If Blue had harbored any hope that Dean would instantly take his mother in his arms and tell her the time had come to work out their differences, he quickly disillusioned her by stalking out the front door. As his footsteps faded, Blue fixed a chipper expression on her face. “I think that went well, don’t you? All things considered.”

April did everything but lunge for her throat. “You’re a lunatic!”

Blue took a quick step backward. “Yet you’re still here.”

April threw up her hands, bangles jingling, rings flashing. “You’ve made everything worse.”

“Frankly, it didn’t look like things could get much worse. But then, I’m not the one with a hotel reservation in Nashville tomorrow night, so I might be missing something.”

The Vanquish’s engine roared to life, and the tires spun in the gravel. Some of the fire left April. “He’s going out to celebrate. Free drinks for everybody in the bar.”

“And I thought I had a twisted relationship with my mother.”

April’s eyes narrowed. “Who are you, anyway?”

Blue hated questions like this. Virginia would have answered that she was a child of God, but Blue doubted the Almighty was all that anxious to claim Virginia’s daughter right now. And explaining about Monty and the beaver costume wouldn’t exactly be putting her best foot forward. Fortunately, April had come up with her own explanation.

“Never mind. My son’s effect on women is legendary.”

“I’m a painter.”

Her eyes swept from Blue’s untidy ponytail to her scuffed black motorcycle boots. “You’re not his usual type of girlfriend.”

“Once again, my three-digit IQ separates me from the pack.”

April sank down on the next to last step. “What the hell am I going to do now?”

“Maybe you could try to reconcile with your son while you wait for the results from your latest round of tests. Considering the amazing strides doctors have made treating heart disease, I’m fairly confident you’ll get good news.”

“It was a rhetorical question,” April said dryly.

“Only a suggestion.”

April set off for the tenant’s cottage shortly after, and Blue wandered through the quiet, dusty rooms. Even the home’s renovated kitchen couldn’t cheer her up. No matter how pure her motivation, she had no business indulging her fairy godmother fantasy when it came to other people’s family messes.