really fancy. Really expensive.” A nod, a smile. “She could be a movie star.”
Yeah, movie star beautiful, that was Rachel Darlington with the untouchable personality to go with it. She hadn’t been that way three years ago, though lately she’d been waffling between sharing nothing to revealing more than he ever thought she would. The last was tied to third-person commentary but only a fool wouldn’t recognize she was referring to herself. And this confused him—a lot, because now he really couldn’t identify the real Rachel Darlington from the manufactured one.
“Vic? Don’t you think Rae could be a model or a movie star?” Pause and a soft “Maybe both?”
He shrugged. “Never really thought about it.” But if he did think about it, the woman could definitely own both titles.Yup, she was that beautiful.
“Hmm. How about her clothes? Have you seen the sweater with the shiny buttons on the collar and sleeves? Gold, silver, red, copper... She wore that when I saw her at Lina’s Café. Black leggings and really cool boots, too. High black ones.”
“I don’t know much about fashion.” He forked a bite of pork tenderloin. “I’m more of a jeans and T-shirt kind of guy.” But he’d definitely noticed the leggings and the black boots...
Lily had more to say about the subject and she was eager to share. “Jeans and T-shirts can still be fashionable and make you look good, but Christine says you’d look good no matter what you wore.”Giggle, giggle. “Nate gave her the frowny face when she said that.”
“Lily, we are not going to discuss Vic’s clothing or your brother’s frowny faces.” Mrs. D raised a brow, homed in on her daughter with a message that saidEase up.
“But everybody knows about Vic and how all the girls are after him… They want to be Mrs. Victor Tramont.” She exaggerated the last words. “Nate said one of these days it’s going to happen, and Uncle Harry says there are all kinds of traps, some don’t even look like traps.Thoseare the ones you have to watch.”
“Lily.” Mrs. D set down her fork, faced her daughter. “Uncle Harry has thoughts on a lot of things but that doesn’t mean they should be repeated.”
Lily pushed up her glasses, scratched her nose. “Not even when the trap can end their life, not even then? Because Uncle Harry said it could happen, and if Vic wasn’t careful, it would be a disasteranda shotgun wedding. What’s a shotgun wedding? And why would you have a shotgun at a wedding? Uncle Harry doesn’t even like guns. So why would he talk about them? And why would he—”
“It’s not a real shotgun, Lily.” Vic figured he should step in and close down Lily’s overactive imagination while he still could. If he let her run with it much longer, who knew what she’d end up saying? “What your uncle means is sometimes one person wants to get married and another person doesn’t. So, the one who does tries to find a way to get the other one to change his mind.”
“Yes, that’s what your uncle meant by the disaster.” Miriam glanced at Vic. “But Vic is a smart young man and he’s not going to be fooled.”
“Well… Uncle Harry said, ‘Foolishness comes when you’re not looking.’” Her blue eyes narrowed, her lips pulled into a frown. “I don’t want you to get tricked, Vic. You should be with somebody you really like…” Her voice dipped, took on a singsong quality. “Somebody you love.”
Vic cleared his throat, mumbled, “Thanks for the advice, Lily.” How had this conversation gotten so twisted and landed on top of him? He popped another piece of pork tenderloin in his mouth, chewed so hard his jaw hurt. Yeah, like he was going to find anybody to share his world. Not likely and not happening because the one person he’d considered had turned him down.
But Lily’s next words said she wasn’t done with this conversation and maybe it had been heading this way since he walked into the Desantro kitchen. “I think Rae Darlington would be a good match for you.” Before he could object, she lifted a hand and started ticking off the reasons on her fingers. “She’s beautiful. She smells good. She wears scarves that match her shoes,andyour face gets all weird-looking when I say her name.”
“First, my face does not get weird-looking oranythingwhen you mention her name.” Why would she say that? Rae Darlington had no effect on him other than to aggravate him. He raised his hand, ticked off the reasons she wasnota good match for him. “Rachel lives in the city. She likes fancy things like foreign cars and designer clothes. I live here, in Magdalena, drive a truck and live in jeans.” Vic paused, held her gaze. “And, she has a boyfriend.” How had Lily missed that tidbit of information? The girl knew everything, sensed the rest and was usually right, even when people wished she weren’t.
Lily shook her head, not just a slight shake either, but a full-out no-she-doesn’t shake followed by “Not anymore.” The smile spread, the voice skipped with emotion. “He’slonggone.”
Vic glanced at Miriam who lifted a shoulder as if to saynews to me. “Who told you that?” She had to be wrong because he’d been working with Rae for almost three weeks and had tossed out comments about Richard a.k.a. Dick at least once a day. She’d never corrected him, not even once when he askedWhat’s your boyfriend say about you staying here? Is Dick coming to Magdalena to see you? No visits? Why?And then, because he couldn’t get a reaction from her, the annoyance usually spread through his words.How can you be with somebody who can’t even make you feel an emotion? Is that what you really want?
“Josh told me this afternoon when he was at my apartment fixing the piece of trim by the bathroom door. He said he heard her talking to his mother and she said stuff like ‘It’s over. We’re done. Richard and I are just friends.’ Stuff like that, you know, the dump stuff.”
Yeah, he did know the dump stuff because he’d used those words himself a time or two. Why hadn’t Josh told him? Maybe he’d confronted Rae and she’d asked him not to tell Vic… And maybe he’d honored that request, but telling Lily when she was on a matchmaking hunt? Bad idea. He’d seen her in action and she did not give up.
Vic scooped Mrs. D’s homemade applesauce onto his spoon, considered all of the reasons Rae would neglect to tell him aboutRichard. When had they broken up? Was it before she came to Magdalena? Was that why she’d been so cagey about the guy? If so, why not just admit they were done? Did she think he’d view it as an opportunity for another chance with her? Yeah, no worries there. A guy might be a fool the first time around, definitely not the second time.
