kisses on his face while he tries to fight me. “Except for you, my beautiful boy!”
Ames laughs at my exaggerated display of affection, while my middle son wrestles free of the motherly affection. While my kids can be cranky brats, they’re also the best thing in my life, and I embarrass them accordingly.
“You know, someone recommended a show to me the other day. Game of Stones, I think it was called?” Marion’s expression is so innocent, I have to bite my tongue to keep from laughing.
With all the violence and nudity in that show, it might give my mother-in-law a heart attack.
Lily rushes to steer her off that path. “Oh, I don’t think that’d be right for you. But I do have a new book at the library that I thought would be perfect for you. I’ll put it aside for you to check out this week.”
Marion beams at Lily, she always has preferred her. I don’t mind though; I’m unapologetically me and I think Travis’ mother has come to terms with it.
A couple passes us, clearly in an argument but trying to hide it for the sake of the rest of the crowd at this children’s sports game.
“Did you girls hear that Jason and Kristen are getting a divorce?” Mom asks in a hushed tone.
“No!” I exclaim, leaning in for a bit of gossip.
Everyone knows everyone in Fawn Hill, and the rumor mill around here is rampant. Most of the time, I love it. What’s the world without a good bit of gossip? Anyone who denies liking it, or says that it’s harmful, is just lying anyway.
“He’s deplorable. Heard he was caught with his secretary,” Lily chimes in, shooting daggers with her eyes into the retreating man’s back.
I’m surprised at my best friend gossiping or vilifying another like she is right now. “You know, I like booed-up Lily. I think Bowen is making you feistier, or maybe your morals are slipping.”
My eyebrows waggle with the innuendo I’m implying, and Lily turns a shade of pink.
“Mama, what are morals?” Ames asks again, now sitting in Marion’s lap and stealing sips from her sweet tea fountain drink.
“Something that your grandma Mari will teach you about, because Mama certainly can’t.” And my mom, Lily, and I collapse into a fit of giggles.
Lily touches my arm. “Oh, before I forget, Bowen and I are calling a wedding meeting tomorrow with the whole bridal party. Right after school but gives you enough time to pick the boys up. It’ll be quick, at our gazebo.”
She didn’t have to elaborate about their gazebo, we all knew Bowen and Lily’s spot. But now I would be thinking about the wedding meeting when my head hit the pillow tonight.
Because including the entire bridal party in the chat means I’ll have to see Forrest again. Twice in one week … it’s torture.
Forrest Nash left this awful, buzzing tension in my body that was a mix between lust and hate. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to slap him or rip his shirt off with my teeth.
And I am afraid that, one of these days, I’d do the latter in full view of all of our friends and family.
5
Penelope
When Lily and Bowen called this meeting in Bloomfield Park, I was less than thrilled.
Not because I’m not ecstatic for my best friend, who out of anyone deserves her happy ending, but because it means another wedding.
We’d just finally settled down from the chaos of being in Presley’s bridal party, and now we have to do it all over again. Weddings, no matter how big or small, or how easy the couple was in their decision making, are just a big to-do. And being part of the bridal party requires a lot of effort. I know I’ll be Lily’s maid of honor, I damn well better be, but that’s going to call for a lot of effort … something I’m just not sure I have right now.
Part of that weariness comes from the fact that weddings chip away at my heart a little bit. Of course, I am happy for my friends, but none of them know what it feels like to attend these celebrations of love and happiness as a widow. I’d done the white dress, black tux thing myself, and then my husband … died.
It’s still impossibly hard to say that word when it came to Travis. He had been my person, the one I pledged to spend my life creating a little universe with. And now he was gone,