“She’s a card, ain’t she?” Brandon shouted towards Matty.
Matty smiled and walked away. She didn’t dare imagine why Gloria might need to find him.
***
Sloan caught up, trotting alongside Gloria, who kept the speed just high enough Sloan had to jog.
Sloan called, breathless, “Mother, slow down.”
Gloria cackled and kept going.
“It’ll do you good. Keep you nice and fit so you can keep up with the hippie.”
“I can keep up just fine, thank you,” Sloan countered. “And she isn’t a hippie.”
“If you say so,” Gloria called out.
Sloan was about to argue when an idea formed. Before she even had a chance to risk assess whether it was safe or not, Sloan saw her chance when Gloria slowed for a lamppost.
Sloan thought,‘Fuck it,’and hopped on. She gripped the back of the seat, feet leaving the ground as she swung herself onto the back.
“Ere, what are you playing at?” Gloria grumbled before speeding up.
“Doing what you keep telling me to do.” Sloan leaned in, close to Gloria’s ear. “Having fun.”
“Well, it’s about time, Sloan,” Gloria said, before twisting the accelerator and taking the scooter up to its maximum eight miles an hour.
***
Matty opened the car door, sliding into the seat that was usually Sloan’s. She’d learned to drive years ago and had owned a car for most of her adult life, until the divorce. Now skates were her fastest mode of transport.
The Saab was something else entirely—luxury that gave a small peek into a world she’d never inhabited before now.
She adjusted the seat and mirrors and started the engine, listening as it purred into life, the steering wheel smooth beneath her palms. Switching on the radio, she put it in gear and pulled away.
As she drove, she tried to take in what the day had turned into. It had started in such an intimate, casual way, yet there was nothing casual about the way Sloan Slater had made love to her that morning. It was strange to think how far she’d come—literally. She sniggered at her own joke.
She barely knew Sloan and Gloria, and here she was, being trusted with everything—with caring for Gloria, with being in Sloan’s home, and now, driving her car when she wasn’t even on the insurance yet.
Did it mean everything she hoped it might? Was it all too much, too soon?
She shook off the doubt. It wasn’t like her to fall into that trap. “Trust the process,” she said to herself as a song she knew came on the radio. She turned up the volume and put on her indicator.
Scanning the road ahead, she searched for Sloan and Gloria, and when her eyes finally landed on them, she almost gasped, then laughed out loud.
“Well, look at you, Sloan Slater.” She grinned at the spontaneous behaviour of her lover and her lover’s mother, who held her stick out like a knight on a steed, ready to joust.
Matty tapped the horn as she drove past and waved out of the window. Gloria sped along, with Sloan hanging on to the back, wind in her hair like she was having the time of her life.
Chapter forty-eight
The car was already parked neatly on the drive as Sloan stepped off the back of the scooter and waited while Gloria parked it up as close to the door as she could.
Using her lance for the stick it was intended to be, Gloria moved off the scooter and shuffled forward.
They didn't speak, the easy silence between them saying more than either could have managed out loud.
The door opened and Matty grinned at them. “Welcome home.” She held the door wide so Gloria could get through without a fuss. When it was Sloan’s turn to enter, Matty stopped her. “Having fun?”
