AMARA: It sounds heavenly
LANA: You’ll find it
AMARA: Honestly, I’d rather not
AMARA: I settled for Jacob and I have no idea why
AMARA: No offense
LANA: None taken
LANA: I settled after a while
AMARA: But now you’re being rewarded with orgasms from a hot young guy
LANA: Silver linings
AMARA: Are you seeing him again?
LANA: Hopefully. It’s just hard with the kids.
AMARA: MAKE TIME
AMARA: Seriously, despite your tough exterior, you have such a soft center
LANA: Pretty sure that’s my slow metabolism from starting perimenopause early
AMARA: That’s a thing?
LANA: It’s definitely a thing, just wait.
AMARA: Okay, well, shut up and take the compliment—you deserve to have adult time where someone else takes care of you
LANA: He really was attentive
AMARA: See? Let him spoil you, girl—all the attention, affection, and orgasms
LANA: I’m going to try
AMARA: Do it. Do it for both of us. I need to know it can still happen.
I wantto reply something snarky but I know she needs this—needs to know that what happened with Jacob wasn’t the last chance at happiness.
LANA: I’ll make sure of it.
7
MASON
“Hey, Mama,” I call from the front porch before opening the screen and walking into Flora Thayer’s house. I’d long since given up waiting for her to open the door, but I hadn’t quite gotten to thejust walk in the housephase either.
“Hi baby, is everything all right? You haven’t cleaned out my leftovers this week,” she says wryly as her lips pull up into a smile. She might pretend to be affronted, but I’ve learned that this woman has never made a small meal in her life. Her children are grown but she cooks for an army, and if nothing else, the lure of leftovers is enough to bring at least one of her kids or their spouses over each day.
The Thayer matriarch is all of five foot nothing with a slender frame and auburn-colored hair. She exudes warmth and comfort, and I’d let myself get swept away in her kindness—in her desire to mother me.
Something I’d never known.
It took Bodhi longer to come around, his emotional warmth hovering just around lukewarm on a good day.
