“But you’ve been alone, Zach,” she says, her tone gentling. There it is. The pity. I drop my eyes to the floor between my boots to avoid looking at her or Joel. When my mother speaks again, it’s quiet, just for me. “You know marriage isn’t supposed to be like that, right? Not all women are like her. There’s someone out there that will stay, Zach. Not out of obligation, or fear, or convenience, or manipulation. Because theywantto.”
I hate having this conversation. So, I nod. “I know.”
I don’t know, though. Watching Britt choose to abandon her kids, choosing to walk away, has left a sour taste in my mouth where women and relationships are concerned. I don’t think Ihave it in my heart to fully trust another woman, especially with my kids. They don’t deserve to be abandoned once, let alone again and again when dating fails and they inevitably walk away in the end.
I’m sure Louise is a nice girl. She’s sweet—and I grudgingly admit she’s fantastic with my girls—but I don’t know her nearly well enough to trust her. She’s beautiful and radiant and funny as hell… but opening up again feels as impossible as growing a set of wings.
“Bring your new neighbor to dinner next week,” Mom says again.
I sigh. “It’s really not like that with her, Mom—”
“Then she can come as a friend. You do still have basic manners, correct? You know you can just be friendly and not a surly beast all the time.”
Joel chokes on a drink of his beer and coughs to clear his airway. I glare at him.
“Okay. I’ll ask her.”
Mom nods, slicing through the lasagna in the pan. “Good. Now, who’s hungry?”
Twenty-One
Louise
“You can’t use the word CUMSHOT!” Darci protests, her mouth hanging open.
I’m officially dead. I’m full-onwheezing.
I’m laughing so hard I have tears blurring my vision. Sienna has fallen sideways into me on the couch and half behind me, screaming with laughter.
“Says who?” Grandma Jude asks, completely unfazed.
“Where did you even learn that word, Mother?” my mom exclaims, her cheeks turning pink.
Grandma Jude rolls her eyes, picking up her vodka tonic and taking a drink. “Please. It’s all over in those new smutty romances Tessa brings over.”
“Mother!”
“Oh, come now, Rebecca, do you think I haven’t sucked a dick in my day? Just because everything is covered in cobwebs right now—”
Sienna and I slide off the couch onto the floor we’re laughing so hard now. Tess is laughing, too, and Darci is trying not to, but failing miserably. Our poor mom. Her face is priceless.
“You can’t use that word!” Mom insists.
“What are you, the Scrabble police?” Grandma Jude harrumphs, eyeing her daughter. When Mom doesn’t respond, Jude nods. “That’s what I thought. CUMSHOT. Fourteen points.”
“There’s no way that’s a legal word,” Mom mutters, shaking her head.
“Actually, according to Google, ‘The term “cumshot” is generally considered a valid word in Scrabble, but can be debated among players. Ultimately, the decision may depend on the group’s agreement on what constitutes a valid word in the game,” Tessa reads aloud from her phone. She looks up from her phone screen and shrugs. “I think it should stand.”
Flat on my back on the floor between the couch and the coffee table, I swipe my fingers beneath my lower lashes, wiping the tears away. Oh my god I needed that laugh.
Everyone needs an unhinged and feral granny, I’ve decided.
Not sure I love it all the time, especially when she’s offering to find me a sugar daddy while out for brunch, but I wouldn’t change Grandma Jude for anything. There’s a reason she’s my best friend.
“Well, if we’re allowing dirty words—” Mom mumbles from above the table, and I hear the click of tiles being set down. Sienna and I scramble to climb out from under the table as peals of laughter echo above us. “BLOWJOB. Twenty-one points.”
“ORAL. Four points,” Darci says, laying down her tiles.
