She drew a long breath. “Try to understand, I loved your Mum awful. She was dear to me. We understood each other. We worked together like gears in a machine. I admired her so much and she was so devoted to your Pa, of course I came to feel the same way about him. It wasn’t a chore, mind you. I always thought he was a lovely man. Not in a romantic way. A respectful, admiring way.”

“I understand.”

“I adored them both. And when your Mum was dying, she asked if I would stay on when she was gone. Not for your Pa’s sake but for Little and Trudy and Kirsten. And I promised I would. You know this.”

“Of course I do. I don’t know what we would’ve done if you hadn’t. Especially the girls.”

“It was an easy decision. I love this town. I love the hotel. I love the river and the community. I love the girls and Little, Minor and Nalle…” She swatted his arm again, lightly this time. “And I love you, you big lump.”

“But do you love my father?”

She nodded. “I do. I’m not settling, if that’s what you mean.”

“I don’t object to another woman loving him. He’s not a man to go through life alone. And neither are you.”

“I’m thirty-six. Long ago I accepted I wasn’t going to have a home and kids of my own. It was too late even before the war, and then the war blew any chance I had to bits. But I felt part of your family, and it was a good life. Trudy and Kirsten were so young and so attached to me, I could sometimes pretend they were my girls. And now…” She sniffed, but her face had gone soft, all lit up from within and lit up from without. “Here’s your Pa. This lovely man. And maybe it’s not too late after all. But I can’t say yes to him unless it’s all right with you. Minor and Nalle, too. But mostly you.”

“Do I have to call you Mum?”

“I’ll thump you if you do.”

“Well, then let me be the first to say congratulations.”

“We have your blessing?”

“You don’t need my… Yes. If it means that much, yes.”

She exhaled and gave a little laugh. “What a weight off my chest.”

He took her hands and squeezed them, then playfully examined her bare fingers. “No ring? I’m going to have to take the old man to task.”

“I don’t need a ring.”

“Oh, but you do.”

“Well, I wouldn’t have accepted one until we’d talked. And cripes, if I was nervous about telling you, your father was tied in a knot.”

“Why?”