Chapter Eighteen #2
“Yes. That bad. You acted like a jerk to me and Mr. Russo.” She softened a little. “I assume something’s up with Lilah, and if you don’t want to talk about it that’s fine. But don’t take it out on me.”
For a long minute he didn’t speak, then finally, glumly, he said, “She wants to spend the summer in Colorado with her mom.”
“The whole summer?”
“That’s what I said.”
She looked over at him. “And you told her no.”
His shoulders sank. “I reacted badly. I might have said some things about her mother I shouldn’t have.”
“Oh boy.”
“Yeah. It pretty much went downhill after that.”
“Maybe you can talk to her when she gets home. Is the friend’s mom bringing her back, or do you have to pick her up?
” They were almost back to Glenn’s house now, turning onto his quiet street.
Hardly any cars out at ten o’clock on a Friday night in Laurelton.
At one time, she would have chafed at the lack of hustle and bustle.
At this time on a Friday night—any night—the city was just winding up.
But she’d come to enjoy the slower pace, even found herself listening to the crickets when she took out the trash.
“She’s sleeping over at her friend’s. Right now, I’m enemy number one.” He pulled into the driveway and hit the garage opener. “Sorry about tonight. Can we try again? I promise not to be an ass or a jerk or rude…or what was the other one?”
“Extremely frustrating.”
He let go a smile for the first time. “That I can’t promise.”
She laughed. At least he was honest. “Tell you what, I’ll take you up on that drink.”
“Here?”
“Well I wasn’t talking about going all the way back to Easton.”
They went inside and she shed her bee suit and he poured them each a glass of wine. “White’s all I’ve got,” he said.
“White’s good.” She followed him onto the deck, with Charlie shambling along after.
The evening had cooled, and she slipped on the jacket she’d brought. A moon had come up, and in the soft light the hives looked like a village of tidy starter homes. You couldn’t even tell that twenty were missing.
“So are you going to let her go? To Colorado?”
He rubbed his face. He looked worn out. “I don’t know. A month ago this wasn’t even on her radar. I mean, she hadn’t seen her mother in four years. I feel like she’s gone from zero to sixty in about ten seconds. I can’t keep up.”
“Believe me, I know that feeling,” she agreed. “Their emotions are all over the place at that age. Girls especially. What was she like when she was little, before her mom left?”
“Happy, great. Like any little kid. I don’t think she realized how disengaged her mother was. I picked up the slack—gave her a bath, read stories, all of it.” He lifted a shoulder. “It didn’t feel like work to me. I loved doing it. I never understood how Sophie didn’t connect.”
“Lilah feels safe with you. That’s why she’s pushing back.”
He looked skeptical. “It feels to me like she can’t get away fast enough.”
“You’re home base. You’re there for her. I’m sure she doesn’t want to upset you, but like you said, it’s her mom. Of course she’s going to jump at the chance.”
He was quiet for a minute, gazing out toward the hives. “I guess I’m scared. I get that it’s important for her to have a relationship with her mom, but I don’t trust Sophie. My gut’s all over the place on this. I want to do the right thing, but I don’t know what that is.”
“Sometimes it’s hard to know the right thing. God knows I’ve made mistakes with Andrew.”
He glanced at her in surprise. “You seem like you have it all together.”
“Oh no, I’m still winging it.”
He cleared his throat. “I uh…I’m sorry for the way I acted tonight. You didn’t deserve that.” His hair was rumpled, and he was wearing a UVM t-shirt that had seen better days.
She leaned forward and kissed him on the lips.
“What was that for?” His eyes crinkled in an appealing way.
“You’re forgiven.” She kissed him again, more slowly this time, and he drew her into his lap. Even after the whole sweaty business wrestling the hives, he smelled salty and good.
He nuzzled her neck. “You know, Lilah’s spending the night at her friend’s.”
“I thought you were upset about that.”
“I was,” he ran his hands lightly down her waist, “until this very forward woman climbed into my lap.”
“I didn’t climb into your lap, I just ended up here!” She tried halfheartedly to wriggle off, but he grinned and settled her more firmly. “Oh no you don’t.”
They were both a little breathless, and her heart was beating in a crazy sort of way.
Not like when she went running. When she ran, her heart rate ramped up at a steady, regular pace.
She knew what to expect at mile three and mile five.
But now her heart was swooping around in a very unpredictable way.
“Shouldn’t we get out of this chair?” she murmured.
He pulled back, serious now. “Are we doing what I think we’re doing?”
Were they? She hadn’t been with another man besides Phil in twenty plus years. Was it too soon to sleep with Glenn? They’d only been going out a few weeks. What if she was boring in bed? How would she even know?
“I didn’t mean…we don’t have to…” he said when she hesitated. “I just thought…”
Her heart beat in her throat. “I do want to. Very much.”
“It’s been a while,” he said once they’d made it upstairs to his bedroom. A no-nonsense room—the bed neatly made with a navy spread, a few framed photos of Lilah at various ages on the dresser. He looked nervous too, which made her feel better.
