I pondered what our lives would have been like had we not made it here to Firefly Cove. How many experiences would she have missed out on because of our unsavorycircumstances? I thanked my lucky stars every single day that we ended up here with our little “family”.
That evening, as I was cleaning the last dish from dinner, elbows deep in the sudsy water of the sink, Ray had burst through the front door and stormed into the kitchen.
“We’re going out this weekend!” she exclaimed, as if it had already been decided.
I fished a dish from the sink, rinsed it, and placed it on the drying rack before turning towards her. I propped my hip on the counter, wiping my hands with the dish towel that was slung over my shoulder as I regarded her with my eyebrows raised.
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah, we all need a night out. You need to celebrate making it through living with these nasty ass men. I need a babysitter’s night out, and the guys could probably use a beer or two after having to pull baby cows out of asses this week.” She plopped herself into one of the dining room chairs and I walked over to take the one beside her.
I set the baby monitor down on the table and Ray quickly snatched it up, taking a peek at the angelic sleeping baby in her crib.
“God, she’s so fucking cute.” She sighed, then set the monitor back down, turning the screen to face me, and propped her hands under her chin, batting her eyelashes innocently in my direction.
Ray had quickly grown on me, her spitfire personality never giving me any question about where she stood. She didn’t hold back in her words or emotions, and it was refreshing knowing exactly what she was thinking. Over the last couple of weeks, we’d become pretty close.
“So, what do you say?”
“What do I say to what? Going out this weekend?” I asked, fiddling with a string on my shirt that I’d noticed was coming unraveled. I made a mental note to grab a couple of fresh shirts from the boutique when I got my first paycheck.
“Duh. I’ve already talked to Angie down at the coffee shop. She said she would be more than happy to watch Charlie for parent’s night out.”
“I don’t know, Ray,” I hesitated. Leaving Charlie here at the house with Ray was one thing. Leaving her with a stranger who’d only seen her in passing was another.
While Firefly Cove was a small enough town, I just questioned if it was acceptable for a mother to get a babysitter to go out to a bar with her friends.
“I can smell your brain burning with all the thinking you’re doing,” Ray joked. “It’s okay to take some time for yourself every now and again, Stella. Also, Angie has babysat for my dad on occasion when he has to work an overnight shift and I’m not available. I’m sure if she’s reliable enough for the chief of police to allow her to watch his kids, she can tackle Charlie.”
She reached over and laid her hand on top of mine. I rolled my lips in contemplation. Could I go out for a night out with my friends and not feel the overwhelming weight of mom guilt?
“Okay, how about this?” she said, tapping her chin in thought. “We go out on Friday night. Angie will come over AFTER you’ve put Charlie down for bed. She’s been sleeping really well, so it should be a breeze. We will have you home before you turn into a pumpkin at midnight.”
She held her hands up in front of herself in question.
One thing I’d learned quickly about Ray is that she talked animatedly with her hands. If her mouth was moving, so wereher hands. It was as if she had an excess of energy that needed to be expelled when she was passionate about something, and it came out as hand gestures.
“Have you talked to Max and Wade about this?” I asked.
“Talked to us about what?” A deep voice came from the hallway.
Max walked into the kitchen wearing a pair of grey sweatpants that slung dangerously low on his hips, a fitted navy blue tee with a white outline of a saddle bronc rider on the left chest, and his hair was still damp from a shower.
My mouth suddenly went dry, and I fought for a coherent thought. What was it about a man in grey sweatpants and straight out of the shower that made every woman a bumbling mess?
Ray answered for me, much to my detriment.
“The fact that we’re all going out to Jack’s on Friday night after Charlie goes to bed,” she answered definitively.
Well, I guess that was that.
“Is that so?” He questioned, quirking an eyebrow in my direction.
“I’ve already asked Angie if she will come and sit over here while Charlie is asleep,” Ray once again answered for me.
I nodded and averted my eyes from that delicious eyebrow quirk and the little smirk that was playing on Max’s lips.
In the last few weeks, things have been nothing but cordial around the house between Max and I. I had managed to live with him and Wade with no issues. Though, I will not say that it’s been easy, at least not for my libido.
