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“Exactly! I need some of these hot-ass pool boys in my bed. Guarantee they can go like that little battery bunny.”
“Lifeguards,” I correct her, watching as Lyn finally shuffles into the shallow water. Since she’s in the splash pad part of the pool, the water only goes up to her ankles, but I know she’s making sure that it isn’t too cold so she can go under the mushroom fountain.
“Tomato, Tomato.” Wanda laughs. “I’d let them slut me out from here to Timbuktu.”
My cheeks heat at her language—part of it from her crudeness in a public setting, the other from the thoughts her words evoke.
Being someone’s anything is in itself inherently hot. Being someone’s slut? Doing things you normally wouldn’t, but for them, you’d do it all?
God, what I wouldn’t give for that. What I wouldn’t give to just feelwanted. It’s been longer than I’d like to admit, and today’s dating pool lacks any sort of connection I’ve always craved, so the veryideaof being slutted out is more than appealing.
“You know who I’d become a complete whore for?” Gennie sighs, her eyes sliding over to me. “Theo fucking Beckham.”
Oh. Okay. So it’s clearly Call-Out Olivia Day.
“Oh my fuck, yes. I miss seeing him around here. Best lifeguard we ever had,” Wanda adds. “And that ass? It was so tight and muscular.”
“Didn’t he have a thing for you, Olivia?”
“No, absolutely not.” I wave them off, ignoring the erratic flutter in my stomach as I search for Lyn. She’s under the bright red mushroom, sitting cross-legged, watching all the other kids run around. She’s my little anti-social butterfly.
Molly shakes her head. “No, I’m one hundred percent sure he did. Any time we were here without you and Lyn, he would be up on his perch, watching the entire pool like a shark could pop out at any second. But when you came around? He always found a reason to be on the ground and over by us.”
I chew on the bumpy inside of my lip, letting the lie slip freely. “That doesn’t mean anything.”
“It means everything.” Gennie scoffs. “If I didn’t have my ball and chain, half of these lifeguards could easily find me in their bed. I still can’t understand what your aversions are to younger men.”
My mouth pops open, hoping to push the topic onto something less… sensitive. “Because they don’t know what they want, and Lord knows I can’t afford to be another option. And stop. You love Bill.”
Bill’s the best husband out of our entire friend group, always really attentive and supportive of Gennie’s seventy-five different entrepreneurial ideas. When it comes to their three kids, Bill is always ready to build a lemonade stand for the girls or volunteer for the boy scout camping trips.
If I’m being honest, I always sort of envied Gennie for having Bill. He’s the father who keeps striving to be better, even when everyone around him thinks he’s perfect. Not to mention, he looks at Gennie like she’s the sun, the moon, and the stars in between.
Gennie sighs. “Of course I do. I just wish sometimes he’d smack me around a little.”
A round of unified gasps erupts.
“Wait. What?” Wanda puts a hand on Gennie’s knee. “Are you okay?”
Gennie laughs, grabbing a bottle of sunscreen. “Yes. Sometimes I just kind of feel like we’ve gotten stuck in this vanilla routine, and I need a little spice every once in a while.”
My cheeks heat. I’ve always had desires I never really said out loud, and the one time I did to Sam, it ended with me never wanting to open my mouth again. I had to learn to shove those thoughts down and hope they’d wither and die.
They haven’t.
Molly nods. “Oh, I know exactly what you mean. My husband did the whole breakfast in bed this morning and had the kids make me homemade cards. It’s lovely and all, but sometimes I wish Mother’s Day meant more than flowers and a day on the couch.”
We all murmur our agreement. For me, Mother’s Day has looked the same all six years. Waking up, making Lyn and I breakfast, then working from home while doing all the arts and crafts my daughter wants.
But as Molly and Gennie mentioned, I finally decided I wanted to do something different this year. Something for myself.
So when I saw the popular B&B, Carnations, was having a Mother’s Day Inn special, I couldn’t resist.
Later, after taking Lyn home and getting her ready to spend the rest of the day with my ex, I’ll be speeding there. The only minor setback is I have to finish a report to send off by tonight, and my laptop has been acting like a total asshole.
“Hey, Wanda. Is your husband free to take a look at my computer? It’s been slow the last couple of months, but lately, itdrags.”
“Oh, honey, I sent that man fishing for the weekend. Mother’s Day gift to myself.”
