“Just move.” Judy gave him a mom-look that made him get up from his chair. Michelle did her best not to laugh. His mother was one of the tallest women she’d ever met, but still Seth towered over her by five inches. She loved when grown men were cowed by their mothers. It made her have a great deal of respect for the women.
Seth moved into the chair, watching his mother warily. “Why did I move, Mom?”
Judy pulled a photo album from the coffee table and put it between her and Michelle. “I thought you’d want to look at his awkward adolescent photos and all his naked baby pictures.”
Michelle stifled a laugh. “Oh, sure. I’d love to.”
She flipped through the album, laughing at pictures of Seth in a basketball uniform and the running commentary Judy gave her. In more than half of the pictures, there was another little boy with him—one who looked nothing like him. In their graduation photo, Slade, the twin, appeared to be at least three inches shorter than Seth.
“Seth was always the center on the basketball team, because he was the tallest boy in school. He couldn’t make a basket to save his life, though. He was just good at tipping the ball toward his teammates.”
“Really?” Michelle asked, glancing up at Seth, who was spending a great deal of time studying his finger nails. “Why didn’t your brother come to the wedding?”
Seth sighed. “He planned to make the eight hour drive down from Texas for the day, but he had a difficult delivery the night before and was sure he’d wreck if he tried to drive. Such is the life when you have a doctor for a brother.”
Judy smiled when Michelle turned another page. “You should have seen Seth’s girlfriend when he was in high school. She was just awful. She was going through that Goth thing that so many girls did back then. She wore black lipstick and a black formal gown to prom. I swear she looked like she was going to a funeral. Or already dead. One of those.”
Michelle flipped the page again to see the girl Judy had been talking about. Seth had his hair spiked all over his head and wore a nice tuxedo. The girl on his arm was glaring at the camera. “What was her name?”
“No idea,” Seth responded. “I barely remember her.”
“You dated her for four years!” Judy protested. “You’d come home with black lipstick all over you.”
Seth blushed. “I did not. Stop it, Mom.”
Michelle tried her best not to laugh. She’d have been mortified if her mother was telling all of her secrets that way, but it was amusing since it was Seth’s secrets being shared. “Let’s call her Elvira, mistress of the night.”
Seth threw his hands up in the air. He knew when he was outnumbered. “I was hoping you two would get along, but not this well,” he said with a frown. He’d never envisioned his mother sharing photos of him this way. She’d never done it with any of his girlfriends, but come to think of it, she’d made it clear she never liked any of them.
Judy laughed, turning the page. “You’ll survive.”
By the time they left several hours later, Michelle felt as if she knew Judy much better. “I can’t wait for you to come and visit us in Louisiana. I’ll send you the dates we have off school for Mardi Gras.”
“Wait, they give you time off school for Mardi Gras?” Judy asked, obviously surprised.
Michelle grinned. “We get more time for Mardi Gras than we get for Thanksgiving. A full three days. The Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of Fat Tuesday week.”
“Why do you have Wednesday off? I would think the festivities would be over on Tuesday.”
“Oh, they are. Too many hangovers on Wednesday for anyone to actually work or go to school.” Michelle shook her head. It had never made much sense to her either.
Judy blinked a couple of times. “Interesting culture.”
“I’ve always thought so.” Michelle hugged her new mother-in-law. “Thanks for being wonderful.”
“Oh, you’re the keeper of my son and grandbabies. I know better than to make you angry.”
Michelle laughed as they left, walking down the stairs beside Seth. “I like your mom.”
“She likes you too. A little too much, I fear.”
Michelle laughed. “Are you and Slade a lot alike? It’s weird knowing there’s another of you out there.”
He shook his head. “Not really. Slade was a lot more studious than I was, if you can believe that. I got into being a video game nerd, but he excelled at school. I played Mario while he was in the chess club. That kind of thing. We were always close, though. It was so weird when we went off to different colleges. We haven’t had much time together since. I still miss him sometimes.”
“I’d miss my sister if we lived apart. I’ve never lived more than a twenty-minute drive from her. Makes me sad just thinking about it.”
“It’s hard.”
Michelle saw she was making him sad and changed the subject. “Are we going straight back to Daniel’s?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I thought I’d take you to my favorite restaurant, and then we could go for a walk through Boston. Maybe pick up a couple of cannoli.”
“I’ve had cannoli,” she responded. “I don’t like them very much.”
“That’s because you’ve never had Boston cannoli. I promise you, you’re going to adore it.”
“All right,” she responded with a shrug. She was happy to just spend time with him. She’d enjoyed the trip, and all the time she’d gotten to spend with Brenda had been fun, but really, she wanted more time with Seth. She’d never seen herself as a clingy woman, but she was turning into one. She wanted to spend every waking minute in his company.
He took her to a nice restaurant, and she felt underdressed in her jeans and tank top. “I would have worn one of my new outfits if you’d told me how fancy this place was,” she hissed at him. She wanted to hide behind him, but he was dressed no better, wearing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt that featured Donald Duck, calling him the original Angry Bird.
