“My grandmother spoke about you. Tonight, I mean, when my mother and I went in to see her.”
“She did?” Hearing that brought unexpected tears to my eyes.
For the first time, Roe really smiled. “She wanted to know how the pretty blond boy was.”
“That’s sweet. She’s going to be okay. We have to believe that.” When did it become a “we”? I wasn’t sure if Roe caught my slipup.
Shocking me further on this incredible night, Roe laid a hand on my knee. “We do. And I’m including you in my ‘we.’ I can’t tell you how much it meant not only to my mother, but to me to have you with us tonight at the hospital. I know we’re virtual strangers now, but you’re still the biggest part of my past. I haven’t forgotten you. I never did.”
I had to leave before I did something ridiculous like kiss him. The turmoil of the emotional night boiled over, and I hoped he didn’t feel me tremble before I pulled away. “I should go home. It’s been a crazy night, and you need to get some rest.”
Looking confused, Roe said nothing but stood and watched me as I pulled out my phone and called a car.
“Please let me know how Nettie is? Take my number.” My hand rested on the doorknob. Lucky for me, Roe had remained out of arm’s reach. I found him too enticing and didn’t want to wreck the tentative friendship we’d begun rebuilding tonight.
“Of course.” I watched him enter the digits into his phone.
That was better. We’d gone back to being cordial, even though I wanted to run across the room and rip his clothes off. I checked my phone and saw my car was waiting.
“I have to go. G-good-bye, Roe.”
Without waiting for him to respond, I fled.
* * *
“You did the right thing.” Bright-eyed, Sunny gave me a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. “It wasn’t the time or place for sex.”
Fatigue weighed my entire body down, to the point I couldn’t even fake a smile. Once home from Roe’s, I’d only managed two hours of sleep. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror hanging in my office and immediately turned away. That Monday morning Sunny made me feel every one of my forty years, and I was grouchy enough to almost regret hiring someone much younger. How could I bitch to him when my problems were almost as old as he was?
“I thought you’d say anytime, anyplace when it comes to sex.” I sipped the juice and checked my phone. Ten o’clock. I wondered how Nettie was and if Roe would actually call me with an update.
“Maybe when it didn’t mean anything. But sex isn’t something to be trivialized or thrown away indiscriminately. It matters who you trust with your body.”
“You’re a romantic. I never would’ve guessed. I thought you were more into freedom to be whatever you wanted, self-expression and all that.”
“Well, being with Angie makes me look at things differently now.” Pink tinged his cheeks. “Back to you and Roe. Are you going to call your parents? It’s seven in the morning there. They’ll be up already.”
Uncharacteristically nervous, I couldn’t keep still. I drummed my fingers on the table so fast, Sunny put his hand over mine.
“You’re freaking out. Why?”
I couldn’t say. I’d sat across boardroom tables from the biggest producers in Hollywood and Broadway and fought like a lion for my clients, but thinking about questioning my parents if they’d lied to me about Roe made me want to puke. I was seventeen again, lost and unsure.
“I’m okay. Here goes nothing.”
But as the phone rang, I realized it might be everything. FaceTiming them would work best. I wanted to see their eyes, their facial expressions when I asked them. But they remained out of reach, the screen dark and disconnected.
“Huh. No answer. I’ll call the house phone.”
Marguerite, the housekeeper we’d had for thirty years, answered. “Ezra? How are you, honey?”
“Good, thanks. How’re you?”
“Everything’s fine. You know your parents aren’t home, if that’s why you’re calling.”
My heart sank. “No, I didn’t know. Where are they?”
She snickered. “Your mother decided she and your father needed a break. They’re at a retreat in the desert. No phones or any kind of communication allowed, unless it’s an emergency.”
