The fire marshal finally called me later the next afternoon and I wasn’t happy about the news. Arson? Who in Lone Star would do that to me? Why? I was shaken up after the call and made a beeline straight to mama’s house. Not having transportation, I was grateful Miranda gave me a ride.

I pushed open the metal gate at the front of her property, the squeaking sound alerted Maisy, Missy and Mister who came bounding around the side of the house, yapping up a storm. Three Jack Russell Terriers that she’d had ever since I could remember – not the same dogs but the same breed. They were cute enough. Not what I would pick if I were getting a dog though. I’d want something large, that could be kept outside in Thatcher’s backyard. Why he sprang to mind and his yard was the first place I thought of when I thought of keeping an outdoor dog, both annoyed and amused me.

“Shh, shh. Quit barking. It’s just me.”

I picked up Maisy as she was my favorite because I was her favorite and whispered sweet nothings to the old girl. I carried her with me up the steps and opened the old wooden screen door that led into the porch – yet another door that squeaked too much. Missy and Mister nudged their way inside and ran ahead of me.

“Mama? Thayer?”

“We’re in here, Mommy. I’m helping Gigi make some cookies.”

I set Maisy down and picked Thayer up from the countertop. “How’s my baby?”

“I’m four.”

“You’re still my baby. Even when you’re old like me, you’ll still be my baby.” I kissed him on his lips, stole a bite of cookie dough and gave my mom a hug. “Thanks Mama, for letting him stay with you.”

“No problem. He’s welcome here anytime, right Thayer?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“You done with that cookie dough?”

“Sure am.” Thayer tried scooting the bowl toward Mama and she dug her spoon in and took a bite.

“Tastes perfect.”

Her eyes landed on mine, “What’s the matter?”

“Fire marshal called me. They got the report back.”

“Thayer, would you please let Mister out again?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Arson.” Mama almost dropped the bowl of cookie dough.

“What? You’re kidding me.”

“Nope. I asked repeatedly.”

“How do they know that?”

“They said the fire began in the basement and spread from there. Apparently, the investigators found broken glass outside along the window well area that was not in the fire. Meaning the window was broken before the fire happened. There was no real source for a fire to occur down there and the electrical engineer they spoke with surveyed the wiring and determined it was not caused by any faulty wiring.”

“So what happened?”

“They found evidence of an accelerant in the basement. When someone uses an accelerant, like gasoline in this case, it helps spread the fire. Which is how it got so out of control so quickly.” I hadn’t realized tears were streaming down my cheeks until she passed me a tissue.

“Have you talked to Adrian?”

I blew snot into the tissue. “No. Not yet. I’ve been so wrapped up in Thatcher and how I wasted five years of my life being with a man I wasn’t in love with to want to call him. I know it isn’t his fault, I’m just annoyed.”

“Look, you have to separate the two, okay Honey? You’ve got the fire, which you need to tell Adrian about despite how you feel about those five years you chose to share with the man; he has an equal right to know what the heck is going on. Who in their right mind would start a fire? Which leads me to Thatcher. First thing, you give me your word that you and Thayer will stay with him until I can get these renovations moving along more quickly.”

“I can’t promise that.”

“Yes, you can. You have nowhere else to go Abigail. What are you going to do; shack up with Rachel and Adrian?”

“That was a low blow,” I said.

“Low but reality. They had an issue with the bedroom windows and they had to be re-ordered. Now those are on backorder. When the renovating is all done, you two are welcome to stay here. In the meantime, if there is someone out there intentionally setting your house on fire, you need to be cautious.”

“Mama, you think someone is after me? That this is personal?” My stomach tumbled at the idea and my brain went through all the people I knew that might want to do this to me.

“Now I’m not saying that. What I’m saying is it will give your mama a piece of mind if I know you both are safe. Promise me, Abigail Layne.”

I huffed, feeling like a thirteen-year-old version of myself, agreeing to something that was clearly not what I wanted to do.

“Fine. I promise. Under one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“You promise me that you will do what you can to speed up the renovation process.”

“Deal. Now tell me all about last night.”

I was dying to tell someone what a wonderful night we’d had even if I was a bit shaken about the arson. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes again still annoyed that she seemed to be more into Thatcher than her own daughter. The screen door squeaked again and slammed shut as a hollering Thayer came running through the house with the dogs hot on his heels.

“We had dinner, went up near Pepper Ridge on the ATV trails and he taught me how to drive the four-wheeler-”

“No fair. I want to drive it,” Thayer said as he climbed onto the counter.

“Thayer, when you get bigger, you can. Then he made a reading spot for us.” I felt like a love-struck fool with the large smile on my face. He’d worked so hard to make our evening special. I could feel her questioning eyes on me as she doled out small mounds of cookie dough onto her cookie sheet.

“He read out loud to me,” I swooned.

She cocked an eyebrow at me in that way only mothers can do, “Is that all you did?”

“Yes, Mama. You think I’m just going to,” I covered Thayer’s ears, “jump into bed with him the first chance I get?”