“No one cares what you’re wearing,” he responded. “This place has the best seafood on the planet. You’re going to love it.”
After they were seated, she looked over her menu. “I don’t even recognize a lot of these things. What do I want to eat?”
“Try the stuffed lobster tail. It’s one of my favorites.”
She nodded. “That’s what I’ll have then.”
“For a side, go with the risotto. You’ll love it.”
“Done.” She reached out and took his hand in hers. “I really have enjoyed this trip. Thank you for bringing me with you.”
“Could I have forced you to stay at home? I got the impression you were coming whether I liked it or not.”
She made a face at him. “That’s not true. I have to admit I am used to being in charge now. It’s odd to share decisions with someone.”
He smiled at that. “I’ve been working for myself since college. I know exactly what you mean.”
“Think we can manage?”
He nodded. “I think we can handle anything if we do it together.”
The waiter came to their table then, and they placed their orders. Once he was gone, Michelle brought something up. “I’ve been thinking, and I want your opinion. If you feel strongly one way or the other, I won’t argue on it.”
Seth raised an eyebrow. “I rarely like conversations that start that way.”
Michelle sighed. “No one does.” She looked down at her hands for a moment, trying to get the courage to bring up the topic. “I’m thinking about keeping my maiden name professionally. I’d change it legally, and use it for everything but my work.”
He studied her for a moment. “And you think that’ll bother me?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know if it will or not. It would have made Bob spitting mad.”
“So you’d have changed your name for Bob? And not for me?”
She shook her head. “I’m honestly more willing to take your name than I was his.”
“That makes no sense at all.”
“I’m
not sure if I can explain it well. Bob expected me to take his name, and would have been angry if I didn’t, so I didn’t want to. You, however, aren’t anything like him, for which I thank God daily. Because you wouldn’t try to force me to take your name, I’m more willing to do it. Does that make sense?”
Seth nodded slowly. “I guess it does.” It made woman sense to him, meaning it seemed to be something a woman would come up with, but it didn’t follow good logic to him. “I don’t care if you change your name professionally. You worked hard to get your degrees, and you got them as Michelle Strempel. I don’t need you to change your name to Henderson so people will know you’re my wife.”
“It really wouldn’t bother you?” she asked. “I still haven’t decided either way, but I wanted you to at least have some input.”
He shrugged. “It’s completely your decision. I could argue for either side, but I won’t feel like less of a man if you keep your maiden name.”
“Thank you.”
“What are you thanking me for?” he asked, slightly confused.
“For not trying to control me or tell me how to do things. For accepting that I have a brain in my head. For treating me as an equal.” She could go on for hours. She’d thought the way Bob had treated her was normal, because he was her only real relationship. He’d said that people don’t really act the way they did in romance novels, and she needed to get over thinking they would.
“The more you say things like that, the more I want to meet Bob. I want to wrap my hands around his neck.”
Michelle laughed. “He’s not worth the effort. Besides, he’s married to Angela now, and I’m sure they’re having fun picking out a nice nursery.” She was so glad it was Angela and not her.
“I’m so glad he was an ass, and you didn’t marry him.”
She blinked a few times. “I guess that’s good?”
“It is. If you’d married him, you never could have married me, and let’s face it. We belong together. Dr. Lachele thinks so, and I know so. We really are good together.”
“We are. We make a good team.”
He nodded. “I’m glad you were the one she picked out for me.”
“Really?” She still had a hard time believing anyone would prefer her over another woman. Look at Bob. He’d been engaged to her for years while having sex with someone else. Why hadn’t she been special enough to wait for?
“Really. I hope you know that I never would have betrayed you like Bob did. In the same position, if you’d told me you wanted to wait ‘til we were married for sex, I would have just made the wedding come sooner.”
“I wanted to have a faster wedding, but Bob insisted everything needed to be perfect. He said that doing it quickly would never be good enough, because our wedding needed to be the social event of the year.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Because that’s what his mother wanted. She was awful. The first time I met her, she told me I’d have to take lessons in the proper managing of a household, and she hoped I planned to give up my little hobby as soon as I married. You know, my little hobby that I went to school for six years for, being a high school principal.”
He rolled his eyes. “No wonder you were nervous about meeting my mother. She sounds like a real piece of work. I’d like to wrap my fingers around her throat as well.”
“How about Bob’s dad? You might as well just kill off the whole family.”
“You have a point there! I probably should.”
Their food came then, and Michelle looked at the stuffed lobster tail curiously. She had no idea what it really was, but she trusted him. She took a small bite of the delicacy, and sighed in contentment. “That’s delicious.”
He grinned. “I knew you’d like that.” He’d gotten the same thing for himself and forked up a big bite of the cheese risotto. “Mom obviously loves the idea of you being the mother of her grandchildren.”
“I have a feeling that your mother would have loved anyone you brought to her who was willing to give birth to her grandchildren.”
