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I push back the memory into its usual hiding place in some small corner of my brain. I need to focus on my sister-in-law now.
“Yeah, but he’s a husband and dad now. It’s totally different,” I assure her, my skin feeling sticky suddenly. Maybe it’s the Georgia humidity, or maybe it’s this web of deceit I’m spinning. Because I honestly don’t know if anything’s different right now.
“You always make me feel better,” Ava says.
“Then call anytime. I never sleep.”
“Up worrying about him too?” She chuckles suddenly, and the sound seems almost forced, as though she’s desperately trying to lighten the mood. “Or are you passing the time with that hot new housemate of yours?”
I laugh. “How can you tease me about Dax at a time like this?”
“Because I desperately need some kind of distraction from the sting of tears in my eyes. And maybe you need a distraction too.”
I breathe out a long sigh, picturing my housemate. “I don’t think I can handle the kind of distraction I want with him. Besides, he’s an Army guy. You think I want to fall in love and double my misery?”
“Love is worth it,” she tells me, words I’ve heard many times from her, even back when Harris and she were just dating. Ava and I became fast friends from the moment Harris introduced her to me.
“Not the way I’m looking at it,” I mutter back. I wonder how she could even encourage the concept of it right now, with her so worried about Harris. Love might be worth it when he’s around, living a predictable life with her and her son. But now?
“Okay. Then a fling,” she suggests. “A nice summer romance together.”
“Summer romance.” I snort, remembering my last legit summer romance when I was a junior camp counselor at fourteen years old. “I think I’m too old for that.”
“Oh, come on. You’re too young to be this jaded.”
“I’m not jaded. And I’m totally overdue for some romance. But not with a military guy. It’s my rule.”
“A stupid rule. Besides, he’ll be moving out after summer’s over, right? That would keep things simple. You could enjoy summer and then part ways, no strings attached. You said Freya’s the one who sent him to you for some pie. She’s usually pretty effective when she sets couples up. Look at Harris and me.”
“Freya didn’t set us up.”
She laughs and it’s the first time in this conversation when it sounds genuine. “It’s cute that you think that.”
I scrunch up my brow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing. Forget it. Get yourself home. Get to bed. You wake up so early in the morning. You should be a mom.”
“Gotta find the right guy first,” I remind her. “Andnotmy housemate,” I add quickly, sensing she’s going to say something.
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Call me anytime,” I remind her yet again.
“You too, Sis. Thanks. Love you, and love this family I married into.”
“We love you back.”
I slide the phone into my pocket and smile briefly when I see the lights on in my house, grateful for the presence of another human being in there right now.
This is only the second weekend that Dax has been in that upstairs room. Yet already, my dog has become very accustomed to having another person to share her house with on the weekends.
And maybe I have too.
“Hey, I’m home!” I call out when I walk in. Never good to startle a guy in the military, I figure. Junie jumps on me with a little less enthusiasm than she usually does, leading me to call upstairs, “Does Junie need out?
“Nope,” Dax says as he pops his head out from the kitchen, startling me.
“Oh, I thought you were upstairs.”
