“All these small coastal towns... You’re going to have to just think of where you want to be without regard to Scott and his girlfriend. Thinking of them will only slow you down.”
“Can’t you relate?” she asked. “Were you willing to see your ex?”
“I wasn’t happy about anything for a year or more, but you forget. I know I told you. My ex and my sister are best friends. I ran into her all the time. I had to sit across from her one Easter dinner. It was excruciating. And then I ran into my ex and her new partner, a woman who hated me on sight.”
“How long did you wait before you started dating?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe a few months, but I didn’t get involved. Just a little companionship. A couple of years after my divorce I dated a woman who was fairly serious—we were a couple for about three years. Then a few years later, another woman I was semiserious with. Till she took back her ex.”
“Hmm. Well, I was hit on today,” Justine said. “A man at least a dozen years younger than me asked me out. He was so gross about it. He said he heard I was on my own now and so was he, so...?”
“Did you like him?”
“I’ve known him forever. I think I might’ve babysat him, but I don’t recall. I told him I wasn’t ready for my coming out just yet.”
“Justine, there are going to be men. Lots of men. You’re beautiful, successful, fun, smart and there will be men. I know you think that isn’t going to happen right now, but there will be—”
“I don’t want a man,” she said resolutely. “I want good people in my life. I want trustworthy friends. I am not looking for a man.”
“And I’m not looking for a woman,” he said. “But I have an open mind. There’s a street fair in Carmel tomorrow,” he said. “Hell, Carmel by itself is a street fair. Why don’t we go together? You can practice running into people. You can learn how to say things like, ‘Didn’t you hear? Scott and I are divorced.’ And ‘This is my friend Logan. We’ve worked together on a couple of cases.’ We might even hold hands so you can get used to the idea that a date doesn’t automatically lead to marriage and divorce. I’ll buy you something to eat, we’ll have a glass of wine at one of the outdoor bars with a view of the bay and maybe you’ll see a painting or macramé you just have to have.”
She was quiet for a moment, thinking. If she was going to have a date with anyone, she’d like it to be Logan. But she was barely divorced, and she was seriously afraid of letting a man into her life. If she was honest, she hadn’t had a man in her life in years. She had Scott who, she was beginning to realize, wasn’t that much fun. And he was a liar. So she finally said, “What time?”
“I have a couple of things to do—chores. Let’s meet at noon. Parking will be annoying, so let’s meet on the edge of town at Blueberry Hill restaurant. It’s a little breakfast place with a big parking lot. Wear comfortable shoes and we can walk into town.”
When she was falling asleep after her phone call, she was thinking about so many different things; it was like a mosaic. There was a lifetime of Scott in many different incarnations, from the loving father who cried when his daughters were born to the self-centered oaf who said, without much regret, “Don’t you want me to be happy?” She thought of Addie, changing her life after losing so much and giving so much; Addie who was every bit the butterfly coming out of the cocoon. About her girls, taking on the next phase of their lives without the father they had known and trusted. And Logan, the last thing she had expected—handsome, sexy and smart Logan, who would hold her hand so she could practice saying, “Yes, this is my friend Logan, whom I’m seeing.”
She started to ask herself, would she see him? She