I wouldn’t take her handout. But a deal? A deal I could do.
“I’ve been thinking about hiring a professional organizer to get all my closets and drawers and stuff straight. How about you help me with that in exchange for rent?”
I put my hand out to shake hers. “But it has to be in addition to my normal hours.”
“Fine,” she said.
I exaggerated a sigh and said, “Somebody’s got to look after you. You’re a damn mess.”
“Preach it,” Marcy said.
Gray laughed and backed up to where Andrew was sitting on the stool and rested against his leg. He slid his arm around her stomach. “No use wasting this gorgeous day,” she said. “I vote we finish this up on the lawn.”
I grabbed one of the plates and walked into the sunny living room, the rays warming the floors, making them look like fresh honey.
I breathed for the first time in a long time without thinking about where I was going to go or work or eat. For a minute, for now, I had a place in this world. I couldn’t believe it, but for the first time in a long time, I felt like I belonged.
CHAPTER 6
gray: strangers, plural
Lying on my back on the grass, Andrew on one side, Marcy on the other, Diana in an Adirondack chair dozing, Trey sitting at the edge of the dock with his feet in the water, it finally hit me that I had gone on my first date in more than twelve years. I had kissed a boy who wasn’t Greg and slept with my head on his chest. I had allowed a relative stranger to stay at my house. Looking over at Diana, I realized I had better make that strangers, plural.
But maybe this shouldn’t have surprised me. I was a notoriously generous drunk. I made huge donations to charities, placed ridiculous bids on auction items, volunteered to help friends with projects I had no time for.
But sharing this house that I loved so much, this place where I felt calm and free and alive, was something I had always enjoyed no matter what frame of mind I was in. And maybe that’s why it actually felt kind of right.
Yawning, I finally said what I had been thinking for hours. “I can’t bear the thought of selling this house.”
Andrew stroked my arm. “I wouldn’t want to sell it either. This place is awesome.”
Marcy sighed. “For the millionth time, Gray, don’t sell it. Keep the place.”
“I thought you had to sell it in the divorce,” Andrew said.
Marcy laughed with a snort and said under her breath, “She could buy the whole damn street.”
Andrew rolled over and rose up on his elbows, lifting his sunglasses to show me those gorgeous eyes. “Hotandrich. I knew it. Youarethe perfect sugar mama.”
My mouth widened in surprise, and I slapped his arm as he laughed.
“I’m kidding, I’m kidding.”
Diana chimed in, coming out of her doze at the perfect moment, “All kidding is at least ten percent truth.” Then a moment later: “Why don’t you keep the house, if you love it so much?”
I looked up into the sky, the clouds lazily floating by, sun warming this little patch of earth so perfectly. “I guess I thought it would be weird, you know? Like this was our dream house, and now that he’s gone, the dream is gone.” I sighed. “But I can still sort of see myself here at seventy years old, watching my grandkids run around in the yard, taking the boat across to the club.…”
Andrew leaned over and kissed me, his warm lips melting into mine.
“Get a room,” Diana said under her breath.
It was one of those perfect early-summer mornings where the breeze is blowing enough to keep the heat down and the mosquitoes away and you’re surrounded by people whose company you enjoy.
I was wondering when Andrew was going to leave so the rest of us could recap the night when he stood up and said, “Can I call you tomorrow?”
I patted his hand and looked from the sky to his face, where a five-o’clock shadow was forming, making him even more gorgeous, if that was possible. “You are so sweet, but you don’t have to pretend this is more than a one-time thing.”
“I’m not pretending, Gray. I can see this going somewhere.”
