“Like Hallie said, it was a minor fender bender.” Mabel stopped at the first door. “The accident itself didn’t cause the wrist injury. Someone needs to talk to Gene because he was running his sprinklers in the middle of the afternoon. We need one of those ordinances where you can only run the sprinklers in the middle of the night. I’ve been caught in his trap more than once.”
Those types of laws were usually for drought conditions, and they didn’t have that problem. Not at all. But she wasn’t going to debate the situation right now. She wasn’t a mayor at the moment. She was a worried daughter-in-law.
Mabel opened the door and Cricket was sitting on the exam table, looking at Lila Lavigne.
“I feel fine,” her mother-in-law was insisting. “I got distracted, that’s all. Oh, is that sweet baby all right? There was a baby in the truck I hit.”
“She’s fine.” Sylvie relaxed further because her mother-in-law looked great. Despite the fact that she had a splint on her wrist, her color was good and she seemed steady. “Hallie and Gracie are perfectly fine.”
“Cricket is okay, too,” a deep voice said.
Sylvie turned and Louis was standing in the corner, a concerned look on his face. “Are you all right? I heard you were in the car.” She wasn’t sure what Rene would think of that. “Did you go to the library with Cricket?”
Now Cricket flushed. “I picked him up for lunch.”
“Her scans are all fine, and Mr. Sylvain wasn’t injured,” Lila said. “I’m going to go process her checkout and you can take her home. Her wrist is sprained, but it can be handled with over-the-counter pain medications and keeping it in the brace for a couple of days. I’ll call in the morning to make sure everything’s going all right.”
“I’m glad to hear it. Lila, thank you.” She shook the nurse practitioner’s hand.
“As car accidents go, this was an easy one,” Lila admitted as she opened the door. “You guys can come to the lobby when you’re ready.”
Cricket held out her uninjured hand. “I’m glad it was you and not Rene. I’m afraid he would get upset.”
“He’s going to know.”
Cricket nodded. “Yes, I can’t hide this, but I can explain it to him in my own way.”
Sylvie felt her brow rise. “Like leaving out the part where Louis was with you?”
Cricket looked down, her hand coming back to her lap. “I was hoping to avoid that.”
Louis came to her side, his hand on her shoulder. “I told you, I’m going to talk to him. He’ll understand. This is not a problem, sweetheart. You are not cheating on anyone. You were a good wife and a wonderful mother. You get to have a life.”
“Maybe that discussion should wait until the board meeting is over,” Sylvie gently suggested. She wished her mother-in-law had been up front about her relationship with Louis, but she had to deal with this situation with delicacy. “Rene’s on edge right now. I think he’ll handle your relationship better if we get through one crisis before we deal with the next.”
“Our relationship isn’t a crisis,” Louis insisted. “It shouldn’t affect Rene in any way.”
“Sylvie is right.” Cricket hopped off the exam table. “We have to ease him into this. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the full truth, dear. Louis and I have been seeing each other for a few months. He’s the one who’s been encouraging me to get out and enjoy life more. We wanted to make sure it was real before we let Rene know.”
“He’s your son, not your father,” Louis argued. “You know I love him, but he’s been unreasonable about you. You’re not an invalid.”
“She did have cancer last year.” Sylvie felt it necessary to defend her husband. She also didn’t like the fact that they hadn’t even given Rene the chance to be okay with his mother dating. If Cricket had told Rene back when they were starting, he likely would have wrapped his head around the relationship by now, and it wouldn’t be a ticking time bomb she had to defuse.
“I would still like to postpone this talk with Rene.” Cricket sounded stronger than she had even this morning. “I’m not putting you off, Louis. I’m trying to make this easier on my son. If you can’t handle that . . .”
“I can. You know I can.” Louis sighed and took her hand again. “I would wait another twenty years to have a single day with you. I’ll drive you back to the house and then I’ll find a way to the office. I doubt he knows my lunch ran extra long. He doesn’t like to talk to me much these days.”
Cricket looked up at him, her eyes shining with obvious affection. “Because he’s on edge. He loves you. You were so good to him growing up.”
“That doesn’t mean he won’t think I’m trying to step into his father’s shoes.” Louis opened the door and let the ladies walk out. “He’ll resent that. I’m worried he’s blaming me for the problems we have down at the office. I know for a fact he’s been holding back on me. He changed our bid on the last job. I’m sure he did it because he had inside information, but in the past, he would have told me.”
Sylvie winced, but she couldn’t say anything reassuring. She wasn’t about to break Rene’s confidence. “I’ll give you a ride back to the office, and once Rene’s job and the house are secure, we’ll all sit down and talk about this as a family.”
They started down the hall, Sylvie letting Louis lead Cricket out.
“Sylvie is right.” Cricket threaded her healthy arm through Louis’s. “We don’t say anything to Rene until the time is right.”
She heard Cricket gasp and then realized why as she walked into the lobby and saw Rene standing there. Hallie was there, too, clutching Gracie and looking at Rene like she didn’t know who he was.
Hallie turned to Cricket, her voice hoarse in that way that told Sylvie she was holding on to her temper by a thread. “Mrs. Darois, I need you to tell your son I didn’t hit you with my car. He seems to think it’s what my family members do. Mow down the two of you.”
Sylvie hadn’t even thought about the fact that it had been Hallie’s mom who’d caused Rene the most pain he’d had in his life. She’d worried about this. Rene shoved his anger down. Always. She’d never seen him once lose his temper. Not even when he was a child. Most people mistook that as Rene not having feelings, but Sylvie knew the truth. He was a volcano of emotion and he was ready to explode.
“Rene, it wasn’t Hallie’s fault,” Sylvie said quietly, moving toward him. It was obvious Rene had gotten here in a hurry since he wasn’t wearing the suit coat he’d donned this morning and his hair wasn’t its perfect self.