Page 44 of Bone’s Choice

I opened the door. “Ma?”

“In here.”

I stepped inside and shut the door behind me. “Smells good.”

“It better. It’s been cooking all day.”

I walked toward the kitchen. “I would’ve come sooner if you’d led with pot roast.”

“I shouldn’t have to bribe my own son into eating dinner with me.”

“You weren’t bribing me.”

“No?”

“No. You were manipulating me.”

“Whatever works.”

I stepped into the kitchen and stopped.

Hazel was sitting at the table with a glass of wine in one hand and a smile on her face.

Of fucking course she was there.

She looked different than she had the other times I’d seen her. Her hair was down tonight.

Dark waves fell over her shoulders, and she had on a blue shirt that dipped low enough in the front that my eyes went there before I could stop them.

Hazel’s smile grew. “Oh, look.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What?”

“The parking lot stalker.”

I pulled out the chair across from Hazel and sat.

Hazel took another sip of wine, and I watched her.

She lowered the glass. “What?”

“Nothing.”

“You’re staring,” she pointed out.

“I’m sitting across from you. Hard not to look at you,” I defended myself.

“Those aren’t the same thing.”

“Could move if it bothers you.”

“It doesn’t.”

There it was again.

That fucking spark.

Small, but definitely there.