“I know where everything is, Jake. We’ve decided that since we don’t have any other plans, the girls and I will help fix dinner and hang out awhile. Adele is busy putting away her new things. Hasn’t she gotten beautiful?”
“She’s always been beautiful,” he said.
“True,” Justine said, momentarily sidelined. Because of course Adele had always been pretty, but she also had a tendency to let herself go, to dress in baggy clothes, eschew makeup, not fuss with her hair. And there was the weight—she’d packed on a good forty pounds since the pregnancy. “I think the new job has really charged up her self-image, and everything in her world looks good right now.”
Jake leaned against the lettuce stand. He glanced to the left as Olivia wandered over to the fruits, bagging up a couple of apples. He turned back to Justine. “How’s your new world, Justine? I’m so sorry about the divorce.”
“Thanks, Jake, that’s sweet. Today I felt good all day and hardly thought about the shithead.” Then she smiled at him. “I’m a little angry.”
“You’re entitled,” he said. “What a fool he is.”
“Why don’t I get another chicken breast, Jake? Come on by the house and join us for a casual dinner.”
“You don’t have to do that, Justine. I appreciate the offer—”
“Hey, hey, hey!” a voice boomed.
Justine jumped and met eyes with Marty, Jake’s younger brother. Marty was grinning like a Cheshire cat. He appeared to be wearing Joe Biden’s teeth. “Hi,” she said.
“Aren’t you looking fantastic! I hear you’re on your own these days and as luck would have it, so am I. Tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to give you a call and take you out to a nice dinner. It’ll help you break into the new life you’re trying out!”
“What is it you know about my new life?” she asked. “And how do you know?”
“Our mother,” Jake interrupted. “Adele mentioned it. That’s where you heard, right, Marty?”
He nodded. “What do you say? How about dinner?”
Justine just smiled. “Thank you for the nice offer, but I’m not quite ready to date yet, Marty.”
“Let me put my number in your phone,” he said, sticking out a hand.
“I’ll get your number from your mom when it’s time for my coming out,” she said. “Awfully nice of you to ask. Excuse me, I have to go fetch another chicken breast.” She turned to Jake. “I’ll see you later. Thanks for the help.”
“Ah, don’t mention it,” Jake said. Then he turned back to his crate of lettuce while she walked away.
Justine and Olivia bought the dinner supplies and walked back to Adele’s house. “This is one of the things I’ve missed while living in San Jose,” Justine said. “I like this little old town, like shopping at the small, neighborhood stores. The beach is handy. The people here just don’t seem to be in a big hurry. Everyone in San Jose and the Bay Area are rushing to and from work all the time. I’m kind of tired of rushing around. I hope I find work in a little town similar to this.”
Olivia bit into one of her apples. “You’ll be bored.”
“I don’t think so. But if I am, I’ll welcome it. I’m going to build a new kind of life as a single mother. Looking back, things didn’t work out the way I thought they would. The way I hoped.”
“Do you miss Daddy so much?”
She thought for a moment, her lower lip caught in her teeth. “I haven’t had a chance to miss him yet, passing each other at the house as we do so often. I hope you’ll forgive me for this, Livvie, but I don’t miss him a bit. It’s been three months since he decided he was done with our marriage,” she said. “The thing is, when I look at the last thirty years, all those long hours and sometimes exhausting work, I thought I was banking hours for my future. For our future. I thought I was building something so I could have a lighter load and less worry. I had this