“Well, who is he?” Christy asked, her meal forgotten.
“A guy I dated long ago.” But when Sam thought of Josh, her face must have changed. He’d called a couple of times since she got home. They’d done a lot of catching up. And she felt really happy about that. Josh looked at her as if she was still that girl from high school. His attention had almost made her forget the empty house.
Christy gasped. “You've been holding out on us.”
Suzanne managed a wicked smile as she lifted her drink. “Here’s to old boyfriends.”
The three of them toasted. The air was now filled with celebration and Sam’s spirits lifted. She was glad she’d come.
“Were you serious about him?” Christy was a dog with a bone.
“As serious as you can be in high school with watchful parents. That was before the accident.” Josh had helped her through the indescribable pain of losing both parents. Then they'd graduated and Josh set off for Notre Dame, while she went to a local college, staying home to be with her sisters. Even though Aunt Cate came to live for a while, Sam knew she had to be there. “We went to different colleges and drifted apart.”
“Your man from yesterday.” Christy’s dreamy expression almost made Sam giggle. And she wasn't a woman who giggled.
“What does this old boyfriend do? He must live in Charlevoix, right?” Suzanne asked.
Old boyfriend. Sam blushed, wondering how Josh would take being labeled like that. She couldn’t even look at them. “He's an orthopedic surgeon. Widowed now. Couple of kids. You know how it goes.”
“Orthopedic surgeon.” Christy repeated the words that would be trumpeted through the Oak Brook area. That giggle bubbled up again in Sam’s throat but she swallowed it.
“How long has he been widowed?” Suzanne asked.
“About two years, I think. He wandered into my sister’s coffee shop with his two children while I was there.”
“How romantic is that?” Christy looked transported by her own dreams.
This wasn't the time to admit that Sam had been wearing an old track suit when she ran into Josh or that her hair had needed shampooing. “I don't know about that but we have enjoyed reminiscing about old times. And then of course there was my accident on the cross country trail.”
“Tell us all about that.” Suzanne signaled to the waitress for another round. Sam began the story of that crazy day out in the snow, laying it on thick because she loved the change in their expressions. Did she even detect a little jealousy in Christy’s bright eyes?
Should Sam be telling this story…and embellishing it more than a little? But darn it, she did not want everyone feeling sorry for her. She would not be seen as the loser while Kurt created a new life for himself. So she launched into a retelling of her accident on the ski trail. Their eyes grew wide.
“I didn't know you cross country skied,” Suzanne said, as if Sam had been walking a tight rope stretched over the Grand Canyon.
“You had an accident? What happened?” Christy wanted all the details. “Are you okay?”
“My ankle still hurts a little. I was with my sister Marlowe and missed a turn. Went right down in the snow.” Sam laughed as if that had been the funniest thing ever when it had really been horrifying. With no control of her skis, she’d narrowly missed a tree. Her ankle had been badly sprained and Marlowe couldn’t get her back up to the trail. The ankle still gave her trouble and she’d given up on wearing heels.
“Then Josh came along.” She’d looked up to see him outlined by the sun, with his two children next to him. “Helped us out.”
“How convenient.” Suzanne seemed to approve.
“And romantic.” Christy looked lost in her own fantasy. “Are you going to see him again?”
“Oh sure.” Josh had left a message for her the night before and she hadn't returned the call. Sometimes she still couldn't believe this was happening. Call it imposter syndrome or whatever, was this really her life? And could she trust it? After the last year and her husband's abandonment, she'd lost a lot of faith in herself.
But as she wallowed in her doubts, her story had changed everything for her friends. The two women now saw her in a completely different light. Thank goodness. By the time the waitress came with the dessert menu, Sam was ready for it. Chocolate lava cake had never tasted so good while the others enjoyed pistachio cream cheesecake. They left each other with promises to meet up again. Sam didn’t know if she’d follow through on that. The evening had been exhausting. Maybe she had to rethink those two friendships.
When she reached the house later that evening, she was balancing the groceries she’d picked up at Whole Foods. Her phone went off just as she entered the kitchen. Bogart came out, winding his full gray tail around her ankles. With Josh on her mind, she answered the phone without thinking. “I know I haven't returned your call but I was going to.” She eased the bags onto the kitchen counter.
“No worries. I'm not on your case about it. We’re both busy.” It was Marlowe. Sliding a bag onto the counter, Sam sank onto a kitchen stool.
“It's good to hear your voice.”
“Why, what's going on?”
“Nothing. Everything. I just got home from dinner with old friends. It was going to turn into a pity party and then I mentioned Josh.”
