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“Whatever works,” he said, hoping she’d say that.
They ordered their lunch. “Did you watch a movie last night when I was gone?” she asked.
That was his normal thing on the weekends. They didn’t always watch TV together. They didn’t like the same things and he was positive she thought he was lame and wanted to be in her room anyway.
He remembered those days and let it go.
But she’d come out and see him always with some movie on.
He wasn’t about to say he was on a date.
Not yet.
Not until there was another one. Or even more than one more.
“Yeah. Some older one I’ve seen a few times. Before your time.”
Which wasn’t a lie.
It was background noise while he was in bed thinking about the girl he once thought he could love, only to find out how different they both were.
Or in her eyes how they were.
But here they were over two decades later, ready to give it another shot and it was the only thing he could think about.
That, and how to not blow it this time.
12
MORE SCANDALOUS
“Let me see that baby,” Marly said on Saturday afternoon. “Or is she sleeping?”
“I’m just getting ready to feed her,” Regan said.
Her sister-in-law picked Zola up from the playpen in the living room and handed her over.
Marly cuddled her five-month-old niece, inhaling the fresh scent.
“I swear she gets cuter by the day.”
“She does,” Regan said. “I’m biased, I’m sure, but she does.”
“You’ve got the Conway eyes,” she said, rubbing her nose against Zola’s. “And Mommy’s chin.”
“And my lips,” Regan said. “Cheeks too.”
She laughed. “Aside from her coloring, she looks like you.”
Regan was moving around her kitchen, warming the bottle, and then asked, “Do you want some tea or coffee? Wine?”
“Too early for wine. Coffee would be great,” she said.
Regan handed her the bottle and she popped it in Zola’s mouth while her sister-in-law pulled down two cups and stuck one under the spout. “Got a flavor you want?”
“Any will do.”
Marly was almost shuffling around the kitchen, her hips rocking some while the baby slurped down her bottle.
