“Mom!” I exclaimed, eyes wide as I gaped at her. “What are you doing here?”

“Damn, you make even white leather look good!” She gave me a huge hug, dropping her bag and pulling me close. The scent of lilac and redwood filled my senses, and the broomstick pressed into my back. She stepped away with a hand on her hat to keep it from falling off, and her eyes glinted with unshed tears.

“I flew in this morning,” she said, glancing down at her badge. “I wanted to see you. I knew if I waited around, you’d show up in the middle of trouble. And here you are!”

I gave her another hug, not believing this. The woman at the table gestured for the next person in line, and we moved to the side.

“Mom, I’m glad you’re here,” I said, thinking she looked great, her red hair cut in a bob and her jeans and T-shirt showing off her figure. Now that she wasn’t dressing down, we could almost be sisters. Dread hit me, though, as she started moving us to the double doors. If things didn’t go well, this might be the last day I’d ever see her.

“Come on,” she said, taking my arm and leading me forward as if we were going for coffee, not finding seats at my trial. “Trenton got us seats up front, but if you wait too long, numbnuts start trying to sit in them.” She turned to look behind us. “Hi, Ivy. It’s good to see you,” she said, and Ivy murmured something back, never quite comfortable around my mother.

My mom’s pace faltered as she gave Pierce the once-over. “Wallace, eh?” she said dryly. “You must be Pierce. Nice to finally meet the man who got my daughter her first I.S. record. You’ll do, I suppose. I hope you’re good in bed. It’s a pain in the ass trying to train you men to do what pleases a woman.”

I caught a glimpse of Pierce’s shocked expression, but my last fear had been banished. It was my mother, not a look-alike. If it came into her head, it came out of her mouth.

“Mom…,” I protested, but she was off again, saying it was good to see me and that she liked my hair like this, asking me if I’d been in St. Louis when the arch fell down, and what about that earthquake this afternoon? Wasn’t that something? I knew her chatter was her way of coping, and I said nothing but made the odd noise at the right moment.

The double doors opened before us as someone went in. My eyes rose, and my feet kept moving. The muffled noise hit me first, and the smell of foam and the cotton fabric on the chairs. It was all blue and gray, and they were piping in music. It was nearly full already, and the sound of a hundred conversations was daunting, even if the acoustics had been arranged to soak it in. The stage was a good fifteen feet below where we’d come in, well lit, with a podium in the middle and an oval table holding six chairs facing the audience. Oliver and Leon were already there, ignoring the mass of people as Oliver talked and Leon listened.