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She sat at the table, turning her empty coffee mug back and forth. She couldn’t imagine how to bring Mike into Hazel’s life now. It made her heart heavy with sorrow...for everyone. She knew it would hurt him terribly. But her daughter came first. He’d always known that. Her phone jumped and buzzed on the table, making her flinch. She checked the caller ID. Vickie. She thought about ignoring it, but that wouldn’t solve anything. Her godmother would just show up at the door if she didn’t take the call.
“Hi, Vickie. Not a great time—”
“So it’s true? Hazel saw you and Mike...?”
Zoey glanced at the wall clock. It had been less than two hours since Mike and Mary left.
“How the hell do you know that already?”
“Mike went to Maura’s. She just called me.” Vickie’s voice was soft. Worried. “What happened?”
Zoey gave her the highlights of the story, sparing a few of the details. She told Vickie about Hazel’s reaction, from the hysterics to the icy anger.
“It had to be quite a shock for her,” Vickie said, stating the obvious. “She’s a hormonal thirteen-year-old who just watched her dad marry another woman. She’s going to have a baby brother. Now she sees her mom... Ofcourseshe acted out.” Vickie paused. “Don’t take her words to heart—hell hath no fury like a teenager who just discovered life isn’t always going to go their way.”
“It was my job to help her navigate that lessonwithouther finding me naked with a man in my room.” She was still turning the coffee mug with her free hand, back and forth. Back and forth. Stuck in the same pattern, over and over.
“Yes, it was,” Vickie replied. “But life is like that—we often end up learning our lessons the hard way. She’s a smart kid. She’ll come around to see things more clearly once she stops having her temper tantrum.”
“She walked in on usnaked. And...we were...clowning around. Laughing. Mike was dancing...” The image made her cringe. “Thank God he had his shorts in his hand, so he could cover up a bit. You can’t imagine how bad it was.”
“I don’t think I want to.” Vickie chuckled softly. “But I’m assuming he didn’t have you tied to the bed or anything?”
“Of course not.” Although he had playfully threatened to do that someday.
“And he wasn’t spanking you? No cat-o’-nine-tails in his hand?”
“Awhip? No! We were just laughing. While naked.”
Vickie was silent for a moment. “Naked laughter is some of the best laughter.” Vickie coughed softly, and Zoey wondered if her godmother and her new beau, Gordy Lexiter, had shared naked laughter together.
“She walked in on us, Vickie.”
“She walked in on two adults having fun. I know you didn’t want your daughter seeing you like that, but you weren’tdoinganything wrong. You could even think of yourself as role modeling a healthy relationship.”
For the first time in hours, Zoey smiled. “I know you’re trying to make me feel better, and I appreciate it, but...no. It’s such a mess. I miss my mom.” Those last words surprised her, coming straight from her brain to her lips. Tears pooled in her eyes. “I misshavinga mom, Vickie. I got cheated out of that, and now I’m just flailing around with no clue what I’m doing. And I miss Dad, too.” It made her even more sad to realize that hole would always be there. Both her parents were gone. She took a breath and tried to stop the crying jag she felt coming on. “Did Maura say how Mike was?” She’d basically thrown him out of the house.
There was a pause. “She said he opened a bottle of her favorite whiskey, drank one shot, then put it away again. He’s worried about you and Hazel.”
Zoey stared out the window at the bright and sunny day, such a contrast to the atmosphere inside the house. She was worried about her and Hazel, too. And she was missing her best friend.
Hazel cranked up the volume on the music in her room upstairs. It was now at window-rattling levels. She was probably trying to bait Zoey into coming up there and telling her to turn it down, just to spark another argument. But she was out of luck, because Zoey didn’t have any fight left in her.
“Zoey? Did you hear me? Do you want me to come over? What’s all that noise in the background? Are you watching a movie?”
“No, don’t come over. I’m wrung out, and Hazel and I need to hash this out on our own. When she’s ready.” She stretched, then stood and took the coffee mug to the sink. “Thanks for calling, Vickie, but I have to go.”
She was good at fixing things, but repairingthisparticular mess could require skills she wasn’t sure she had.
“SITTINGATTHEBARon a Tuesday?” Finn O’Hearn slid onto the barstool next to Mike. “I’m surprised you came out of your house, now that you’re famous and all.”
“Famous?” He looked up from his dark beer to see his friend grinning. Mike groaned. He knew the story of what happened last week had made the rounds of their friends. They all knew Hazel had walked in on him and Zoey, and that Zoey had ghosted him ever since. But none of them had dared tease him about it yet. “I’m nowhere near ready to laugh about this, Finn.”
“Okay, but you gotta hand it to Hazel. She knows how to make a moment go viral.” Finn nodded at Kelly behind the bar, and she began pouring him a pint of Guinness. When it was done, she slid it across the bar.
“How’s our little Moira doing today?” she asked Finn.
Finn’s smile returned, wider than ever. “She’s brilliant, thanks. Still doesn’t want to sleep all night, or even half the night, but brilliant other than that.” He took a sip of his beer. “I sure hope she never gets mad enough to burn me and Bridget the way Hazel burned this guy.”
