“Ty! I’m so glad you could come by.” His mother greeted him with a huge hug.
Wearing an apron that signaled she’d been cooking along with a huge smile, she was the mother he loved and he wrapped his arms around her, too.
“You didn’t have to cook for me. But I’m glad you did.” He stepped back and surveyed the stove and its many simmering pots, inhaling the delicious aroma that filled him with warmth.
“I still love cooking for you. I made your favorite homemade tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich with butter on the bread.” She smiled. “But I have to admit you’re not the only reason I’m so busy in the kitchen.”
Was it his imagination or did her cheeks flush before she rushed over to the oven to peek inside. “What’s going on?”
“I’m cooking for a friend.” She didn’t turn to face him.
“You’re cooking for a man?” he asked, surprised.
His mother had always claimed she was too busy to get involved again. Although he’d believed that line while he was growing up, a part of him had long suspected that she said it to protect his illusions of her as his mother. But he was a grown-up now and could handle his mother dating. In fact he’d much rather she wasn’t alone.
“Dr. Sanford asked me out and I accepted. We went to the movies one time, dinner another. I’m cooking for him tonight.”
Ty nodded. “I hear he’s a good guy. Is it serious?”
“It could be,” she said, trying to sound nonchalant. She busied herself pouring soup and serving their lunch before sitting down beside him at the table.
“Well, I’m happy for you,” Ty said. Nobody deserved to be alone for all the years his mother had been.
His mother smiled. “I’m happy for me. And for you. Now tell me when you’re going to bring Lilly by because I don’t think I can stand another day without giving that girl a big hug and a kiss.”
He’d known this subject was coming and he was prepared. “I know you missed her and you’re relieved she’s fine but before you see her, we need to agree on something.” He turned his attention to his lunch. Any food was delicious as always when his mother prepared a meal. “This is excellent,” he told her.
“Agree on what?” she asked, refusing to be deterred.
“The money remains our secret.” He’d thought long and hard about this, and as much as he’d hated the lies that had sprouted between all of them, he couldn’t see any good reason to compound Lilly’s pain by telling her the story that still haunted Ty.
Marc Dumont had met Flo in her position as school nurse. He’d overheard Flo discussing being a single parent and wishing she could give her son the quality time and things he deserved. Dumont had asked Flo to take his niece into her home and say she was a foster child from the state. In return, he promised Flo enough money to invest wisely in her son’s future. To allow her to give Ty the things she’d wanted him to have, she explained, after Ty had uncovered the truth a few years ago.
“I don’t see what good hiding it will do now,” his mother said, frowning.
“Lilly already lives with the fact that her parents were killed and her uncle sent her to foster care. She doesn’t know that you took an ungodly amount of money for the privilege.”
His mother slapped her napkin onto the table. “Tyler Benson, you know good and well I loved Lilly like my own daughter. If she’d landed on my doorstep without a penny to her name, I’d have treated her as well and loved her as much as I love Hunter. And the state only paid me a pittance to care for and feed him.” His mother turned pale as she spoke.
Ty placed a hand on her more fragile one. “Calm down, please. It isn’t good for your heart to get so upset.” She had a heart condition and took medication, but since the heart attack years before, Ty was always nervous.
“I’m okay,” she assured him.
Ironically it was her first heart attack and subsequent surgery during Ty’s junior year in college that had led him to the paper trail regarding Dumont’s money. He’d been temporarily in charge of her accounts while she was laid up and he’d discovered almost immediately that his mother had a ridiculous amount of money saved for a school nurse.
He’d gone to visit her loaded with questions and she’d revealed the whole sordid tale, grateful to have the secret out in the open. Once the truth had set in, so had Ty’s reality-everything his mother had bought for him, everything she paid for, including college-had been at Lilly’s expense. Not that she’d have been better off with her uncle, Ty understood that. But he hated the fact that he’d lived well, while she’d had to fake her death and run off to New York City. Alone.
“Are you sure you’re not dizzy? Light-headed?Anything like that?” Ty asked, focusing on his mother.
“No, I’m fine,” she said.
“Good.” He tried to believe her and relax. “For the record, I wasn’t trying to say you loved Lilly more because of the money. All I meant was she doesn’t need the additional burden of knowledge right now. That’s all.” He met her gaze.
Flo nodded. His mother still appeared paler than before and Ty decided a subject change was in order. “So tell me a little more about Dr. Sanford and his intentions.”
“Andrew is a widower with no children. He’s nearing retirement and he thinks he’d like to travel. I might like that, too,” she said, her voice lightening.
Ty breathed a sigh of relief. With the subject change, her coloring returned to normal and she grew excited about Andrew Sanford. He wondered if he needed to meet the man who made his mother so happy.
Ty’s cell phone rang and he unhooked his phone from his belt. “Hello?”
“Hey, Benson, it’s O’Shea.”
“What’s up?” Ty asked Russ O’Shea, a cop he’d met during an investigation, who was now one of his poker pals.
His mother cleared off the table as he spoke.
“There was an incident at The Cove,” he said of the local mall.
Every muscle in Ty’s body stiffened. “What happened?” he immediately asked, knowing in his gut it had something to do with Lilly.
“Lilly Dumont and Molly Gifford had a close call with a car. Some bastard took a joy ride through the parking lot, narrowly missing them. A patrolling security guard showed up as the car skidded out of the lot. The women say they’re fine. They dove out of the way just in time. Since it was Lilly, I thought you’d want to know.”
“Thanks, Russ.” Ty snapped the phone shut and rose from his seat. “Gotta go, Mom.”
“Is everything okay?” she asked, concern in her eyes.
He nodded. “Russ wanted to fill me in on a tip in an ongoing investigation,” he lied. His mother had just started feeling better. He couldn’t burden her with this, especially since O’Shea said Lilly was fine.
Ty needed to see for himself.
His mother relaxed her shoulders. “Well, don’t let me keep you then. I’m happy you came by. I just wish you’d do it more often.”
He grinned. He saw her once a week, but called her much more often. “Sometimes I think mothers were put on this earth to remind their kids of all the things they don’t do,” he said wryly. “Thanks for the meal. It was delicious as usual.” He kissed his mother on the cheek.
She touched his shoulder. “I love you, Ty. Everything I’ve ever done has been in your best interest.”
“I love you, too, Mom and I’ll bring Lilly by soon. She’s been asking about you, as well.” But until they’d seen Dumont’s reaction, they’d kept her arrival quiet.
He took off at a slow pace so as not to alarm his mother but as soon as he was in the car, he hit the gas and practically flew home to Lilly.
LONG AFTER Ty left, Flo couldn’t stop reliving the past. She sat in the kitchen nursing a hot cup of tea, thinking about all the things she’d done, right and wrong.