The firing of my mother had highlighted that we were from two different worlds and played on my every insecurity. I could see it clear as day now. She might’ve come from a toxic environment, but she wasn’t to blame for our adolescent ending. I was. I’d stopped believing she was good and kind and succumbed to everyone else’s opinion of her.
I couldn’t fix the past, but I could try to give us a chance at a future.
“It looks like it’s true,” she said, her tone confident. “I found an article from a business journal dated today. ‘Felix James Out as the Number Two Guy at Lansford Development.’” She laughed. “He must be losing his mind. What a glorious bit of long-awaited karma.”
I kissed her cheek, sharing in her joy that the bastard had gotten what was coming to him.
“I have one question for you,” I said as she sent Chloe and Presley a link to the business-journal article.
“Yeah?”
“How is it that you’re so normal compared to the shit show you grew up in?”
She laughed again, quieter this time. “Normal? I’m far from normal. I was good and screwed up, but I’m working on it with my therapist every week.”
She handed me her phone to set on the nightstand. I did so, then rolled on top of her, bracing my weight on my forearms as I peered down at her pretty face. “I think you’re amazing,” I said.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Could that be because I’m naked and under you?” she teased.
“I love it when you’re naked and under me, but I’d think just as highly of you if you were on top, riding me into the sunset.”
“Mmm,” she said, grinning. “Maybe we should test that theory. See if it’s true.”
I rolled to my back, taking her with me, drawing more laughter from her and loving the sound. Loving the way she felt on top of me, particularly as she kissed me and ground her hips against me.
When she stretched over to the nightstand and took out a box of condoms, I watched her hungrily. Impatiently.
Once she had me sheathed up and we slid our bodies together, I caught my breath, then said, “Yep. I was right. Pretty fucking amazing.”
Chapter Twenty
Magnolia
Thursday nights were poker night for the Dragonfly Diamonds.
Some people might not understand my deep affection for these ladies who were all in their sixties and seventies, but they were truly golden, no pun intended.
The night Felix had kicked me out, I’d spent it in my car, parked on a side street in town under the shadows of a grand, old, gnarled tree that seemed like a refuge through my tear-swollen eyes. That tree happened to be in Dotty’s yard, though I didn’t know it then.
Not only had she offered me the studio apartment above her store, but she’d given me a job when I had no work experience and only a burning anger and desire to prove to Felix I’d be fine without a penny from him.
She’d lent me a sympathetic ear and insisted I tag along with her to poker night to get out of my head for a few hours. I hadn’t known what to expect from the weekly gathering of these much-older-than-me women, but what I’d found was kindness, humanity, empathy, and encouragement. They’d applauded me for standing up to both my former fiancé and my father.
I shouldn’t have been surprised when I walked into Dotty’s home this Thursday evening to discover all six Diamonds waiting for me with expectant grins on their weathered but beautiful faces.
“What’s going on?” I asked slowly as I looked from face to eager face.
Loretta stood and hugged me. “We’re having a quiet little celebration this evening.”
“What are we celebrating?” I asked as Dotty took the bottle of gin from me. Normally I brought wine, but she’d suggested gin instead tonight because she had something special in the works.
“Karma,” Nancy Solon sang out.
Rosy McNamara broke out into the Taylor Swift song, making me laugh.