He chuckled at that. “You might be right, but she really liked you. I could tell.”
“I really liked her too. I feel like I was silly for being so nervous about meeting her. She’s an incredible woman.”
“She is. She gave up her career when she married my father, but after his death, she had to go back to work. She never once complained when we had to move to a smaller house or she had to work double shifts. She just found a way to make it work. I have a ton of respect for her.” He shook his head. “She had to see both Slade and I through high school. It would have been bad enough with one son, but two of us really kept her on her toes.”
“It sounds to me like she’s earned it.”
“She has. More than any other woman I know.” He smiled. “What about your mom? I know I met her briefly at the reception, but did she work? Or was she a stay at home mom?”
“She always worked for the school. She was the secretary. She took that job because it meant she had the same holidays that my sister and I did.”
“Oh, that’s perfect.”
Michelle nodded. “It worked out very well for us. There was no daycare necessary, because she started doing it when my younger sister was school age.”
“What does your dad do?”
“He’s an engineer. Works for the city of Malloy.”
“So he was the primary bread-winner?”
“Definitely. Mom’s income was extra. She’d put it in savings every month, and we’d take family vacations on it, or that’s where money for special outfits or dresses came from. Anything beyond our daily needs came from mom’s little savings account. We were really blessed. And we had her home with us every summer, running us wherever we wanted to go.”
“What did you do in the summers?”
“When I was in high school? I volunteered at our local library. It gave me an excuse to be around books all the time.” She got a far-away look, thinking of those glorious summer days spent with all the books she could possibly dream of reading.
“Did you read romance novels in high school?” he asked, a grin on his face.
She shook her head. “No, when I was in high school, I read all the great works of literature, thinking it made me superior to everyone else. I got addicted to romance novels thanks to one of my college roommates. We still recommend books to each other all the time.”
He grinned at that. “It sounds like you made some wonderful friends in college.”
“I did. I made good friends in high school as well, but it was different. Most of the girls in my high school, which is the school I’m now principal of, were planning to marry as young as they possibly could. Twenty-three was an old maid. Once I was in college, I met a different kind of girl. Ones who cared more about getting an education and building a career than settling down to have families.” She shrugged. “Of course, I always wanted a family as well, but I wanted it in conjunction with a career, not just a family.”
“I can understand that. I hope you know I’ll never ask you to stop working.”
“Good, because I don’t see it happening. I enjoy what I do too much. I would feel like I was abandoning my students.”
“I admire your dedication to them.” He took another bite of his food. “But to get back to how we started this whole thing. You can work as Miss Strempel or Mrs. Henderson, whichever makes you happy.”
She smiled, knowing then she’d take his name. Having the option to keep her own was what was really important to her. “Thank you for being so understanding.”
“I married you knowing that we would have little things like that to work out. You were a stranger to me, so I’ve had an open mind about everything since day one. Well, except maybe about going to a honeymoon you’d planned with another man.” He frowned at that. He hated that he’d gotten so angry with her, but it had really thrown him for a loop.
“Are you still upset over that? I thought we’d worked it out.”
�
��We have. It just still feels weird. I understand now that you didn’t really have feelings for him, but still, it was a blow to realize you’d planned everything with him in mind. He could have been the man wearing the tuxedo mouse ears and not me!”
“Oh, the horror!” Michelle grinned, but at the same time, it would have been awful if Bob had been her groom and not Seth. She loved the man across from her with every fiber of her being, and it had taken only a couple of weeks for it to happen. She’d dated Bob for almost a decade, and had never felt anything but relief when he left her at the end of a date.
“I think it would have been awful. How would I have looked with another woman in mouse ears hanging on my arm? Terrible, I tell you!”
She giggled. “I can just imagine Elvira wearing the bride mouse ears and holding onto you. I wonder if she would have worn white lipstick instead of black…”
“Elvira?” he asked, a frown on his face. After a moment he understood. “Oh, you mean Tiffani. Yeah, that never would have worked out. She was so depressing.”
“I’m sure!” Michelle shook her head, trying to come to grips with the girl in the photos being named Tiffani. The name was entirely too sweet and nice for her.
He shook his head at her. “Nope, God and Dr. Lachele brought the perfect woman into my world, and I’m glad I have her.”
“God and Dr. Lachele? Are they working as a team now?”
“Sure looks like it from my standpoint.” He took her hand and brought it to his lips. “Whatever name you go by, you’re the woman I want in my life.”
Michelle sighed. It was sweet of him to say, but she knew he had to be lying. “Thank you.”
Chapter Ten
They flew home Saturday after a tearful goodbye with Daniel and Brenda. The two women couldn’t stop the tears as they embraced. “Come see us,” Michelle said while Daniel and Seth looked on, shaking their heads.
Brenda sniffed. “We will. Hopefully at least once before school starts.”
“We’ll come back and see you as well,” Michelle told her friend. “I can’t meet someone I connect with so well and then never see her again.”
Longing in Louisiana (At the Altar Book 8) Page 10