My Way Back to You (Harlequin Large Print Super Romance) by Pamela Hearon

was causing all these tumors in the mouth and brain she’d heard about recently.
    “Hey, Mom.” Maggie sounded more chipper than Rosemary had expected. Not a good sign. That meant she was forcing it, which inferred she was really upset.
    “Hey, darlin’. Just wanted to see if things were going okay.”
    Maggie’s sigh reduced the pretense a smidgen. “Things went all right yesterday. But I’m not much looking forward to today.”
    “I knew you wouldn’t be. That’s why I called. To let you know we love you and are thinking about you.”
    “Thanks. That’s sweet.”
    There was that uncharacteristic silence Rosemary detested.
    “And how are you and Jeff getting along?”
    “Fine. No problems.” Back to forced chipper, which set off alarms in Rosemary’s head.
    “Well...glad to hear that.”
    Silence again.
    “Russ and Jeff are playing in the golf scramble today. Each team member was allowed to choose a partner. I backed off, figuring Russ would rather have his dad on his team.”
    “What a shame you can’t play, too.” Rosemary tried to encourage the conversation by showing sympathy. “You enjoy the game. And you’re good.”
    “Yeah, but this is a competition Russ wants to win. Jeff will give him the best chance. There’s this guy Spike—his son’s on the team. He’s always bragging about how great he is at everything. I think our guys are out for his blood, so I hope they draw a good pair to team up with.”
    Maggie’s short laugh sounded more relaxed, but
our guys
was an interesting word choice.
    “So what are you going to do while they’re playing?”
    “Oh, I’ll follow along. I guess that’s what all the extra parents will do.” Now her voice sounded normal—maybe the mom-call had worked its magic, after all.
    Rosemary spied Eli’s cash box sitting on the kitchen counter where he’d forgotten it. “Well, I won’t keep you. I know you have a busy day ahead.”
    “Yeah. I need to get moving.”
    “Me, too. Your dad forgot his cash box. Love you. Give Russ hugs.”
    “Okay. Love you, too. Hugs to Dad.”
    They hung up and Rosemary realized she didn’t know any more about how Maggie was handling being around Jeff than she had yesterday. Her daughter was being very tight-lipped about her ex, which didn’t bode well by Rosemary’s way of thinking.
    She snatched up the cash box and headed into the August morning air, already heated and damp with humidity. The pole barn Eli used as his machine shop sat at the back of their large piece of property. She was in no hurry as she followed the gravel lane back to it. A chicken snake slithered across the path, several yards ahead, leaving a weaving trail in its path.
    “Snake in the grass.” She chuckled, remembering the epithet Eli had first used in reference to Jeff before he’d settled on son of a bitch.
    She’d been fond of Jeff when he and Maggie were dating, and once they’d gotten married, he’d tried hard to man up. They’d just been too young and had too many things stacked against them. But he’d broken her daughter’s heart—
that
she couldn’t forgive.
    Chicken snakes were easy to piss off and quick to bite.
    Yeah, that pretty much summed up the Jeff she remembered.
    The shadow of the pole barn brought instant cool to her sweaty back, and she stopped a moment to enjoy the sensation. No sound came from the barn. The eerie silence sent her into a near-jog.
    The sight that met her eyes when she passed through the oversize garage door brought her to a complete stop.
    “Eli? What are you doing?”
    Eli’s jumping jacks came to a halt, and he swung around toward her, surprise giving way to sheepish in a flash. “What do you mean, what am I doing?” He was winded and gasping for breath, face red from exertion. “Can’t a man exercise without being chastised for it?”
    She made no attempt to keep the suspicion out of her voice. “You work hard. And except for walking, you’ve never exercised a day in your