Page 99 of Enchanted to Meet You

Jessica

For long life, vitality, and attractiveness, drink wine.

Goody Fletcher,Book of Useful Household Tips

“Of course I wanted to meet you,” Gaia said, tearing at the bread in the basket Mark had reverently delivered to our lunch table. Not that Mark knew Gaia was the mother of all creation. I highly doubted Dina had shared that piece of information with him.

But I’d introduced her to him as Derrick’s mother when we’d shown up at Mama Giovanni’s without a reservation after Gaia asked me to have a late lunch with her.

“Oh,Mrs. Winters!” Mark cried, his dark eyebrows nearly hitting the roof. “Yes, ofcoursewe have a table. You know, we’re big fans of Derrick’s.”

“Isn’t that a delight?” Gaia looked from me to Mark with eyes that shined. “Onedoesso want one’s children to be liked. It’s a pity when they aren’t. I do have some children who aren’t very much admired, you know. It’s the risk of having children. There’s no guarantee that all of the seeds we plant will flourish. Some can turn out to be damaged at the root. But everyone does seem to like Derrick.”

Mark’s eyebrows hit his hairline at the “damaged at the root” line, but he gamely escorted us personally to the best table in the house, the white-tableclothed table for two in the front picture window looking out over the Post Road.

“Here you are,” Mark said, pulling out a chair for Gaia, then handing us both menus. “Don’t hesitate to ask for anything we can get in order to make you more comfortable. Andbuon appetito.”

Then he was gone, leaving me alone with the Mother Goddess.

Or at least as alone as we could be, considering that right outside the window streamed hundreds of tourists and locals alike, coming to take in the official start of the Tricentennial festivities. The construction of the tents and dance floor for the ball had been completed, and the Post Road was now closed to vehicular traffic along the courthouse square, so pedestrians had taken over the thoroughfare to stroll in the late afternoon sunlight with Tricentennial Tricorns (cookies shaped as tricorn hats) and Connecticut Confections (bags of kettle corn). Soon, Gabby would change into her Harvest Princess gown and go out to offer unsolicited facts about West Harbor history to the tourists.

And I’d have to keep Esther from being attacked by either demons or wolves or both.

“Oh, Jessica,” Gaia explained with a sigh, “all of this is my fault. I’m the one who sent Derrick to find you.”

I stared. “You did?”

“Yes. I normally don’t interfere in my children’s affairs. It’s better if parents don’t, for the most part. Otherwise, how will they ever learn to stand on their own two feet? But I do so want Derrick to be happy. And Bart. Oh,Bart. He’s my damaged root. I’ve had several, of course, but he’s the latest.”

She waved to the server, who came hurrying over to refill our glasses from the bottle of pinot gris she’d ordered. She waiteduntil he’d gone away before continuing. “He was so thoroughly spoiled by his father, he grew up to be convinced of his own superiority over others. Now the only voice he’ll listen to is his own. It pains a mother to have to admit that about one of her own offspring. But in Bart’s case, it’s true.”

I was still trying to digest the fact that I was sitting at Mama Giovanni’s with Derrick’s mother, Gaia, and so had barely touched my wine, let alone any of the bread she was genuinely attacking. For such a tiny woman, Gaia had a pretty voracious appetite.

“So let me get this straight,” I said. “You sent Derrick to find me.”

“I did, yes.”

“Because you believe there’s a rift in West Harbor—”

“I don’tbelieveit, Jessica, darling. Iknowit. I think that should be obvious to anyone.”

“And you want him to be happy.”

“I do. Of course it’s wrong for a mother to have favorites, and I’m not saying that I do, but Derrick—he’ssensitive, don’t you think, Jessica?” Her dark eyes glittered intelligently at me over the top of her wineglass. “Perhaps every mother says her son is sensitive, but I’ve had many sons, and I know some of them have—how shall I put this? Lacked empathy. Derrick’s positively brimming with it. And I want him to be happy.”

“And you think...Icould make him happy?”

It was a guess. A wild swing at a ball I wasn’t even sure she was throwing in my direction.

She smiled and wagged a finger at me.

“Ah-ah-ah,” she said. “I told you. I don’t like to interfere—except when I have to, of course. I’m not saying whether or not you make Derrick happy. That’s for the two of you to decide.”

“Right,” I said. “But youdothink I’m the Chosen One.”

She laid a hand over mine, smiling warmly. “I do, darling. Yousaw for yourself what Esther was able to do in your presence. She really is a most remarkable girl.”

“She is,” I agreed. “And you’re reallyGaia? As in... theMother Goddess?”