Brave the Heat by Sara Humphreys

with the paper napkin and avoided his mother’s inspecting stare. She sure did have his number. He and his brothers never got away with much because his mom always seemed to know what was going on. It was uncanny.
    “So?” Wiping the excess water off the counter, she continued her inquiry. “How was it?”
    “Is this it?” His dad emerged with an ornate crystal vase that, as far as Gavin was concerned, looked exactly like the two he’d brought out before. “It was on the bottom right.”
    “Yes, thank you.” She took it from him, and he planted a kiss on her cheek.
    “No extra charge for kisses.” His dad winked and smacked her on the butt again. “Or that.”
    “Stop being fresh,” she said. “Gavin was telling me about his visit with Jordan.”
    “Oh yeah.” His dad leaned on the counter and nodded. “I heard she was back in town; I’m not surprised. Old Brookfield is always home. Besides that, her father is on his way out.”
    “Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy,” Gavin grumbled.
    “Gavin Charles McGuire,” his mother huffed. “That is unkind.”
    “Yeah? Well, so is her old man.”
    “He’s not wrong,” murmured his father.
    “Be that as it may, I don’t want to hear you all say things like that.” She fluffed the arrangement of roses.
    His mother’s intelligent greenish-gray eyes peered at him from between the yellow blooms, and he was instantly reduced to feeling like a five-year-old. He fought the urge to squirm on the stool.
    “He’s a dying old man, Gavin, and I think it’s wonderful that Jordan came home to make peace with him. Not for him but for herself. Besides, I know her mother has been itching to have her and the girls back in town. Poor woman hasn’t even been able to get to know her grandchildren. Can you imagine?”
    “I can’t believe Jordan wants to see the old son of a bitch again.” Anger shimmied up Gavin’s back. “How could she forgive him after the way he treated her?”
    “I’m not talking about forgiveness for him, Gavin.” Her voice softened. “It’s about Jordan. You can’t undo the past, but you certainly can make peace with it in order to have a happier future.”
    Gavin nodded slowly while holding his mother’s knowing gaze. Why did he think she was talking about more than Jordan and her father?
    “Now, Charles, please take these lovely blooms out to the table in the front hall. That way I can look at them every time I come in and out of the house.”
    “Yes, dear.” His father scooped up the vase. “We have to get a move on, or we’re gonna be late for that appointment with the caterer.”
    “Oh, look at the time.” His mother peered at the digital clock on the stove. “We have to be there in twenty minutes.”
    “Caterer?” Gavin picked up his plate and glass with the intention of putting them in the dishwasher, but his mother beat him to it. “For what?”
    “Our anniversary party.” She shut the stainless-steel door of the machine and punched a couple of buttons. Then she untied her apron and tossed it on the counter. “As you know, Daddy and I will be married forty years this August.”
    “That’s a long freaking time,” Gavin said with genuine awe.
    “Yes, it is, so we decided to throw ourselves a party.” She grabbed her pink purse off the little chair in the corner and murmured, “Though how it’s been that long is beyond me.”
    “When?”
    “Saturday the twenty-eighth of August, and it’s going to be right out here on the lawn overlooking the ocean. We’ve got a big tent rented and an eight-piece band. The whole shebang!”
    “It sounds more like a wedding,” Gavin said, rising to his feet.
    “Well, I can’t very well wait for one of you boys to get married, now can I?” She scooted around the corner of the granite island and patted his cheek. “The rate you all are going, I’m never going to have any grandchildren. My goodness, God certainly does like to take his time. I mean, for heaven’s sake, it