AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well, you know how your father always claimed that we met when I interviewed for a job as his secretary and he told me flat-out that he couldn’t hire me because he intended to marry me?”
“That wasn’t true?”
“It was…and it wasn’t,” Joan qualified. “The reason he didn’t hire me was because I was a lousy typist.” She smiled. “But he did keep my number, and about a week after our interview, he called me up and asked me out. And a few weeks after that, he showed up at my door and told my parents we were getting married, said he’d known from the first moment he laid eyes on me that I was the one for him.” Her smile widened, bringing her whole face into play. “Over the years, the story…well, let’s just say it…evolved. Like when they say a movie is based on a true story. They change a few of the details, compress the time, so that what you get is essentially the truth, just more dramatic. And your father was nothing if not dramatic.”
“You must miss him so much,” Paige said.
“I do,” her mother said simply.
“I still can’t believe he’s gone.”
“I know,” her mother agreed. “When I started having that thing with my eyes…”
“You mean this morning? Your ocular migraine?”
Her mother nodded. “I turned to your father…well, where your father would have been…on his side of the bed…and I started to say, ‘Robert…’ I wanted him to assure me that I was just being silly, that I wasn’t having a stroke…as if he was still lying right there beside me. But, of course, he wasn’t. So then Iwassure I was having a stroke because, clearly, I was losing my mind…”
“Oh, Mom.”
“Oh, darling. You look so worried. Please don’t worry. I’m fine. The doctor said so. It’s just that…”
“Just that…what?”
“Well, this morning got me thinking. No, that’s not true,” she corrected immediately. “I’ve been thinking about it for a little while now, if I’m being honest.”
Paige had never cared for the phrase “if I’m being honest.” Whatever followed was rarely good. “Thinking about what?”
Joan Hamilton took a deep breath. “It’s just that life is such a precious thing, sweetheart, especially when you get to be my age. You can’t take anything for granted. We just never know how much time we have left.”
“Where are we going with this, Mom?”
Her mother took another deep breath, followed by an audible exhale. “Well, at lunch you said…”
“What did I say?” Dear God, what had she said?
“You asked me if I’d considered dating…”
She had?
“And you suggested that I go on that site of yours…”
“I wasn’t serious,” Paige protested, her voice louder than she’d intended.
“I know you weren’t.” Her mother smiled, her lips trembling with the threat of tears. “Of course you weren’t.”
Neither woman spoke for several long seconds.
“Forget I said anything. I’m being silly.”
“Oh, God, Mom. I’m so sorry,” Paige cried. “I didn’t mean…”
“I know you didn’t. Let’s forget the whole thing.”
“Are you lonely? Is that it?”
“I’m fine.”
“Look. I’m going to message that guy back, cancel tonight. We’ll go to the movie with that actor you like, then we’ll come home and finish off that lasagna.”
