A lanky man who’d passed six-two in high school—and added one more inch in college—he bent down to nuzzle Lorilee’s cheek.

And sniffed the air. “Spaghetti night. Yay.”

“With a nice salad to start.”

At Raylan’s feet, Bradley said, “Boo!”

Lorilee merely aimed a look down at her son.

“If certain people eat all their salad without complaining, we could enjoy the spaghetti and then take a nice walk down to Carney’s for ice cream.”

“Yay. Can we?” Bradley transferred from Raylan’s legs to Lorilee’s. “Can we, Mom?”

“Salad and pasta first.” Lorilee shook her head as Bradley jumped up to do his happy dance, as Mariah wiggled down to join him. “And how was your day?”

“Good. Real good. You?”

“Most excellent. And according to my chart”—she leaned in closer to murmur in his ear—“tonight could be the night to make another of these maniacs. So even more excellent.”

“Even better than ice cream.” He skimmed a hand over the pale blond hair she’d cut into a short wedge to save time and trouble. He loved how it framed her face. “Meet you in the bedroom right after story time.”

“I’m there.” She leaned into him as she watched their kids dance. “We do really good work, Raylan.”

He ran a hand down her back, over her butt, and back up again. “Looking forward to doing some more.”

After dinner—and the mess and noise—after the walk and the ice cream, after the nightly ritual of story time, they tucked their kids into bed.

There were always the questions he figured the kids saved up to draw out bedtime.

Why can’t I see the stars in the daytime when I can sometimes see the moon?

Why do you get beards and Mommy doesn’t?

Why can’t dogs talk like people?

 

It took awhile, just as Raylan knew it would take awhile to be sure both kids were actually asleep so making love with their mom would go unremarked and undisturbed.

“How about some wine? If this works, you’ll have to give it up again. Might as well cash in now.”

“I’d love some.”

He headed down to get it. The walls of the second-floor hallway still needed the wallpaper stripped. They’d prioritized the kids’ rooms, the kitchen, and two of the three and a half baths.

He figured another baby, if they got lucky, meant turning another of the four bedrooms into a nursery instead of doing their own bedroom. Which meant moving his studio upstairs into the attic.

Lorilee already painted up there, but they could section part of the area off for his work. They’d find a way.

He got out a bottle of wine, opened it, and started to get out glasses when the phone on the counter rang.

He saw his mother’s name on the caller ID.

“Hey, Mom.”

His easy smile at hearing her voice turned to blank shock. “What? No. How? When? But …”

When he didn’t come back upstairs, Lorilee went down to find him sitting at the kitchen counter, his head in his hands.

“What is it? Raylan, what’s wrong?”

He lifted his head as she rushed to him. “Sophia Rizzo. An accident. She—she was with a friend, driving home from her book club. A storm, slick roads, another driver skidded into them. Her friend’s in the hospital, but Sophia … She’s dead, Lorilee. She’s gone.”

“Oh my God, no.” Tears rolled even as Lorilee pulled Raylan to her. “Not Sophia. Oh, Raylan.”

“I don’t know what to do. I can’t think. She was almost like my grandmother.”

“Here now, here.” Lorilee kissed his cheeks. Then she got the glasses, poured the wine. “Drink some of this. Your mom—”

“That’s who called.”

“She’ll be grieving, and Dom. And Adrian and her mother, and, God, honey, the whole town. There’ll be services, a memorial. We’ll go. We can stay a few days if we can help.”

“Mom said she didn’t know about a funeral or memorial, but she’d call tomorrow when she knew more. She said Maya and Joe were coming over. They were going to get a sitter for Collin and come help her close up the shop and …”

“Oh, the restaurant. Of course. Listen, you can stay on for a week or two if you can help. I’ll bring the kids back home.”

“Don’t know what to do yet. I need to think. We’ll figure it out. I can’t take it in, Lorilee. She’s always been part of my life.”

“I know, honey.” She held him close, stroked his back. “We’re going to figure out how to help.” After lifting his face to hers, she kissed him. Then she sat beside him at the counter with his hand in hers. “I can take emergency leave at work. Just go in tomorrow, get things set up. Unless you want to leave tomorrow.”

“I …” He tried to clear his head, but he still heard the tears in his mother’s voice. “No, I guess we should get things organized, have the kids go on to school, wait for Mom to call back. We could both get things handled at work and head down day after tomorrow.”

“That sounds right to me, too. I can start packing when I get home.”

All right, a plan, he thought. He did better with a plan, with a schedule. With something outlined.

“I can take off early, just get things set up by early afternoon.”

“You need to plan on staying at least a week. You don’t worry about me and the kids,” she said before he could object. “We’ll take the train home. It’ll be an adventure for them. Your mama’s going to need you. Sophia was the next thing to hers.”

“How do we tell the kids?” He reached for his wine, then just stared at it. “They’re so young, Lorilee, and they’ve never lost anyone close like this.”

“I guess we tell them Nonna had to go to heaven to be an angel, and when they ask why, we have to tell them we don’t know, and we’re sad she’s not with us.” Lorilee took Raylan’s wine, sipped a little. “But how she’s in our hearts forever. I think we just love them, honey, like we always do.”

They agreed not to tell the kids in the morning, but to get them off to school as normal so they didn’t carry the questions and the sadness through the day.

Maybe he hugged them just a little tighter, just a little longer before he helped Lorilee strap them into their car seats.

“Learn something,” he ordered Bradley.

“If I keep learning stuff, I’ll know everything and not have to go to school. Then I can go to work with you and make comic books.”

“What’s the square root of nine hundred and forty-six?”

Bradley squealed out a laugh. “I don’t know!”

“See. You don’t know everything yet. Learn something. You, too, Princess Mo.”

He turned to draw his wife in. “Thanks.”

“For?”

“For being you, for being mine. For being.”

“Aww, my sweet husband. I’ll see you soon.” She kissed him until Bradley made gagging noises. Then she laughed. “I love you.”

“I love you.”

She got behind the wheel, strapped in, then sent him a smile. “I’ll be home by four. Sooner if you need me.”