Bachelor Untamed - Brenda Jackson [20]
She glanced around her bedroom, specifically at the clothes hanging in the closet. Aunt Mable’s clothes. She was supposed to start packing them up today, but since she had started reading this manuscript, she’d been so entranced she couldn’t think of doing anything other than finishing it. So she would. For however long it took. She hadn’t taken the time to read for pleasure in years, and if she wanted to take a few lazy days, then she deserved to do so.
With that decision made, she curled up in the chair and continued reading.
Chapter 6
The next morning, Uriel stepped out on the back porch with a cup of coffee in his hand, and glanced around. It would be another beautiful day, and he couldn’t help wondering if the fishing would be better today than it had been yesterday. In a few hours, he would grab his fishing rod and a cooler for his six-pack and find out.
He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket when it rang, and grimaced when he saw the caller was his mother. Apparently she did remember she had a son every once in a while. He was well aware she had her own life now, but was finding it annoying that she only called when she wanted him to do something.
He still couldn’t grasp how well he didn’t know her. His mother was a totally different person than the one he’d known growing up. The one who would carpool him and his friends to school and attend all those activities he had been involved in. The one who would lovingly tuck him into bed at night. The one he thought was not only a fantastic mother but a wonderful wife to his father. She had always seemed so happy. But both he and his father had discovered she had actually been very sad.
“Yes, Mom?”
“Uri, how are you, sweetheart?”
He leaned back against a rail. “I’m fine, Mom, and how are you?”
“Busy. I need a favor from you.”
Like there would be any other reason for your call. “What do you need?”
“I know this is short notice, but I need for you to escort Allison Hampton’s daughter, Charity, to that dinner and dance Saturday night to raise money for diabetes.”
Uriel figured that that must be the same function his father was avoiding this weekend. “Sorry to disappoint you, Mom, but I’m not in Charlotte. I’m out at the lake.” Not that he’d have taken snooty Charity Hampton anyway.
“Oh.”
He couldn’t help wondering if her mind was reliving any memories of how things used to be when she, his father and he would spend time at Cavanaugh Lake.
“Well, have fun at the lake,” she said, interrupting his thoughts. “I’ll talk with you again soon.”
Yes, when you need another favor, he thought before saying, “Goodbye, Mom.”
She clicked off the line before returning his goodbye.
He put his phone back in his pocket, thinking he would make sure he and his mother had a serious conversation, once he returned to Charlotte.
He took a sip of coffee and glanced over at the house next door—specifically at the upstairs bedroom window. Ellie was back, sitting at the window, reading. What in the world was she reading that was still holding her interest? Late yesterday evening after dinner, when he’d come outside to relax, she had been sitting in that chair by the window. And around two in the morning, when he hadn’t been able to sleep yet again, he had come outside. From the brightness of the light in the bedroom, he could make out her silhouette behind the drawn curtains, as she sat in that same chair. If she had come outside the house at all yesterday, he hadn’t been aware of it.
He checked his watch. He needed to go into Gatlinburg to grab a few supplies, and had volunteered to pick up whatever she needed for her month-long stay as well.
After drinking his coffee, he would head over next door for her list.
Ellie rubbed her hand over her face in frustration, not wanting to believe it. An unfinished manuscript!