Page 11 of His Valentine
I get up from the stool, instantly in a completely different mindset. I haven’t even met Lena’s mom yet, but anyone who’s important to Lena is automatically important to me.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” Lena says. She hangs up the phone, and as I walk over to where she’s standing, she looks up at me in a daze.
“My mom’s house was broken into,” she says.
When we arrive,two police cars are parked out in front of the house, and Lena’s mom is talking to one of the officers. Lena rushes ahead of me as soon as we get out of my truck, running up to give her mom a hug.
I hang back at first. I want to meet Lena’s mom—and make sure she’s okay—but I don’t want to overwhelm the poor woman. She’s got enough to deal with right now. I doubt she’s eager to meet her daughter’s baby daddy on top of everything else.
“Scary, isn’t it?”
I look to my left and see a middle-aged man staring solemnly at Lena’s mom’s house. Before I can speak, he turns to look at me and regards me with shrewd eyes.
“You’re Magnus, aren’t you?” he asks.
“I am,” I say slowly. “And you are?”
“Gene,” he says, sticking out a hand. I shake it. “I’m Vivian’s neighbor. Lena’s mom.”
“Right,” I say. “Nice to meet you, Gene. Of course, I wish it was under different circumstances.”
“Agreed,” he says.
Gene and I make small talk for a few minutes—the only kind of small talk you can make in situations like this. Before long, though, Lena is walking over with her mother and introducing her to me.
“I’m so sorry about the break-in, Vivian,” I say.
Lena’s mom nods her thanks.
“I think I’d like to sit down for a minute,” she says.
“Of course, Mom,” says Lena. She looks around, but there’s no good place for her mom to sit. “Um…let’s see…”
“You’re welcome to come over to my house, Vivian,” says Gene.
To my surprise, Vivian laughs. “Oh,nowyou decide to be nice to me, old man?”
“Special circumstances,” grumbles Gene with a shrug.
I have no idea what the hell is going on between these two. But when I glance at Lena, she just gives me a look that tells me she’ll explain it all to me later.
Lena endsup explaining it to me as I’m driving her back to her place. Once I hear about Vivian and Gene’s contentious relationship as neighbors, the scene I witnessed earlier makes a whole lot more sense.
Mostly, though, as I drive Lena home that evening, she tells me more aboutherrelationship with her mom, and how nervous she suddenly feels about her mom living alone now that a break-in has happened.
“I mean, I’m not saying I want to move her in with me or anything,” Lena says. “I just wish…oh, I don’t know. I wish I could ensure that nothing like this would ever happen again.”
I nod, reach over, and squeeze Lena’s hand.
The following afternoon, when I’m at the office, I find Vivian’s phone number and give her a call. She actually sounds like she’s doing pretty well, all things considered, and I’m glad. Still, I offer to come by and install a top-of-the-line home security system for her—at no charge, of course.
It takes some insisting on my part that it’s no trouble at all, but eventually she agrees. We make arrangements for me to stop by after work and evaluate exactly what her house needs.
A few hours later, I’m over at her house, doing my usual walk-through that I do for residential properties. The next day, my crew goes out and does the installation. I stop by at the end of the day to make sure everything’s in order, and I’m pleased to see that it is.
“This really is kind of you, Magnus,” Vivian says as I’m about to head out. “I have to admit. When Lena first told me about you…well, I had my doubts, as any mother would. But you’re a good man. That much is obvious. I can’t tell you what a relief that is.”
It’s a few days later, a Friday evening, when I get a call from Lena. We haven’t seen each other since the night of the break-in, although we’ve texted back and forth a handful of times. We haven’t talked about our kiss, but it’s been on my mind ever since it was interrupted, and I’m guessing it’s been on Lena’s mind, too.