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Regardless, he watched as Sally gave Norma Jean a glance, and Norma Jean jutted her chin out. Sally grabbed the crutch he hadn’t seen lying across the chair beside her and, without looking at him, limped slowly away from the table and toward the sidewalk.
“Now, if you want to dance, I’d love for you to dance with me,” Norma Jean said, giving him a sultry smile and putting one hand on his shoulder.
“Nah. I think I’m done dancing for the night. It’s time for me to go home. I need to get up pretty early in the morning to feed the stock.”
“Wait a minute. If you have time to dance with her, you can dance with me too.”
“I thought you were mad at me? Weren’t you not talking to me?”
“I decided to forgive you. Although, I’m going to change my mind if you don’t give me this dance,” Norma Jean insisted as what was left of the band started up another tune.
The talking on the beach had stopped, as everyone had been watching the scene before them, but as the band started up, people started moving and chattering again.
Still, Peter had lost his taste for any kind of entertainment. He didn’t want to hate Norma Jean, because Sally obviously didn’t, but he didn’t have to like her. And he definitely didn’t have to dance with her.
“Thanks for considering me, but I’ll pass.” He turned around and walked away. Although he could hear Norma Jean saying something, he didn’t stop to try to figure out what it was. For once, he was glad that the music drowned out the sound of someone trying to speak with him.
Sally was already out of sight, and Peter left without even taking a piece of Griff’s strawberry cream cheese cobbler. Which, in his mind, showed exactly how upset he was.
Chapter 4
“You know, Mom, nowthat all of your children are married, do you think it’s time for you to find someone?”
Lana laughed a little, as she straightened the cookie trays on the table. Sunday meant well, but she didn’t understand what it was like to be in her mid-fifties, already married and divorced once, already have a family, and not know how to fit into someone else’s family. When a person was young, they had their whole future ahead of them, and they were looking for someone to share it with, for someone to build something with.
Lana had already built her life. And men her age had already built theirs, too. Trying to meld two lives that were already in place together somehow... She just didn’t know if she would be able to do it. Or if she could find someone with whom she would want to put that kind of effort into.
The whole thing just seemed... Depressing.
“Aren’t you lonely sometimes, Mom?” Sunday asked, putting a hand on Lana’s arm so her hand stilled on the last cookie tray.
The lights sparkled, the breeze off the lake was warm, although it had cooled since the sun went down. Happy laughter trailed over the evening air, and she felt safe and content, surrounded by friends and neighbors and family. People she loved.
“Sometimes. But, God is really going to have to be clear if he wants me to find someone else.” She wasn’t going to just jump into a relationship because she was lonely. There was a lot more to it than that. When she was younger she would have had decades to spend with someone as they worked to allow their relationship to become a picture of Christ and the church, as God intended according to the Bible.
But now? She had so much baggage, and she couldn’t imagine meeting a man who didn’t have baggage as well. If he didn’t, what kind of life would he have had?
