“Iremember,” he sighed, looking back at me, and that little half-smile made an appearance.He raised his cup of coffee. “Friends?”
Itapped mine against it. “Friends.”
Andthere it was. The nail in the coffin. I couldn’t help feeling the whole thingwas a little bittersweet, in a pathetic sort of way. I barely knew him and Iwas actually sad that I would never kiss him again or tangle my fingers in hishair. But the conversation continued with him moving right into asking me whatI was reading, and I settled into the comfortable way I could just be with him.He teased me for spending money on drugstore romance novels, and with a roll ofmy eyes, I thought, this is a good thing.
No,scratch that.
Thebest thing.
CHAPTEREIGHT
HOLLY
Istared angrily at my phone’s calendar.
Ithad been four months since Stephen had left me. It was almost funny to me thatI could so vividly remember the day he crushed every semblance of myself-worth, self-confidence, and self-esteem, and yet … I could hardly rememberthe sound of his voice or the way he smelled right after a shower. My entirelife with him had become some faraway land that had stopped feeling real.Nothing more than hazy memories, maybe even dreams, and it was awful notremembering what I still missed so much.
Camilleclimbed onto the bed to flop down on my chest, licking my chin once she hadsettled. I smiled sleepily, scratching behind her ears.
“Atleast I have you to kiss me good morning,” I mumbled, my voice weighed down bythe lingering sleep.
Rollingout of bed, I left my room and headed into the kitchen to find Liz sitting ather laptop with her hands wrapped around a steaming mug of tea. She looked upthrough her thick-rimmed glasses and gave me a bright smile.
“Wow,you’re up! Good morning,” she said cheerfully.
Igrumbled my reply, temporarily hating her for possessing the ability to bechipper in the morning. I slumped into a chair next to her at the table andspotted the box of doughnuts. Without bothering to use my words, I pointed atthe box and by means of sister-to-sister telepathy, she knew exactly what Imeant and grabbed the very doughnut I wanted.
“Thankyou,” I said through a mouthful of iced pastry. “Anna happy to see her dad?”
“Well,of course, because he’s thefunparent,” she said nonchalantly beforetaking a long sip of her tea and then proceeded to smack her lips. “He andHeather are taking Anna to that new trampoline place today. I warned him aboutgiving her anything to eat beforehand, but let’s see if he actually listens.”She snorted a laugh and fidgeted with a strand of her blonde hair, probablyfantasizing about Anna throwing up all over Mark’s new Nikes. “I should’ve toldHeather instead, but she was busy with Jacob. God, he’s getting so big.”
Inever understood how Liz could so easily carry on a relationship with hercheating ex-husband and his mistress-turned-wife. She had once told me it wasbecause of Anna, but I sometimes questioned if they would’ve remained friendsregardless.
Somebonds can’t be broken, even after they’ve gotten a little bruised and ugly, andseeing the grin on her face, I wondered if I could ever reach a point of beingfriends with Stephen again.
Isnorted a laugh to chase that ridiculous thought away.
“Anyway,”Liz said, “I saw Esther outside and told her we’d help pull some weeds for hertoday.”
Ishot her a disbelieving look as I popped the rest of the doughnut into mymouth. “Is she okay with that?”
Lizgrunted a laugh. “Oh, hell no, but I’m afraid she’s going to break an arm oneof these days with the way she yanks at those things, and I don’t know aboutyou, but I’m really not up to helping her apply her bunion cream.”
“Orthe hemorrhoid cream,” I added with a shudder and left the table to getdressed.
***
Esther’sbackyard had been off-limits to her for years since realizing she could nolonger handle the stairs off her back deck. When I told her that my dad is acarpenter and perfectly capable of whipping up a nice ramp for her, she shooedthe very concept away, insisting she wasn’t old enough for a fucking ramp andthat she wouldn’t even know what to do with a yard that big, anyway.
Soher enjoyment of the outdoors was limited to the front yard, where she kept afew raised box gardens against the front of the house full of perennial plantsher son Robert had brought over for Mother’s Day one year. Her lawn andshrubbery were meticulously kept by a gardener Robert paid monthly, keeping theplace looking neat until the next time. But it was the time in between that wasthe problem.
“Esther,I’m not seeing any weeds,” I whined from my hands and knees, looking underneatha large juniper bush.
“Ohyeah?” She jabbed the tip of her cane towards something next to my hand. “Thenwhat do you call that?”
Sighing,I held the maple leaf up. “A leaf, Esther. I call it a leaf.”
Shelet out a huff. “Get rid of the damn thing. That Ricardo always missessomething.I don’t know why Robert wastes his money. I tell him there’s always leaves allover the place after that man has left.” Liz and I exchanged a look aftersearching the yard for any other rogue leaves. There weremaybetwo, andthat was including the one I held. “You girls want some cookies? I have a freshbatch inside.”
