Page 17 of A Lifetime of Afters
I raised my head in surprise. “Of course! At least once a month. Always have. I don’t think I would have survived my mother’s passing without your mom.”
Passing me bowls and side plates, we set the table to eat. “She had a tough go of it for a while. She put on a good front, but she was lost without your mom for a long time.”
I shrugged. “It makes sense. Their friendship lasted longer than most marriages. I’d be lost, too, if I ever lost Harley.”
This was truth with a capital T. Harley, the youngest child and only girl in their family, was my best friend. It was, perhaps, weird at my age to think in terms of ‘best friend’, but there was no denying it.
Completely opposite to me in every way, Harley was the yin to my yang, the ping to my pong, the flip to my flop, and the tick to my tock. I could not imagine my life without her.
I cocked my head in thought. My brother Max and Hawkley had always been best buds. Harley and I were tight as a fist. Hunter, born smack dab in the middle between Hawk and Harley, hung with all of us. Yet, he was the only one of the five of us who enthusiastically sought out friends outside our families.
The social butterfly of our little group.
Full of life until the tragically premature end.
We sat down at the table, our food laid out in front of us. Hawk cleared his throat. “Does she know you’re here?”
I looked down at my bowl and shook my head. “No.” I cleared my throat. “I’d rather she didn’t. When the roads clear, I’ll just head home and call her from there.”
The conversation skidded to a stop. The elephant in the room, one I could barely define, refused to be swept under the rug. The seconds ticked past, the strangely intimate sounds of eating the only thing interrupting the silence.
Anxiety gripped me by the throat.
“I need to, uh, go outside and clean out the mess in my car.”
“It’s done.”
“You did it? Why?”
He shrugged. “Why wouldn’t I? It was for you.” He cleared his throat. “Where is stinky anyway?”
My mind raced. That sounded like I meant something to him.
“He’s hiding. That’s what cats do in new places.” I’d lost my excuse to leave but I couldn’t sit staring into space, the silence between us thick and uncomfortable. “You want to eat in front of the tv? Maybe put on a movie?”
Before I’d finished speaking, his ass cleared the chair. “I’ve got tv trays.”
Within minutes, the sound of the horror movie we settled on filled the room. I sank with ease into one of his massive chairs and inhaled the rest of my food while he went back for seconds and thirds.
Curled up in leggings and an oversized flannel, I tucked my hands into the sleeves and half covered my eyes as the final gory moments unfolded.
Watching a horror movie in the dark upped the scare factor even with the kitschiest movies. Adrenalin pumped through my veins. With the tv off, the only light came from the fireplace.
The world beyond the glass shone silvery white as the moon’s glow reflected off the snow. The beauty of the night seduced my senses, lulling me into a false sense of complacency, and it was then I made my mistake.
Chapter Eight - Kool-Aid
“Do you want a drink?”
I cocked my head to the side. It was almost like we were friends again. As much as I wanted to be more than that, I suddenly craved time with him in any manner I could get it. “Sure. You have any wine coolers?”
“Is Harley my sister?” he asked drily.
He stocked her favorites. I liked that. A lot.
I’d made a point of not asking Harley or Max about him over the years. I didn’t know him the way I used to. After I threw myself at him and he came home with Diane, we separated like East and West.
Not a slow growing apart, but a deep fractured split.
