Page 83 of Wanting a Family Man

“I fed her. She ate half my eggs and most of my toast along with a metric ton of blueberries and a bowl of her own mush.” Trystan walked the milk back to the fridge.

Storm went stiff in his arm, giving Cloe a look over Trystan’s shoulder that suggested she was being torn away from her last friend. Her face screwed up and she released an angry cry that called Trystan the worst monster ever created.

“Really?” He was unimpressed by her dramatics.

“I don’t mind sharing.” On the contrary, Cloe was more than willing to buy her niece’s affection with sweets.

He brought Storm back for another taste, which Cloe offered, but she hurried to polish the lion’s share of it, mostly so Trystan didn’t have to stand so close to her.

“Should I get dressed and get my stuff? Are we going there now?” Cloe asked as she set her empty bowl in the sink.

“Yeah. Fabiana will spend the night in Bella Bella with Glenda and catch the ferry in the morning.” The ferry south came through at a more civilized six thirty a.m.

While Cloe gathered her things, Trystan borrowed the company vehicle so he could drive them up the hill to a collection of homes near the school. Fabiana’s was a single-wide trailer surrounded by a fenced yard that contained a wild array of shrubs, flowers, bird baths, and potted plants, all of which also needed watering and tending.

“The cats have a door onto the back porch. It’s screened so they can’t get out beyond that,” Fabiana told Cloe as she explained how to refill the hummingbird feeders. “They would eat the birds or something might eat them so I don’t let them out the front.”

She introduced Cloe to Milo, Silas, and Pompom. They were a tuxedo, a calico, and a tortoiseshell respectively. All were laid back, purring as she gave them each a brief pat of hello.

The hallway was narrow for crutches, and the spare bedroom was cluttered with the flotsam of a long life in one place, but it was a cozy home that Cloe resolved she would leave extra clean as a thank-you.

Glenda turned up and they all sat on the screened porch, drinking coffee, chatting about Fabiana’s grandchildren.

“Oh, that’s my neighbor. She’s up,” Fabiana said as they heard the sound of a small dog barking. “Let me call her and invite her to meet you, Cloe. She’ll want to say hi to all of you.”

“I actually have to run away for five minutes,” Trystan said after glancing at his phone. “Sophie wants the truck. Can I leave her with you?” He nodded at Storm in Cloe’s lap.

“Mm-hmm.” Cloe was playing hide the spoon by tucking Storm’s flat pink spoon between the pages of a cloth book, then gasping with discovery when she turned the page and it appeared.

Cloe waited until she heard the truck depart and Fabiana’s voice was chattering gaily from inside before she asked Glenda in an undertone, “Are you mad at me?”

“What on earth for?” She seemed genuinely surprised.

“Trystan said…” Oh God. Was he wrong? Did Glenda not know they were sleeping together? Or rather, had been?

“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Glenda scoffed lightly. “Surely, you’ve heard by now that Wilf was still married to Miriam when he and I got together. I’m in no position to judge what adults do with their time. What is there to judge anyway?”

That seemed like a loaded question, one that was gently but deliberately probing.

“Nothing. Not anymore so…” Cloe shrugged.It never was in the first place.

“Oh?” Glenda’s thoughtful gaze dropped into her coffee as she sipped.

“He didn’t think…” Cloe swallowed to ease the dryness that entered her throat. “It’s not a good time for either of us. It’s messy, given…” She waved vaguely at Storm.

When she looked up, Glenda was watching her with such empathy, such understanding, it caused a physical ache in Cloe’s chest.

“Please don’t tell anyone,” Cloe whispered.

“I’m nosy, Cloe. Especially where my boys are concerned, but I’m not a gossip.” Glenda’s mouth twitched. “It amuses me that I still have any influence on them at all. Or that I ever did, to be honest. They act as though I knew what I was doing back then, but I got myself pregnant by a man who was very funny and full of big dreams, but he had a wife and far too much baggage for anythree womento carry.” She lifted her brows and dipped her chin to emphasize her point. “But I gave it a shot because that’s what marriage is, or so I thought. I didn’t expect I would raise his three sons here, in the middle of nowhere. When I asked Pauline to let Trystan stay with us, it was supposed to be for a couple of semesters while she finished her degree.”

“He told me he liked it here.”

“He did. In the same way Logan belongs on the water, Trystan needs his natural spaces. And those two were peas in a pod when they were young. Logan would cry when Trystan left.” She leaned forward. “Don’t repeat that. Here I said I wasn’t a gossip.” Shetskedat herself and sat back again. “Trystan always wanted to come back for Logan’s sake as much as his own, I think. He knew how lucky he was to have so many relatives who were all very tightly knit. It bothered him that Reid and Logan didn’t have cousins or other family the way he did.”

“I accused him once of being close to his brothers and he almost threw me overboard.”

“That’s Wilf’s influence. Real men don’t hug.” She rolled her eyes. “They don’tneedeach other. Then Reid joined us and Trystan was so confused. I remember him asking me why Reid didn’t want to be part of our family.”

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