Those Sweet Words

Chapter 1-1

Chapter 1

“THERE IS NO WAY I’m moving into your newlywed love shack.”

Pru Reynolds froze, holding in a wince as the object of the current discussion made herself known. Of course Ari had been skulking outside the kitchen. How many times had Pru herself done the same as a child? There never seemed to be another option when the grown-ups were deciding your fate without consulting you. She’d hated it. Hated being at the mercy of a bunch of relative strangers—even well-intentioned ones. But that’s what it was to be part of the foster system. That was the fate that Pru and her sister, Kennedy, were trying to save Ari from.

Pru turned to face the girl, taking in the dark, stormy eyes and the mulish set to her mouth. “Nothing’s been decided, sugar. We aren’t going to make that decision for you.” It was important to get that out there. To make Ari understand that she had a choice here. Foster kids had so few actual choices, and fighting that sense of powerlessness was one of the biggest hurdles to overcome.

“Yeah,” Kennedy added. “We were just reviewing your options, discussing the pros and cons, so we could present them in a nice, organized fashion.”

Ari arched one eyebrow in a move that displayed all of her barely teenaged disdain. Not yet fourteen, she was going to be a pistol, as their mother used to say.

Pru rode out the instant lash of pain at the thought of Joan. It had been just under four months since they’d lost her to a car accident. Just under four months since she and her three sisters had taken charge of the girl Joan had been in the process of adopting. Joan had meant Ari to be one of them—the last and youngest Reynolds sister. But the legalities hadn’t been finished, so Pru and Kennedy, and Kennedy’s fiancé, Xander, had all undergone the necessary certification classes to serve as her foster parents. Not something Pru had expected to be doing at thirty—prospectively taking on a teenaged daughter. But she’d be damned if she’d let the girl go back into the system. Ari was family.

“Come on and sit down. We’ll talk about this,” Pru told her.

Ari crossed her arms, but she came over and plopped down at the big farmhouse table.

“Do you want tea?” Pru asked.

One shoulder lifted in a shrug. “Sure.”

Pru moved to the stove and reminded herself that the attitude was better than the complete, withdrawn silence after Joan’s death.

“So, here’s the deal, kiddo,” Kennedy began. “The great state of Tennessee has officially declared Pru, me, and Xander fit as foster parents. Well, we’ve passed all the classes, anyway.”

Pru pulled mugs from the cabinet and began to fill tea balls with the loose leaf black tea she favored. “The next step is the home study, so we have to let Mae know whether she’ll be doing that on me or on Kennedy and Xander. All of us are more than willing, so it’s your choice.”

Their situation was highly unusual. Officially, they shouldn’t have had Ari at all until all the certifications had been passed and the home study completed. But their mother had been a foster parent for more than twenty-five years and a social worker before that. Mae Bradley, Ari’s case worker, had known Joan all that time, and on Joan’s death, she’d pulled some strings with the powers that be, convincing them that it was in the best interest of the child to stay put with someone familiar. God bless small towns.

“You’re getting married this weekend and going off on your honeymoon to Timbuktu—” Ari said.

“The UK,” Kennedy corrected, smiling a little as Pru set a mug of tea in front of her.

“—and I’m not gonna be moving in when you get back and stepping all over your newlywed toes. I like you and Xander. Why would I do that to you? Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Kincaid. Welcome home! And oh, by the way, here’s your teenager! That’d put an end to the honeymoon right quick.”

Kennedy reached out to cover the girl’s hand with her own. “Ari, Xander and I love you. It wouldn’t be like that.”

Ari pulled away, wrapping her hands around the mug Pru gave her. “You and Xander lost ten years. You deserve some time to be just together.”

Pru couldn’t argue with the truth of that. But it was Kennedy who’d first managed to pull Ari out of her shell after the funeral, so maybe she was the best sister for the job. Pru didn’t care to analyze the pang she felt at that thought. “The home study will take some time. I expect, if you wanted it, Mae would be happy to do home studies on all of us. Then, you could stay with me, while the lovebirds have their time, and go to them when you felt like you were ready.”

Ari was already shaking her head. “I want to stay here, with you. I want to keep my room and help with the inn.” She dropped her gaze to her mug, jiggling the tea ball. When she spoke again, her voice was small. “You were there from the beginning, and I want to be a Reynolds, not a Kincaid.”

Pru’s throat went thick. She exchanged a glance with Kennedy, who nodded slightly. “Then that’s what we’ll do.”

Ari looked up and the guarded hope on her face cut Pru to the bone. “Really? You’ll really adopt me, like Joan was going to?”

