“Okay, Dad!” Amy cut in loudly before he could say another wordabout his body functions. “If I hear from her, I’ll have her call you immediately. Talk to you later?”
“Okay, honey,” he said sadly. “Do you think she might be having an affair?”
“Dad. No. I really don’t believe that. Mom is loyal.”
“I hope so,” he said.
“I’m sorry, but I have to go.”
“Sure, sure,” he said. “Talk to you soon.”
“Love you,” she said, and clicked off the phone before he could suggest another possibility. “Jesus,” she muttered.
She was, of course, curious about what was going on with her parents, but she really believed it was a misunderstanding. And she had bigger fish to fry at the moment—find her dog and her lover.Ooh, she liked the sound of that.
Lovah, said like a real Carrie Bradshaw. She was a Carrie Bradshaw!
She quickly changed clothes, brushed her hair out, then went outside. She found both dog and lover easily enough—one was sitting in the other’s lap at the firepit. Duchess had curled into a perfect bagel. The dog didn’t look that cozy even when she was sleeping next to Ethan. “I think my dog has found a new favorite person.”
“It wasn’t hard,” Harrison said. “A couple of sniffs of the biscuit, and here we are.”
She smiled warmly. “Sorry I’m late.” She slid into the Adirondack chair next to Harrison’s. “My dad called.”
“Now dad, huh? That must make it a trifecta, right? Kid, ex, and now dad.”
“The only thing missing is my mom, and according to my dad she is literally missing.”
“What?” He looked at her with alarm.
“I think she is alive and well and reached out to me with her grocerydelivery. It’s a miscommunication of some sort.” She picked up the box of Cheez-Its from a tray and ripped the top off. “Speaking of groceries, may I offer you some delicious cheese snacks?”
“You may.” He put Duchess on the ground, then reached to a table on the other side of his chair and picked up a glass and handed it to her. He’d already made the margaritas.
“You salted the rim!” Amy exclaimed with delight.
“The mix package came with two salts. One very spicy, one very standard. I erred on the side of caution.”
She took the drink from him, clinked his glass in a happy-hour toast, then they each took a handful of crackers. The fire Harrison had built was perfect. The smoke lifted up to a twilight sky, making the lights across the lake look hazy.
Harrison rubbed his thigh, complained that he was sore after Hillary had worked him over. “She doesn’t look that tough, but she’s got some mean hands on her.”
Amy confessed that her eyes burned from focusing on a canvas. “I think I need some new readers,” she said. “Or, dare I say it, some progressives. It’s happening, Harrison—the old is coming for me.”
“Between the two of us, it sounds like we are one step away from giant TV remotes.” He lifted his margarita. “Here’s to middle age.”
Amy lifted her glass. “To middle age.” She settled back, smiling. If this was middle age, it was awesome. She felt like a younger version of herself, but with all the confidence she’d lacked then. It was amazing—she was still a person in her own right and not just someone’s mother or wife or sister or daughter.
Harrison asked her about the last movie she saw. They talked about their favorite films and landed on a couple that they both thought were top-notch. Somehow, the talk turned to high school—of course it did—because when two people met and became friends, they eventually madetheir way there. Harrison said he was a quiet kid who played a lot of golf. “I bet you were one of the ones always in the mix.”
Amy laughed at how accurate that was. “I had a fear of missing out, the likes of which have never heretofore been seen. So I joined everything. Went to everything. Drove my parents crazy with the amount of activities I undertook.”
They talked about hobbies…or rather, the hobbies they wished they had. “I wanted to do something with marine life,” Amy announced, even though it had been ages since she’d even been to the coast. “When I was thirteen, I had more dolphin books than the library.”
Harrison’s answer was more surprising. “Welding,” he said without hesitation. “I wanted to learn to make things.”
“What’s a profession you would never do?” he asked. “Like if someone offered you millions, you still wouldn’t do it.”
“Medicine,” Amy said immediately. “I could hardly handle my kid’s bodily fluids.” She shivered, just thinking about it. “You?”