Blood pumped overtime through my system, pounding in my ears. Having an orgasm on his knee wasn’t the same. Right? I could still feel the heat from his mouth through the cloth of my top as his mouth did wonderful things to me. The feel of his hands as they bit into my hips as he let me rub against him. I felt like I was carrying a big sign that read Thatcher made me come. But I couldn’t tell her. Wouldn’t tell her, dear Lord. He was the perfect gentleman after the nipple biting incident. We had bid each other good night and that had been that. Except for the fact that I lay in bed all night thinking about him. Then when I heard tell-tale signs of his bed squeaking, I imagined him jacking himself off and well, I used my fingers to make myself come listening to those sounds.

“That young man? I would. Honey, men like him don’t come ‘round all that much. You have to take advantage when the timing’s right.”

“Mom. He left.” I helped Thayer climb down from the counter.

“About that. Did he give you a reason?”

“Mostly, yes. He was young and dumb and afraid he would turn out like his father.”

“In which way?” She opened the oven and placed the pan inside.

“His dad was really mean to him, abusive at times. Back then, he was afraid he would turn out like Walter. He didn’t know how to be a father through his own volition. He was scared, Mama.”

“Bless his heart. I told you Abigail Layne that man would have a reason clear as mud why he didn’t take up with you and Thayer.”

I rolled my eyes. She was so easy. So easy for Thatcher. Seriously, who’s side was she on? Mine or his? I’m the one that got the broken heart in all of this. The one that had to live a fake life. Fake sounded much too dramatic. But still.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me young lady. I was right.”

“Is that really a good enough reason, Mama? Think about it. Think of all the things humans are afraid of. Do we walk away from everything we fear? Is being scared that good of a reason? I don’t think so. Besides, he hurt me. It’s not that easy to get over.”

“Abby, give the guy a break. How many perfect decisions did you make when you were twenty? Twenty-two? Heck, twenty-six even? I know it’s sudden with the divorce and the fire. He is a good man. I’m not wrong when I say that little boy needs his real father in his life.”

“What if we try and nothing happens? Nothing works between us two? Not from lack of trying, just, what if we don’t get on as well as we did when we were younger?”

“What if you do and it works?”

I resisted the opportunity to roll my eyes again because I knew she was right. What if it did work between us? What if we were soul mates and that was why we were being tossed together again? Fates way of saying something was in the air.

“That’s a lot of what ifs, Mama.”

“Did I ever tell you the story about when I met your daddy? I was a waitress at the diner in Deer Creek and he came in every day and requested to be seated in my area. Every day I served him coffee and two fried eggs sunny side up with whole wheat bread. Then my daddy got a new job and we moved away. Saddest time in my life. Even though your daddy and I hadn’t dated, something inside me was pushing me to let him know we was moving. I went to work that morning and told him when he came in for his cup of coffee.”

“That’s hardly romantic, Mama.”

“That’s not so much as the fact that when we moved from Deer Creek to South Bend, it took one month and somehow your daddy got sent to South Bend for an insurance job and when he came into the café I worked at for breakfast, I knew then and there, that it was meant to be.”

I wiped at the tears in my eyes, thinking of how long Daddy had been gone. It touched me, really. My daddy worked at an insurance company until the day he died. Heart attack took him when he was just forty-eight years old.

“Honey,” she went on, “my point is you’ve gotta grab life by the balls. You don’t know when you’ll get another chance and hell Honey, you don’t know how long you’ll get even when you find the right person. Your daddy died way too soon. I can feel it deep in these old bones, Baby. Thatcher is your chance. It’s time for you to grab-”

“To grab life by the balls,” I finished for her. “Thanks, Mama. I have to go. Thatcher will be picking us up any second. I wish you were done renovating so we could stay here.”

“No, you don’t. If you do, you shouldn’t. At least not when you have a perfectly acceptable man like Mr. Patterson offering you a place to stay. Even if he does have the work of the devil on his arms.”

I shook my head and this time did roll my eyes not afraid to let her know that she was a bit crazy on Thatcher, dreaming up all these ideas that weren’t going to happen. “Thayer, time to go. Come and give Gigi hugs.”

Thayer, looking every bit the prodigy of Thatcher, came bounding around the corner with the dogs at his heels. “Run! Run! Monsters are chasing me!”

I laughed at his imagination and urged him forward to give Mama hugs. We’d barely made it outside when Thatcher pulled up to her gate. Thayer ran along, pushing the gate so hard it let out an enormous squeak and slammed back shut.

“Thayer. What has gotten into you? Settle down, you almost tore it off its hinges.”

Once we were settled into the truck and were on our way to Thatcher’s, he asked about Mama.

“Did you tell her about the arson?”

“I told her. Standard reaction you’d expect from a parent. She did say something that gave me the chills though.”

He cocked his head toward me, “What’s that?”

“What if someone is out to hurt me and my son?”

“Who would want to do that?”

“I don’t know. It was just a thought.”

“Did you hear more about that second fire?”

“Not yet. I’m sure it will take the fire marshal a few days to investigate it like it took for mine.”

We sat in silence the rest of the way home. I was exhausted. Mentally and physically exhausted. I know my mother only meant well, but I didn’t like the turn my mind was taking as far as having to look out for Thayer and my well-being. There hasn’t been a soul who I’d wronged in my entire life, let alone anyone who would want to hurt us. As he pulled into the drive, my eyes closed and I remembered my promise to her.

“One more thing, Thatcher.”

“What’s that?” his voice had a quiet quality to it.

“I promised her we would stay with you indefinitely. I hope you don’t mind.”