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“She went to the party at the lake tonight. I’m hoping there is a party at the lake.”
“There is. Nick went with some of his friends.” Hopefully he’d be nice to Di. They hadn’t talked about her or Graham since he’d blown up. And he’d said a lot of things that morning—some of which she was hoping were alcohol- and emotion-fueled, but she was too scared to find out.
The last few days had been relatively calm. As nice as it was, something had been missing. Not something—someone. Graham. And Diana.
“With any luck, she’ll have a good time and stay out of trouble.”
“Things better?” she asked, hoping so.
“I think so.” He chuckled. “But I don’t always know what’s going on in her head.”
It was easy to imagine his smile. But imagining Graham made it impossible to ignore how much she missed him. She opened her eyes, staring around the house. Honor was out with Owen. Jack was asleep. And she wanted him here, now. She wanted to have this conversation with his arms around her. She wanted to bury her nose against his chest—
“How’s Charity?” he asked.
She shook her head. How much time had she spent thinking about him over the last five days? Little things like making coffee—he liked it black. Or petting Pecan—she still needed to replace his phone. And lying on her bed—aching. The ache was always there. Like now.
“Felicity?”
I’m here. Mentally torturing myself. And aching. “What?”
“Is Charity feeling better? Dr. Luna said she was pretty shaken when she saw her in the ER.”
“Yes, she is. As scared as she was, I think the UTI made her realize she wanted this baby.” She shook her head, smiling. “She still believes she’s missing the parenting gene, but I’m hoping she’ll get over that as her pregnancy progresses.”
“And you?” He paused. “How are you?”
I miss you. “Fine. A little tired.” Partly because I’m lying in bed thinking about you instead of sleeping. But sharing any of that with him would only complicate things. “The whole toddler sleep schedule is taking some getting used to.”
“I don’t envy you.” He chuckled. Oh, how she adored the sound.
“And you? What are you up to? Home alone?” she asked.
“I’m good.”
“Then why are you home?” She paused, finishing off her wine. “I might be chained to a toddler, but you are not. You should go out. Turn off whatever sad documentary you’re watching and go have fun.”
“How do you know I’m watching a documentary?”
“I’m hanging up.” She laughed. “You’re going out.”
“Felicity… It was good to hear your voice.” His tone was deeper, gruffer, and her insides turned molten. And his words had her grinning like an idiot.
“You, too,” she whispered. Too good. Enough with phone calls or daydreaming. “Bye, Graham.” She hung up and headed straight into the kitchen to refill her glass. She wasn’t going to think about Graham going out and having a good time. It’s not that she didn’t want that for him—she did. At the same time, she didn’t. Widow Rainey might have mentioned something about Graham and pretty Miss Takahashi to Charity when she’d stopped by the travel agency. According to her sister, the old woman was convinced the two of them would click. And she and the widows were developing a plan to get them together.
Felicity had been careful to act like it wasn’t a big deal, especially since Charity had been watching her like a hawk. But it sort of was a big deal. Did she want Graham clicking with someone else?
What is wrong with me? I’m a terrible, selfish person.
A terrible, selfish person who was going to turn off all thoughts of her kids, Graham…everything. Wine, a bubble bath, some music—she could relax. It had been a while, but she was going to give it a try.
Right.
It took twenty minutes to locate her stress-relieving bath bomb and another ten minutes for her rarely used oversize claw-foot tub to fill. While the water was rising, she plugged in Jack’s baby monitor and put on a playlist with soothing natural sounds like waterfalls, birdcalls, and other ambient noise.
Relaxing. She twisted her hair up and clipped it on the top of her head, stripped, and slipped into the hot water and eucalyptus-scented bubbles with a sigh. Relaxing.
“I can do this.” She rested her head and took a sip of her wine.
