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He pulled her from her chair and onto his lap. She curled around him and sighed softly. Now this felt good. It felt normal. Like the way things were supposed to be. Zeke and Mimi against the world and the hell with everything else.
“Do you ever think about leaving this town?”
“What?” She sounded surprised, but then he’d surprised himself, too, by saying it out loud.
“Just you and me. When Cameron’s off to school and it’s just the two of us again. Let’s go somewhere different.”
“Like where?”
“I don’t know. Australia maybe.”
“Australia?” She popped her head up off his chest. He gently brought it back down again. “You’ve never told me you wanted to see Australia,” she said.
“Or Hawaii.”
“Oh, I could definitely do Hawaii.” There was a hint of a smile in her voice.
“Let’s do it then. We’ll sell the house and I’ll get a job selling coconuts on the beach.”
She laughed and the sound soothed the churning in his gut. “Are you serious?” she asked. “Coconuts?”
“Or I could be one of those guys who plays with the fire in the luau shows.”
“Yeah, that’s more yo
ur style.” She snuggled tighter against him. “What about me? What am I going to do?”
“You can lay around in your bikini and inspire me.”
She snorted. “By the time Cameron goes off to school, I’ll be forty-one. I don’t think I’ll still be rocking a bikini by then.”
“Are you kidding? I’ll have to keep up my bad ass police skills to fight the guys off.”
“Bad ass, huh?”
“You better believe it. Or I could just knock ‘em on the head with one of my coconuts.”
She laughed again. Then she was quiet for a long time before she said, “I just wish…she’d told me. You know? This sounds stupid, but when Claire was little I had this fantasy that one day we’d be best friends and we’d tell each other everything. Like it was for Lorelei and Rory in Gilmore Girls.”
“You mean that T.V. show you used to watch?”
She nodded.
“You’re right, that’s a fantasy. This is real life. People aren’t perfect, Mimi. We make mistakes and we hurt each other, even when we don’t mean to.”
“I know,” she said softly. He could feel some of the tension leave her body. He wasn’t just talking about Claire, and she knew it.
He wanted to ask her to take him back. To let him come home and forget all about the past few months. But this wasn’t the right moment. This moment was about him taking care of her. The way he always had, and the way he always would.
It was Thursday and Mimi had been to the office every day this week. She’d officially joined the Rotary Club, the Whispering Bay Women’s Garden Club, and had attended the Gray Flamingos’ latest meeting, where Viola had asked her to make a speech. She was horrible at speeches. To tell the truth, she sucked at them, but the seniors were a friendly group and they didn’t mind that she had to occasionally read off her notes.
After her speech, she’d ducked out early, claiming a full afternoon’s calendar as her excuse. She wouldn’t have minded sticking around for the refreshments. Viola made a mean pound cake and Mimi had been after her for years for the recipe, but Betty Jean had tried to wave her over and Mimi simply wasn’t in the mood to hear any more armadillo jokes or give an update on her sex life. So Mimi had taken a slice of the cake to go.
She parked her minivan in the mayor’s spot and this time, instead of coming in through the back door, the way Bruce had told her to, she came in through the front door to the municipal building. Doreen was drinking coffee and seemed surprised to see her.
“This is four days in a row now,” Doreen said.
“How did Bruce get everything done and still hold down a full time job?” Mimi asked. “I feel like I have to be here all the time just to keep my head above water.”
