Page 49 of Mack

She nodded, not quite believing it yet.

The door opened before they reached the porch and his mother appeared in the light of the doorway, and Mack felt something loosen in his chest at the sight of her. Juliana Reinhardt was a trim woman in her early sixties with silver hair and sharp blue eyes that missed nothing and forgave most things. She was looking at Mallory and T.J. with a look that Mack recognized from a lifetime of knowing her.

She’d already made up her mind.

“Come in out of that cold,” she said, and opened the door wider.

Mack nodded for Mallory to go ahead and followed her up the porch steps. She hesitated at the door, and he gave her a gentle nudge. She turned and glared at him. He winked. She smiled despite herself and stepped inside.

“Let me take your coats,” Juliana said, moving toward them. She stepped close to Mallory and lowered her voice just enough. “Mack told me you were beautiful, but I think he undersold it.”

Mallory’s cheeks warmed. “Thank you.”

“Mom, this is Mallory Nichols and her son T.J.” Mack rested a hand briefly on Mallory’s shoulder. “Mallory, my mother, Juliana.”

Juliana shook Mallory’s hand warmly, then crouched down to T.J.’s level without hesitation.

“It’s so nice to meet you both. Now what do you have there?”

T.J. held Blue up for inspection. “It’s my dine-sore. His name is Blue because he is. Mack gave him to me.”

Juliana looked up at Mack with a look he recognized, then back at T.J. “Do you have a lot of dinosaurs?”

“A bunch of them.”

“I’d love to see them sometime.”

T.J. bounced on his toes. “‘Kay.”

“Well now.” Max Reinhardt appeared in the doorway from the hall, broad shouldered and silver haired, with Mack’s gray eyes and an easy unhurried way about him. “Who do we have here?”

“Dad, this is Mallory and T.J. Mallory, my father, Max.”

Max shook Mallory’s hand and then pulled her into a hug before she had a chance to prepare for it, making her laugh. Then he did exactly what Juliana had done and crouched down to shake T.J.’s hand with great seriousness.

T.J. needed no further invitation. He launched into a full account of his dinosaur collection, and Max and Juliana listened like it was the most important briefing they’d received all year.

Mack stood back and watched. He felt something settle in his chest that he didn’t have a name for yet.

Juliana had made lasagna and knowing her as he did, Mack knew it had been in the oven long enough to fill the whole house with the smell of it, and she’d set the table with the good dishes, which Mack noticed and which told him everything about how seriously she was taking tonight.

He caught his mother’s eye across the kitchen, and she gave him a look that said she knew he’d noticed and he could keep it to himself.

They settled around the table, T.J. between Mallory and Mack, his booster seat produced from somewhere that suggested his mother had planned ahead. Mack didn’t ask where she’d gotten it.

His parents were good at this. They always had been. His mother asked Mallory about the shop with real curiosity, not the polite kind, and his father listened to the answers with the focused attention of a man who considered what people said before responding. Mallory started carefully, as she did with anyone new, but Mack watched her shoulders relax by degrees as the meal went on.

T.J. helped, as usual. He had appointed himself the authority on several topics including dinosaurs, horses, hot chocolate, and the correct way to eat lasagna, which apparently involved a careful excavation of the layers before any actual eating could begin.

“Is that how you always eat it?” Max asked him seriously.

T.J. nodded. “You have to see what’s in it first.”

“And what’s in it?”

T.J. peered at his plate. “Noodles. And red stuff. And cheese.” He looked up. “I like the cheese.”

Max nodded slowly like that was the wisest thing he’d heard all week. Mack looked at Mallory and found her pressing her hand over her mouth.