Evan had called Will first to apologize again for his wife’s snapping at Harper and Jeremy. He’d made an excuse about a migraine that Will wasn’t buying, but he’d forced himself to let it go. Evan ended the call by telling Will not to screw things up with Harper. Matt was next on the horn to say that Noah kept talking about the pretty lady who had played with him in the pool. The boy had been terribly sad to learn she couldn’t be their new nanny because she already had an important job. Then Sebastian claimed he still couldn’t get over Will finally dating a woman with looks and brains. And finally Daniel had called to say, “You look happy, Will. I like her.” Which said it all.
In his high-rise office, Will swiveled his chair to face the San Francisco Bay glittering in the sun. “Who called you this time?”
Susan laughed. That’s what he loved best about her: her laughter. She’d never yelled at any of them. Even when he’d been a complete shit, Susan would give him a long look and ask, “Do you really think that was the right thing to do?” As if she’d known that he hadn’t been thinking, he’d just been doing, reacting, acting out in the wrong way. Somehow Susan always managed to forgive him anyway.
“They all told me,” she said.
“They’re a bunch of freaking busybodies,” he grumbled, though it amused him that men in their mid-thirties would rush to their mom with gossipy tidbits.
“How else am I going to be updated? You don’t tell me anything unless I drag it out of you.”
This was true. He’d talked to Susan several times since Harper and Jeremy had first come to his garage and work had begun on the Maserati, and yet he’d managed to avoid answering nearly all of her questions after that first call.
“You’ve never introduced your brothers to a woman before,” Susan observed. “They say she’s lovely.”
“She is,” he said softly.
“And they all really like her brother, too.”
“Jeremy’s a great kid.”
“We’d love to meet them both. I hope someday you’ll bring them to the house.”
The Mavericks had planned to buy the Spencers property out in one of the exclusive Chicago suburbs, but Susan and Bob had wanted an average home in an average neighborhood, nothing ostentatious. All they required was something large enough to house all their grandchildren and pseudo-grandchildren. Unfortunately, to date, the Mavericks had done a piss-poor job of filling up those extra rooms, and Daniel’s younger sister Lyssa wasn’t even close to starting a family.
But Will could easily imagine Harper and Jeremy and a white Christmas in Chicago. Susan would adore them both. She’d fill up the fridge and freezer with baked goods because Jeremy was “a growing boy.” And they would both love Susan, too.
“They’re good for you, honey, I can tell.”
But was he good enough for them?
That’s what plagued him. Even in something as simple as that scene by the pool with Whitney. He should have been standing guard over Harper’s brother to make sure no harm came to him, just as he’d promised her. But he’d failed. Badly enough that he couldn’t stop going over the situation in his head—and also couldn’t keep from asking Susan, “Did you hear about Whitney’s explosion at the barbecue?”
Susan sighed. She’d obviously been apprised of every nasty detail. “That poor girl. Whitney lost her way after that first miscarriage.”
“I’m sorry about that. We all are.” Whitney had had three miscarriages in the last two years. It had broken Evan into pieces, especially since he’d been on the road for work each time his wife had miscarried.
“They’ve been trying so hard for a family,” Susan said, “and Whitney’s disappointment is coming out in her testiness.”
Testiness? Will had a whole other word to describe it. “I know they’ve been through a lot. But still...Evan’s a saint.”
“He’s a good man. One who bends over backward to handle Whitney’s moods because he appreciates how badly she feels about not being able to give him a child.”
The Mavericks backed each other up to the ends of the earth, always there when anything bad went down, but they all turned to Susan when they needed to keep their emotional crap from festering inside. She was their sounding board on matters of the heart.
“Trust me, honey,” she added, “unfulfilled need can change a woman’s entire personality.”
He could see that, but the truth was that Whitney had always been more difficult than most. And he knew without a doubt that Harper, in the same situation, wouldn’t bust a guy’s manhood the way Whitney did.
The thought of Harper with a child, his child, growing inside her sent a wave of emotion flowing through him—delight, need, fear, desire. And something that felt giddily like happiness.
“I think that’s also why she doesn’t pay more attention to Noah,” Susan said thoughtfully, as if she’d just considered the point. “It breaks her heart. Hopefully when a baby finally comes, she’ll settle down again. Right now, Evan’s giving her the supportive environment she needs to try again, and I’ll be there for your brother. I know you will, too, all of you. But I also want you to realize that while I understand Whitney’s feelings, I’m not making excuses for all her bad behavior. And that incident with your friend…” She didn’t finish, and he could almost see the shake of her head.