**Part 2**
A week later, Laura caught sight of the textbook in my bag. “Who’s teaching your final course?”
I named the professor.
“Please don’t create trouble before your wedding.”
“Arthur? We attended university together.” She smiled. “Mention me. I’m well respected in those circles.”
After class on Monday, I did.
“Laura?” Arthur laughed. “Good heavens. There’s a name I haven’t heard in years.”
“She’s going to be my mother-in-law. She says she’s well respected.”
His smile faded.
“What were you going to say?”
“There’s a name I haven’t heard in years.”
“Nothing appropriate, considering the connection.”
“Please. I’d rather you told me.”
He hesitated. “I don’t think I should. But if Laura talks as much about academic integrity now as she did back then, you might ask Nathan’s father how she managed to stay enrolled.”
“Why Ronald?”
“I don’t think I should.”
“Because he was there.”
That was all he would give me.
That evening, I told Nathan exactly what Arthur had said.
“My mother?”
“I don’t know what happened. Arthur wouldn’t tell me.”
Nathan shook his head. “She made me rewrite an entire assignment because I’d forgotten to credit one quotation.”
That was all he would give me.
“Maybe there’s an explanation.”
“Then let’s get one.”
The next evening, Nathan and I visited Ronald together. He went quiet when we mentioned Arthur.
“Your mother was young,” he finally said.
“So was everyone else there,” Nathan replied. “What happened?”
“Maybe there’s an explanation.”
Ronald rubbed his forehead. “She was caught copying answers during one examination. There were notes during another.”
“And she stayed enrolled?” I asked.
“Her father was the dean. Complaints went through him. Somehow, Laura always received another chance.”
“Did she know?”
“Of course she knew.”
“She was caught copying answers during one examination.”
I thought about Laura’s phone disappearing beneath the table and the certainty with which she delivered information she’d learned seconds earlier.
“Did she ever admit she’d done anything wrong?”
Ronald gave a tired smile. “Not to me.”
On the drive home, Nathan barely spoke.
“Not to me.”
Finally, he said, “Mom had someone clearing every obstacle out of her way. Your mother had nobody doing that, and she still looks down on her.”
At our next dinner, Ronald mentioned a proposal to turn an abandoned railway into a walking trail.
Laura reached for her phone.
“What do you think before you look it up?” Nathan asked.
“I’m checking a message.”
Laura reached for her phone.
“Then finish your thought.”
She placed the phone face down. “I’d need more information.”
“That’s fair,” he said. “So would I.”
***
Before our wedding, Nathan suggested both families spend a long weekend together at a rented house by the ocean. I hoped it would bring everyone closer.
“Then finish your thought.”
Mom immediately volunteered to make sandwiches for the drive and those lemon cookies Nathan liked.
“You’re supposed to enjoy yourself,” I told her.
“I enjoy feeding people.”
“You could try sitting beside them occasionally.”
“And do what with my hands?”
“Hold a glass. Accept a sandwich someone else made.”
She laughed. “You make that sound easy.”
“And do what with my hands?”
On Friday, before we left, I collected the printed place cards and other materials I’d ordered for the weekend.
At home, I spread everything across the dining table. Beside them was a smaller stack I’d made myself.
Nathan came in carrying groceries. “More wedding homework?”
“Weekend preparations.”
He picked up one of the cards.
I spread everything across the dining table.
“Don’t cheat.”
Nathan noticed the rest.
He looked at me. “Rose.”
“It’s insurance.”
“Against what?”
“Your mother is saying something to mine that I can’t ignore.”
“It’s insurance.”
“You’re expecting that?”
“I’m hoping I’m wrong.”
“And if you’re not?”
“Then maybe I’ll finally stop smiling through it.”
I slipped the cards into an envelope and packed them with the rest of our things.
Nathan didn’t say anything else about them.
“I’m hoping I’m wrong.”
