“Wolf Cubs?”
“Surely, you know them.” Thelma knew for a fact that Scouts were still around. She had seen them in the neighborhood, all dapper in their uniforms. “Boys who go out in the woods to learn survival skills. My son… he was about to join up when I had to leave.”
“Oh. Like Cub Scouts. Yeah, I remember.”
Is that what it’s called now?Like most other things, Thelma had to simply “roll with it.” “Got some plans for this fall, too. I like to keep busy.”
“I saw you were volunteering at the library. Where you going? If I may ask…”
“Sure.” Thelma eased into the conversation like warm butter sliding across hot toast. “Megan’s turning twenty-one in a couple of weeks and is insisting on taking me to celebrate.”
“Oh, man. Are you gonna be okay?”
“I better be. Because it’s happening.”
They continued to stand awkwardly, staring each other down as more shade gradually took over the neighborhood.
“Did you have something else you wanted to talk about? It’s been a while,” Thelma said.
Gretchen looked over her shoulder, as if any of the neighbors driving by in their giant vehicles could hear her. “I just wanted to apologize.”
“For what?”
“For whatever happened last time we… hung out.”
“Nothing happened, Gretch. I mean, nothing bad. Nothing to apologize for.”
“Sure, it’s just, you were quite adamant about leaving, and then we didn’t talk for weeks and then months. I thought Imust have done something. So, instead of letting it get worse as Christmas comes and goes, I thought I’d just apologize. So we could start over. Assuming you want to.”
Thelma grinned.
“What?”
“You areadorablewhen you’re flustered.”
“Aw, come on.” Gretchen kicked a pebble in the driveway as Thelma continued to laugh. “You’re making this worse!”
“How?”
“By making me think I coulda have been talking to you this whole time as if nothing happened!”
“What if that’s true?”
“Then I’m the biggest damn idiot in Van Nuys, Thel. Possibly all of LA.”
“At least you’re cute when you’re an idiot.”
“Not helping.”
Thelma brushed some hair off her cheek, not realizing that there was still dirt on her fingertips. “I should be the one who apologizes. What I did back then was born out of confusion and fear of moving on too quickly from my marriage.”
“I kinda got that feeling, yeah. Look, I don’t wanna rush you or anything. I just like hanging out with you. And, um, kissing you. I’m still thinking about it, Thel.”
She mimicked the carpenter’s stance by looping her thumbs in her pockets and cocking one knee out to the side.So wonderfully casual. I love it.“I’m still thinking about it, too.”
“So?” Gretchen’s arms flapped at her side. “You wanna go out again?”
“Well, now, that depends.” Thelma told her heart to calm down before it got overly excited. “There’s something you need to know about me since we last went out.”
