Her mother wasn’t paying attention. Her eyes were looking around the café, studying people in silence. Gretchen’s lawyerly instincts kicked in, and she decided to use her mother’s distraction to her advantage. People often revealed as much in their quiet moments as they did when they spoke, and her mother was leaking like a sieve. The gloves were once again wrapped tightly in her fingers. A pink flush highlighted her natural cheekbones, partly from the chill outside but also, Gretchen sensed, from discomfort.
“Mom.”
Diane looked at her, smile returning. “Hmm?”
“What’s going on?”
“I really did want to visit you at work and have lunch with you.”
“If I say that I believe you, will you tell me the rest?”
Her mother shoved her gloves in her purse, and Gretchen wished suddenly that she hadn’t pushed matters. She wished it could have truly just been a mother’s desire to see her daughter, but things were never that simple in her family.
Diane pulled in a long breath and let it out. “Your father has decided to retire.”
No, nothing was ever simple with her family. “That’s great. I mean, it’s definitely time. He’s seventy-five.”
“I’ve been after him for almost ten years,” Diane said.
“You or Dad could have told me this over the phone, though.”
“This seemed more fun.”
Alexis came over and took their order, pausing for a few minutes to trade niceties with Diane before sauntering off again.
“So, this is the real reason you came to see me today.”
“It was a convenient excuse for doing what I’ve wanted to do many times.”
“But never did.”
“You’ve never asked me to, Gretchen.”
“I didn’t know a daughter had to beg her mother to come see her.”
“Don’t be so dramatic.”
And there it was. She was too dramatic. Too hysterical. Too chaotic. Too unreliable. Too much. A low buzz in her ears began to drown out the hum of the café. There was only one reason her mother would take the extraordinary step of physically visiting Gretchen to share this news. Because there was another shoe to drop. “What aren’t you telling me?”
To her mother’s credit, she met Gretchen’s gaze head-on for once. “I thought you should know that Evan is going to take over as CEO.”
A sense of weightlessness turned her stomach upside down. “Why not Uncle Jack?”
“Jack is almost seventy, honey. It doesn’t make sense.”
“But Evan is a narcissist. He won’t make decisions that are best for the company, only for himself. You know that.”
Her mother reached across the table and covered Gretchen’s hand with her own. “I know you two have your differences.”
“Differences? Is that how you see it?” Gretchen pulled her hand away. “It’s a lot more than that, and the fact that you showed up here out of the blue to break it to me that he’s going to be CEO tells me that you know it.”
“You were children, honey. All siblings fight. But you’re both grown now, and look how he offered you a spot on the foundation board.”
“Which he only did so I would talk to Colton.”
“Speaking of Mr. Wheeler.” Her mother’s face brightened at the convenient change of subject. Another painful conversation averted. “How are things going on that front?”
Gretchen tried to hide her disappointment that this was all her mother wanted. Business. It was the only blood that bound her family together. “I gave him an official proposal. He’s considering it.”
“How come you never told me that you had a relationship with him?”
“We don’t,” Gretchen said quickly. “Have a relationship, I mean. We just have some mutual friends.” And a bad habit of kissing like the answer to life’s deepest questions could be found in each other’s arms.
Jesus. Even she was starting to sound like a country singer.
“I’m not as oblivious as you seem to think,” her mother said. “I don’t need to see pictures of you and Colton Wheeler dancing by the river to know there’s something going on. I can see it in your face.”
“I’ve never said you were oblivious, Mom. Just . . . disinterested.”
“Well, I’m not.” She smiled. “Why not bring him out to the Homestead? Show him around the tasting room and the offices. Bring him by the shack. Let him see the family he’d be joining.”