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Knox nodded but couldn’t quite picture the persona that Chrissy had claimed to have, even though everyone he spoke to yesterday backed up that claim. She seemed so down-to-earth and welcoming. Which made him wonder if Chrissy was right and Laura might not be as set in her ways as she’d come across.
"All I’m saying is that Laura is amazing, and any man who took the time and care to truly get to know her would see that and more. But to deserve her, it would have to be a pretty incredible man."
With that vague yet specific statement, Chrissy stood, leaving Knox once again speechless.
Had that been a wink-wink nod-nod to try and get to know her, or was she warning him off?
Knox wasn’t sure which, but the one thing he did know was that Laura Lopez was living rent-free in his brain, and he had no clue how to evict her.
6
Laura sippedher iced tea as she lounged on the deck in the back yard of her parents' house. All of her nieces and nephews, except for the two oldest, Marissa and Marianna, were jumping on the trampoline her brother-in-law had installed the summer before.
As she watched the kids play, her heart ached with the desire to have her own little one running around. She’d wanted to be a mom since before she was out of diapers. When she was still a baby herself, her favorite game to play was house. There were countless pictures of Laura still in diapers, feeding, rocking, and pushing around her baby dolls in strollers.
That had been her greatest desire since she could remember, and sometimes one had to ask oneself which mattered more: what you really wanted or what you wanted right now. Laura was at a point in her life where what she wanted in the moment was not important. The only thing that mattered was becoming a mom.
Last night had been the greatest test of that theory. Dancing with Knox had shown her that she had hidden strength. Never in her life had she been so attracted to a man. She’d read somewhere that sex appeal was just a pheromone. If that was the case, Knox Savage was her pheromone catnip.
Still, she’d managed to walk away from him. Even though she’d immediately regretted it when she got into her car and almost headed back into the wedding. Even though, when she got home, she forced her niece Marissa to binge-watch the newest season of Love is Blind while she alone devoured an entire carton of Ben & Jerry’s Half Baked and an entire bag of popcorn in an attempt to eat her feelings. But hey, she was only human. She would love to see any other woman who turned down Knox Savage handle it better.
This morning, she’d woken up with a little bit of a hangover and a lot of stomachache from all the junk food and wine. She would have bailed on the Sunday dinner if not for Marissa being at her house. Every Friday, her niece caught a ride to Whisper Lake with her dad, who drove a truck, and then Laura took her home on Sunday. Since she had to drive her niece back regardless; she’d decided to stay.
"Tia Lala!" Mikey, one of her oldest sister’s twins, raced up to her. "Did you see? Did you see me do the backflip?"
"What?! You did a backflip?!" she exclaimed to the eight-year-old. "Show me!"
His lips parted, revealing one missing front tooth, and he rushed back down the steps, hopped onto the trampoline, flung himself backwards, and rolled on his back to his knees. When he stood up triumphantly, she realized that was what he considered a back flip, so she began to clap and cheer.
It was clear that he was proud of his achievement, and that warmed her heart.
Her phone buzzed, and she looked down and saw that Kennedy had texted her a picture of a guy that she matched with on a dating app with three question marks. Since the dating pool was the size of a puddle in Whisper Lake and the surrounding areas, the two women always shot any matches to each other to see if they had already dipped a toe or not. And most importantly, if they had, had there been any red flags. Both Kennedy and Laura were busy women, and neither wanted to waste their time on men that had already been vetted by the other.
Laura immediately recognized the man. James was in his thirties, had played college and arena football, and was now the high school football coach in a town about twenty miles north of Whisper Lake. He’d been nice enough, but there just hadn’t been a spark.
Hopefully, things would go better for her friend, but she had a question first.
Laura:I thought you weren’t doing apps anymore.
Kennedy:My subscription is up in a week I figured might as well ride it out.
Laura:Got it. Dated once. Nice guy. No spark.
Kennedy tagged the message with a thumbs up.
"Mija, when are you going to settle down?" Laura’s Tia Angie asked as she stepped out onto the back patio.
If Laura had a penny for every time she was asked about getting married and/or having kids, she’d be a millionaire. That wasn’t hyperbolic; it was literal.
As much as she enjoyed Sunday dinners with her family, she was tired of having the exact same conversation over and over with her aunts, uncles, parents, cousins, sisters, and in-laws, who constantly brought up her singleness and the fact that she wasn’t getting any younger. As if that wasn’t all she thought about.
"You mean settle downagain,"Tio Hector chuckled at the same joke he made every time her relationship status came up.
Yes. She’d been married twice, and for a long time, she’d been sure that the third time would be the charm, but now she wasn’t even sure there would be a third time.
She was a strong, independent woman; she didn’t have to wait for a man to have a family. She could take matters into her own hands. Not that she planned on telling anyone who shared DNA with her. She loved her family, but she would not be inviting them along on her possible fertility journey.
"Hector, leave her alone!" Tia Angie swatted her husband of thirty years before settling down on the couch beside Laura. "I think maybe you’re just too picky. With all these apps, it’s too much to choose from nowadays."
