Love Songs by Bernadette Marie Read Free Book Online

to him. “Do you really think so?”
    He felt the heat crawl up the back of his neck. Was she really asking his opinion on family size? What did he know about family dynamics? “Any kids are a lot.”
    Her shoulders dropped and the curve of her lips turned downward. Oh, he’d messed up that answer.
    “Anyway,” she waved her hand through the air as if to reject his answer. “Matt left the day before Mom found out she had breast cancer.”
    “That’s insensitive.”
    Her smile was back. “You’d think, but no one knew about this. She didn’t tell anyone. In fact, she decided to go through a double mastectomy alone, that way no one would worry about her.”
    Warner shifted his glance to her and then back to the road. “That’s not some little in and out surgery.”
    “I know, right?” Clara adjusted in the seat again. “She was out of sorts. That’s all I can say. But, my Uncle Curtis was on call at the hospital that day and he saw her being wheeled into surgery. He called Dad and he was by her side the moment she woke up. It was the beginning of our happily ever after as a family.”
    “So they got back together that day and she beat cancer?” he asked as he headed toward the huge building that graced the Nashville skyline.
    “Well she did beat cancer, but it took a little time for them to patch things up. Dad was engaged after all.”
    Warner was grinning, he knew it. Her drama had nothing on his, but when she told her tale he realized even the most put together of families was dysfunctional.
    “Your dad, he dumped his fiancée?”
    “Oh, no. He’s not that kind of man. He’d made a commitment to Kathy and he was going to see it through.”
    “But he was still in love with your mother.”
    Clara turned her head and eased against the seat. “I didn’t say he loved my mother.”
    “You didn’t have to.”
    Her smile widened. “He had never stopped loving her. What a sap.” She laughed. “Anyway, he married Kathy and mom refused to go to the wedding. Instead she headed to Mexico and met some man.”
    “Reality TV has nothing on this relationship.”
    She winced at that and continued, “He married her, but she came to her senses before they’d even been married twelve hours. She told him she’d made a mistake and wanted out. She had a friend in the travel industry who took his ticket to Hawaii, where they were going to spend their honeymoon, and she had his ticket fixed so he’d go to Mexico instead.”
    “His new wife sent him after his ex-wife?”
    “Yes she did.”
    “That’s gutsy.”
    “I guess when you realize you made a mistake you might as well suck it up and make the best of it, right?”
    That one hit home. “Yeah.”
    “Kathy is married now with three kids and she’s happy as far as I know. Dad went to Mexico, got Mom, and they came home and got married—again.”
    “What about the man in Mexico?”
    “I don’t know about him. Just some guy who friended her. They never mentioned him much.”
    Warner could understand that.
    Clara pointed to the entrance to the parking garage and Warner headed that way. “Okay, this house you live in.”
    Clara adjusted in her seat again, tucking her other leg under her and shaking out the one she’d been sitting on.
    “The house.” She took a breath. “Keep up, okay?” She laughed. “My Aunt Arianna, who owns the theater, owns the house. When she left for Broadway she let my Aunt Regan live there, after she’d returned from living in Hawaii.”
    He nodded. “Okay.”
    “When Dad needed somewhere to live he moved in with Aunt Regan.”
    He nodded again. So far so good—he was keeping up.
    “Regan married Zach and moved out. Dad moved back home with Mom. Then Zach’s company took over the property and managed it with tenants. Uncle John then moved into the basement and Aunt Arianna came back from New York.”
    He knew he was smiling like a fool, but he was enjoying this. “Got it.”
    “Aunt Arianna and Uncle John got married