Chapter 74
GEORGIA
Mac was here. Here. In Calhan.
Andy, too. And he said I was to be his new mom now. And he was wearing the crown I made him.
It wasn’t like at the airport when Mac hadn’t been in on it. But now he was.
My heart was racing and I was thankful for my pageant times now. Every single second of practice because I sat calm and collected, not shaking and sweating and climbing in his lap.
The one thing about southern women is that they wanted to know more about any situation than the people in it. We were nosy and the biggest bunch of busybodies.
When a man as handsome as Mac showed up on Momma’s doorstep with a son telling everyone I was his new mom, the vultures circled, then settled around their prey.
Mac.
The questions came out, rapid fire, with expert precision. For once, Keely was on the same side as Sassy and Momma. They all wanted to know about Mac. Of course, Keely knew everything and Sassy and Momma knew nothing. I hadn’t mentioned him to them at all.
For obvious reasons, because I was the one who would have been circled and questioned if they knew I’d had a fling with a Montana fireman.
“What do you do in Hunter Valley?” Keely began, even though she knew the answer. It was a warmup question.
“Fire chief.”
“How old is your son?” Momma asked.
“Six.”
“Where is your wife?” Sassy asked.
“Not married.”
Mac shifted a little in his chair, but he didn’t squirm.
“Divorced?”
“No.”
Sassy and Momma gasped at the same time.
“Widowed?” Their sympathy for those who lost a spouse went deep.
“No.”
“Then you don’t know how to use birth control?”
It was my turn to gasp. “Momma!”
“Andy is my nephew. My sister chose drugs over him and now he’s mine.”
That shut Sassy and Momma up for a few seconds.
“And the rest of your family?”
“I have my father who lives around the corner.”
“Is he married?” Keely asked.
“Widowed.”
“Oh, Mrs. Gantry, he might be just the thing,” Keely added.
Momma blushed furiously for a moment, then got the serious look back. She wouldn’t be deterred and had no interest in a man who wasn’t in Georgia.
“What size shoe do you wear?” Sassy prodded.
Mac frowned but answered. “Twelve.”
Sassy looked to Keely. Keely looked to Momma. Momma looked to Sassy. I knew what they were thinking. Big shoe size, big–
“Do you rent or own?”
“Own.”
“Did you play football?”
“High school.”
That was Momma’s question. She and Sassy took turns, one right after the other, not giving Mac time to think.
“Baseball?”
“T-ball only.”
“Do you eat meat?”
“Yes.”
“401k?”
“Yes, and pension, too.”
This line of questioning was getting a little ridiculous. I wanted to interrupt, but a strange man showed up on the doorstep and they needed to vet him how they felt best. Even if it was batshit crazy.
“How do you know Georgia?”
“From the fundraiser project and her being the tenant in my garage apartment.”
“Do you work out?”
“Yes.”
“Are you a Baptist?”
What in the world?
“No.”
“Why aren’t you married?”
“I was an idiot when I found the right woman.”
“I’m sorry, what?” That was me. I asked that.
He turned to me, looked me straight in the eye and said, “I was an idiot.”
“Why?” Keely asked, smiling. I saw it out of the corner of my eye.
If she had popcorn, she’d be eating it right now. She was pushing him when she knew I wasn’t going to. Because I was stunned. Mac was here. And he was an idiot.
“Because when you asked me if I wanted you to stay, I should have said yes. When I said I wanted you to take the job, I should have said you already had one with me. As… hopefully, my woman and Andy’s mom.”
Momma gasped.
Sassy didn’t say a word.
Keely was squealing.
I smiled. Big. Bright. Dazzling.