Chapter 37: A Woman Who Wants To Stay

Eleanor stepped outside and closed the door behind her. "Penny for your thoughts?"

Dorian gave a lopsided smile. "Just work."

She leaned against the railing beside him. "I like her."

"Hmmm... She seems to have that effect on everyone. Dad said the same thing."

"That’s surprising," Eleanor said. "He never liked any of your wives."

Dorian glanced at his mother. "He liked Margot."

Eleanor gave him a look that immediately told him he was wrong. "No, he tolerated Margot because I pushed you into that one, and he wanted to be on the same page with me."

Dorian scoffed softly and took another sip of wine. "Typical." His parents had always presented a united front when it came to their children, even when one of them privately thought the other was making a terrible decision.

"I do not want to get involved the way I did with Margot. But don’t lose faith, D."

He should have known the conversation would eventually arrive here. "Mum, Don’t ask me for anything. I truly hate to disappoint you."

Eleanor turned toward him. "You’re my son. You can do no wrong."

"Even drunkenly getting married in Vegas?"

"Oh, I gave you hell for that already."

"You did."

"You deserved more."

Dorian smiled into his glass.

"There’s no use going back to past matters." She looked through the glass doors. "But looking at her right now, I don’t think you made a mistake, D."

Dorian followed her gaze. "That makes one of us."

"You don’t accidentally marry someone for absolutely no reason."

Dorian turned toward her. "Alcohol."

Eleanor ignored him. "Maybe you saw something in her that called to you."

Dorian looked back through the doors. Naomi was laughing again. Her head tipped slightly backward, Ginny laughing with her. He immediately looked away.

Too late to discourage attachments, apparently. Ginny had already recruited Naomi into the wedding.

This was exactly what he had wanted to avoid.

"I’m going to my room." He pushed away from the railing, reached the balcony door and wrapped his hand around the handle.

Then he paused. He didn’t know why he said it. Maybe because he needed someone in this family to understand that this marriage did not have the ending they were all beginning to imagine.

"Mum..."

Eleanor looked over. He kept his back partly toward her.

"If this ends..." He stopped and corrected himself. "When this ends... I’m not trying again." That was the same thing, he said after Camille.

At some point, even an idiot learned to stop touching the hot stove.

"I never wanted to believe Lilian destroyed you that badly, D."

His first wife. The woman he had loved before he learned love could cripple you. He had been fresh out of law school.

Completely convinced he could build a marriage the way he built a case—give it everything, protect it fiercely and refuse to lose.

Then she had slept with his uncle. Eleanor stepped closer.

"Please, please, love... put just a bit of effort into this."

Dorian finally turned around. "A woman who wants to stay will stay."

"Not if you don’t try!" Eleanor said.

Dorian snapped. "I tried!" His voice cracked through the quiet balcony. "I fucking tried! I did everything I was supposed to do with everything that I was!"

"You tried with the wrong one, and then you just... stopped," Eleanor argued.

"Mum... not tonight."

There was enough warning in his voice for Eleanor to know she had reached the end of what he was willing to give her.

"Okay. I’ll... I’ll back off."

"Good night."

"Night, sweetie."

Dorian pulled open the balcony doors and stepped back into the house. Through the glass, she watched him cross the room toward Naomi. He leaned down and said something quietly to her. Naomi looked up at him, nodded, and Dorian disappeared down the hallway without another word.

Eleanor sighed. It was never easy being a mother. You spent years trying to protect your child from the world. You worried when they were babies, worried when they started school, worried when they began driving, worried when they fell in love.

Then they became grown adults with enough confidence to believe they no longer needed protecting.

And somehow, you worried even more. Because how exactly were you supposed to protect your child from himself?

She went back inside. "I’m heading to bed before your father’s voice drowns the house."

Ginny chuckled immediately. Naomi looked up from the binder.

"I don’t... I don’t understand."

For one alarming second, Naomi assumed Eleanor meant Maurice was going to get angry. Maybe start yelling.

He had been so quiet all evening that Naomi couldn’t imagine it, but perhaps that was how these things worked. Maybe the calm ones stored everything up.

"Dad hates going to bed without Mum. So he does this thing where he starts calling her name every minute and pacing the hallway to get her to hurry up." Ginny made a face. "It’s bleeh..."

It should have been funny. It was funny. But it was also strangely sweet.

"I think it’s..." Naomi hesitated. "That’s... you have a great marriage, Eleanor."

"Thank you, sweetheart."

Love had never looked particularly safe from where Naomi stood. Yet tonight she had watched Maurice refill Eleanor’s wine without asking.

Watched Eleanor automatically put aside the piece of duck she knew he preferred. Watched them disagree without one trying to humiliate the other.

It looked easy. They made it look easy.

Eleanor turned to Ginny. "Would you be a dear and get Naomi something to sleep in before you go to bed? And try not to stay up too late, both of you."

"Good night," Naomi said.

"Good night, love." Eleanor smiled warmly and headed in.

Almost on cue, a distant male voice carried through the house.

"El?"

Ginny groaned. "See?"

Naomi burst out laughing. "Oh, leave them alone. That’s adorable."

"It is not adorable when you’ve spent your whole life listening to it."

"How long have your parents been married?"

"They celebrated their 40th early this year."