It wasn’t a decision she made lightly. She knew what it meant to be wanted, to have the stability of a good forever home. Joan had done that for her, for her sisters, and provided a safe place to land for countless others, over the years. Pru might not have any intention of stepping fully into her mother’s shoes, but for this one child, she’d do whatever it took.

“If that’s what you want, then yeah. I’d like that. I’d like that very much.”

Ari grinned, her temper fading with the speed of a summer storm. “Then I guess I’ll have to start working on calling you Mom.”

The word hit Pru in the chest like a sucker punch. Mom. She was going to be a mom. This was going to be her daughter. She was going to be fully responsible for another person’s…everything. Holy crap.

“It’ll take us both some getting used to,” she managed.

Ari slid off the bench and came around the table to give Pru a quick hug. She wasn’t touch shy like so many kids Pru had known, so Pru gave her a hearty squeeze, as her own mother would have done. Over the girl’s thin shoulder, she saw Kennedy beaming.

“Just to try out my mom voice, have you done your sweep of the guest rooms to see if any of the TP or linens or complimentary toiletries need restocking before the next guests arrive?”

“Not yet.”

“Hop to. The Johnsons are supposed to be here by six-thirty.”

Ari saluted and scurried off.

“Congratulations, Mom. And you even did it without the baby weight,” Kennedy teased.

Pru sagged back in her chair. “Jesus.”

Her sister sobered. “Are you really okay with this?”

“Yes. I wouldn’t have told her I’d do it, if I wasn’t. I’m just…a little overwhelmed.” And a little bit jealous that she’d be doing this alone.

Oh, Kennedy and Xander would help out. So would her other sisters, Athena and Maggie, whenever they were in town. But there’d be no husband helping her share the load or the joys. She envied Kennedy that. She’d assumed she’d meet someone eventually, but Eden’s Ridge was a tiny town, with a shallow dating pool. Unlike her sisters, she hadn’t left, other than to finish her training as a massage therapist. Eden’s Ridge was home. She’d found no grand passion here, and up until they’d begun planning Kennedy’s whirlwind wedding, Pru had been fine with that.

She’d be fine with it again. Her mother had led a full and rich life without partner. She could do the same. If she felt a twinge of self-pity at that, she shoved it away. Ari was the priority. Taking care of her was what Joan would have wanted.

“It’s a big step,” Kennedy said. “I’d be worried if you didn’t feel a little overwhelmed.”

“That’s probably been a little exacerbated by the fact that we’ve planned your wedding in a month. Thank God for Cayla Black.” A friend from high school, Cayla was divorced and back in the Ridge with her four-year-old daughter, trying to get an event planning business off the ground. She’d jumped at the chance to use Kennedy as a guinea pig.

“She is, indeed, awesome,” Kennedy concurred. “I don’t even think Maggie could’ve done better.”

“It helps that you don’t care too much about the details beyond being married to Xander in the end.”

“True enough. Speaking of, I want to swing by the house to see my other half before I head into work for the night.” She rose and came around to hug Pru herself. “Mom would love that you’re doing this for Ari.”

“I know. And it helps a little bit. She feels kind of like a last piece of Mom.”

“Are you gonna call Maggie and Athena to tell them the news?”

“They’ll be here in two days for wedding festivities. I’ll tell them in person. Go forth and squeeze in whatever canoodling you can manage.”

Kennedy rolled her eyes. “Canoodling. You sound like Ari.”

“Fitting since she’s going to be mine.” Pru felt another flutter in her belly. That would stop being scary at some point, right?

“Touché. Love you, Pru.”

“Love you back.”

When she was gone, Pru took their tea—now cold—and dumped it out. She popped her own into the microwave, then carried the mug back to her room. Formerly her mother’s room. She’d moved in formally after she and her sisters had converted the old Victorian into a bed and breakfast to save the family estate. It was a long way from profitable yet, but they’d had steady bookings since they opened Memorial Day weekend and plenty more that stretched out well into the fall.

Sinking down into the overstuffed chair, she tugged open the drawer and pulled out the photo album with “My Kids” embossed across the front. She’d found it in the course of cleaning out. This book contained photos of every single child her mother had fostered over the years. There were so many.

Had her mother felt this bone deep panic at the beginning? Wondering whether she could do this? Whether she’d irrevocably mess these kids up? Or had she always been the unflappable, down-to-earth woman Pru remembered? With the weight of the decision she’d just made pressing down, she needed her mother’s comfort. So, tea in hand, she opened the cover and slid into memory.