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“Well, you did offer.” His face flushed.

“No, I told you what I wanted.”

“And… can’t we?”

“Give me 20 minutes to shower,” I said, “Then you’re mine. I don’t want to hear about wet hair.”

“I don’t mind if it’s wet. I’ll pull it all the same.”

Cole took off at a lope and I shook my head. Flirting on horseback was a rare occurrence. I’d take the W.

21. THE DANCE

COLE

One Saturday night, I packed into an ostentatious entryway at a massive house in Lake Forest with Brynn and Felix to watch a parade of children headed to a dance pretending they were grown-ups. The girls dressed together. All had hair and nail appointments. By the end of what my ex-wife referred to as “the glow up”, Piper looked twenty-nine.

Parents in this area were loaded. So, of course, they hired a party bus to take kids to the dance. We all chipped in. It was annoying and over-the-top for a once-a-quarter social gathering, but I played along. Piper’s face said it all. She felt beautiful and alive.

“Your Piper is a doll,” one mom said. “Such long legs.”

“She’s grown a foot overnight, I think,” I said. “Fresh growth spurt. Which one is yours?”

“Krista,” the woman nodded at a tiny blonde giggling with a black-haired boy. “I’m Maura.”

“I’m Cole,” I said.

“So you all are… new?”

“It’s a long story. We lost everything to the F-4 that blew through. So, we moved in with a… colleague,” I said.

“Your wife is pretty.” She nodded at Brynn. “Must be where Piper gets it from.”

“Oh,” I said. “Brynn and I are divorced. Her husband, Felix, is right over there.”

She was flirting. It was plain as day Brynn and I were not together and that she’d somehow managed to trade up to a younger model. We were cordial, but nothing more. It should have flattered me, but I found it exhausting. Even if Maura was the nicest woman in the world, she had a daughter and this place was a fishbowl. I was much better off staying far, far away from the north suburban fray.

I spotted Felix looking awkward as Brynn talked to another mom and decided speaking to him was better than leading Maura on.

“These people are…” Felix looked around. “This house is…”

“It’s a lot,” I snickered. “And keeping up with these other kids isn’t simple.”

“We’re fortunate,” Felix said. “But the square footage and taxes up here have to be insane.”

“The taxes on this house probably cost more than my mortgage out west,” I said. “It’s wild.”

“They can complain about city life all they want, but even cleaning all of this would exhaust us.”

“They don’t,” I said. “Chloe even has a cleaner that comes in.”

“Chloe is your… landlady?” Felix asked. “Chloe Markham?”

I nodded. “I think we’re all more friends now, but technically, yes.”

“What is that like? Have you been rubbing elbows with the mayor?”

I laughed. “Nah, man. I’ve met him before—back when he wasn’t yet mayor. He’s not around a lot. I think Chloe visits him with his wife and kids down in your neck of the woods. She has friends come by, but honestly keeps to herself a lot.”