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“Exactly. It was too hard. Toosad, really. And one day, my office assistant got this gigantic bouquet, and it perked the entire office right up. People kept stopping by her desk to compliment them, and she got to brag on her man about it. The flowers changed the flavor of the day for everyone, not just her. And I thought, whynotflowers? Why not spend my days making people’s days a little brighter instead of a lot worse? It all snowballed from there.”
“Huh. You didn’t think to get into another kind of law?”
“I was never really into it in the first place, truth be told. I did the law school thing to keep my parents happy. They wanted their oldest daughter to do something they could brag about to their friends, and I wasn’t about to be a doctor—I hate blood. I wasn’t going to be an engineer—math is not for me. So, I went into law.” She smirks. “And right back out of it.”
I chuckle. “It’s a meat grinder, to be sure.”
“At the barbecue, you mentioned you have kids. Do you like to talk about them?”
“That’s an odd question—
“I didn’t mean anything by it. It’s just with divorced dads—
“Mom did not fill you in on everything.”Ugh, what do I tell her?
“I don’t understand.”
“My wife passed. I’m a widower.”
“Oh,” her pretty brown eyes widen, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. And I’m sorry for your loss.”
I smile as gracefully as I can about it. “No worries, Ally. At our age, no one expects that kind of thing. I don’t usually talk about it, though. I hope that’s alright with you.”
“Of course. Whatever you need. Um, the divorce thing is why I asked if you enjoy talking about your kids. They can be a sore spot for single dads with joint custody and I didn’t want to walk into any landmines…so of course, I jumped full force into a big one.” She shakes her head at herself. “That’s just like me.”
I nearly chuckle. “It’s okay. You were trying to be considerate. I appreciate that. My kids are great. Ellie is six, Jonah is four going on forty.”
She laughs. “He’s the handful, then?”
“Indeed. A friend of mine is convinced he’ll be some tech genius, running the world in his teens…” It feels so wrong to call Autumn just a friend. But that’s what we are. Just friends. “And she’s usually right about everything, so I expect the FBI to knock on the door in ten years, give or take.”
“It’s not so bad when they do. Just be honest.”
My eyebrows jump up my forehead. “The FBI has knocked on your door?”
“Almost. It was the CIA. When I lived in France, I unknowingly contacted a spy from Israel.”
“How?”
“Israel has a thriving wine scene, and sometimes Israeli vintners toured the winery I worked at. I hit it off with one of them, and when I came back, boom! CIA.”
I laugh. “Oh, my god.”
“That was a crazy day,” she says with a laugh. “Thankfully, it was all cleared up shortly, but for a little while, they worried I’d become an asset of the Israeli government when really, I was just having the time of my life with a high roller.”
“A high roller?”
She nods and smiles. “We spent a magnificent weekend in Monte Carlo before he returned to Golan Heights. Or, at least, that’s where he said he was going. As it turned out, our trip to Monte Carlo was a cover for him, meeting with some other spies or something. The CIA wouldn’t give me too many details.”
“You have led one hell of an interesting life, Ally.”
“Thanks. And you? Tell me your story.”
I laugh and fight the urge to scratch my head. “Nothing that exciting has ever happened to me. Straight out of college, I married Stacy. We had two kids, she got sick and died, and I’ve been raising them myself—well, with the help of the best babysitter in the world—and that’s about it.”
“Oh, come on. Everyone thinks their life is boring until they really dive into it.”
I shrug. “Got arrested at Disney once for public indecency.”