“Me too.”
“A very long while.”
She had to smile. “What, you think you’ve forgotten how?”
“It’s possible. But I’m a quick learner.” He kissed her then and things got going in a promising way until Charlie, who’d followed them upstairs, wedged his nose between them.
“Come on, you.” Glenn took the dog by the collar and walked him out the door. Charlie sighed hugely, then heaved himself to the ground. “I usually let him sleep in here,” Glenn said apologetically. “But under the circumstances…”
“Under the circumstances…” she agreed and hooked a finger through his belt loop. He had a very sexy flat belly.
He wavered. “Maybe I should shower.”
“No, you shouldn’t. If we stop, we’ll never get going again.”
They ran into a bit of awkwardness removing clothes. He stumbled out of his jeans, then the zipper on her jacket got stuck. They were both laughing at this point, him standing there in his boxers trying to free her zipper. “I need my reading glasses,” he said.
“Never mind your reading glasses.” She yanked the jacket over her head.
In a minute she would lose her nerve. She was almost fifty years old, about to climb into bed with a younger man who happened to be very fit.
Yes, she was in decent shape, but things weren’t as firm as they used to be.
And she was wearing dull underwear. She certainly hadn’t expected the evening to end up like this.
But Glenn didn’t seem to care about all that.
Once they made it into bed the awkwardness disappeared, and she felt like she was in exactly the right place.
As though all the upset and craziness of the last month and a half had somehow led her here.
To a man who was solid and caring and would turn himself inside out for the people and things that mattered to him.
And whose lips were moving down her belly in a way that banished all thought from her head.
Afterward, she snuggled into his shoulder, contentment seeping into every corner of her being. For the first time in a long while she felt a sense of possibility, like there might be more to life than trudging from one crisis to the next.
“Do you think things are meant to happen, or is it all random?” she said.
He drew her closer. “You mean like tonight?”
“I was just thinking that if I’d called another beekeeper or you’d been too busy to come that day, we never would have met.”
She felt the rumble of his laughter. “You might be in bed with the old guy who runs bees up in Weston.”
She elbowed him in the side. “Oh stop. You know what I mean.”
He was quiet for a moment. “I’ve never been a big believer in God or fate or that kind of thing. I think life happens and sometimes you get lucky.”
She smiled. “Is that what we’ve been doing tonight? Getting lucky?” She kissed his neck lightly. “By the way, in case you’re wondering, you haven’t forgotten how.”
He looked pleased. “You think so?”
She traced a finger along his shoulder. A very nice muscular shoulder. “Are you fishing for compliments?”
He grinned. “Of course.”
“Well I’m not giving you anymore because you’ll be impossible.”
His smile broadened. “I’m already impossible. You told me that earlier.”
“I didn’t say impossible, I said very frustrating.”
He rolled over to face her, his beard tickling a little. “Am I still very frustrating?”
“Don’t push it,” she said, laughing.
He trailed a hand along her hip. “Because I wouldn’t want you to be frustrated.”
They might have started up all over again like a couple of kids, but she glanced at the clock on the nightstand and bolted up.
“Oh my God, it’s midnight. How did that happen?”
He kissed the small of her back. “Why don’t you stay? Lilah won’t be home tomorrow until ten at the earliest. I’ll make us pancakes.”
She plopped back down, then groaned. “That sounds amazing, but I told Andrew I’d be back around eleven.”
“So text him.”
She slanted him a look. “And tell him I’m spending the night with a man and I won’t be home?”
He looked a little wounded. “You make it sound like you picked up some guy off the street.”
She nuzzled the delicious place where his neck met his shoulder. “You’re pretty yummy. I might have picked you up off the street.” She felt him smile. He had a delicate ego. But didn’t all men.
“So stay,” he murmured. “Andrew’s a big boy; he can take care of your dad.”
She untangled herself reluctantly. “I should be there in the morning. Andrew and my dad aren’t ready for this.”
“Are you?” His gray gaze stopped her.
Was she ready for this? Life was already so complicated.
She had a son who needed to come to grips with his behavior, a father who couldn’t stay at home any longer, and she had to find a new place to live.
And on top of it all, the constant drip of worry that her memory would betray her, that any day now she would start to decline, just like her mother had. How could she inflict that on someone?
“You don’t realize what you’re getting into,” she said.
“Does anyone?”
“I have a lot of liabilities.”
He rolled his eyes. “You sound like a lawyer.”
“I am a lawyer.”
He kissed the hollow of her throat. “It seems to me we’ve stumbled onto something pretty good. At least I think so.”
“I do too.”
“But you still have to go?”
She sighed and rolled out of bed. “I’d better.”
He walked her to her car, and she stood on tiptoe to kiss him. “Let me know how things go with Lilah.”
“I will.”
He waved from the top of the driveway, and even though she had no idea what would happen next week or next month, her heart felt lighter than it had in ages.