The glow of their happy afternoon began to fade a bit as reality intruded on her thoughts. The heat of their skin against hers had been so immediate just moments ago. And now…
She had to think. Not just feel. Not just touch.
As they pulled into the driveway, Cyndi played with Jillian on the giant swing set Mike and Dylan had installed last month. Their baby was perched at the top of the slide, Cyndi’s protective arms on her waist, and as Jillian’s fat little hands waved in the air, Cyndi guided her down. Jillian’s face tipped up to look at Cyndi, and those baby hands clapped with joy, cheering herself on for her great slide victory.
Suddenly, all was right in Laura’s world.
Josie
“What in the hell were you thinking sending my boss to me to talk about my sex life!” Darla screamed in Josie’s ear. Pulling her smartphone back from her head, she stared at it, fully expecting Darla’s holographic image to appear in spectacular, angry form.
“It was a perfectly reasonable suggestion,” Josie retorted. “Perfectly reasonable because you two are in these crazy threesome relationships, and you’re both struggling.”
“Struggling?” Darla roared. “I’m not struggling with Joe and Trevor!”
“You meet Joe’s parents yet?”
Fuming silence was all Josie got from her niece.
“I didn’t think so,” Josie added. “And Laura’s got her own set of problems with Mike and Dylan—”
“Problems? Problems? You mean you can find yourself not one, but two billionaires, have their baby, live in luxury with them, and spend your time opening a crazy business for weirdos like me, and have problems? Nice life. What kind of problems does Laura have? Whether to buy lavender-scented car fresheners or verbena-scented car fresheners at Whole Foods?”
“Meow.” Josie’s arched tone said more than the single word.
Darla backpedaled, fast. “You won’t tell her I said that, will you?” she said in a panicked voice. “Because I like Laura. A lot. And I don’t think she’s spoiled. That not what I mean. I know she worked hard and had a degree and a job before she met the guys and oh my God, Josie, say something, because if Laura’s on the line with you and just heard me say that I am going to die from—”
“No, dumbass, she’s not here. But you have some learning to do. Just because someone has a ton of money doesn’t mean their problems go away. In fact, sometimes you end up with more problems.”
“I’ll trade.”
“Hah! Anyhow, you guys should meet. Lunch at Jeddy’s sounds like fun.”
“How do you know what we’re doing?” Darla asked with suspicion.
“Because Laura asked me to be there,” Josie answered matter-of-factly. Being asked wasn’t a surprise, but what Josie had in store for Trevor, Joe, Mike, and Dylan sure would be. First, she’d asked Laura if she thought the plan was worth it. Laura agreed. Now, on to Darla…
“You’ll be there?” Relief flooded Darla’s voice. “Thank God.”
“And I need some help from you,” Josie added.
“Help?”
“Laura’s going to get Mike and Dylan to come, too. Just to hang out and have a meal nearby. I think you should bring Trevor and Joe.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s like meeting an albino moose.”
“You just lost me. You on something? Because the last time I heard someone talking about albino moose it was Joe, who licked some piece of handmade pressed fair-trade paper from Mexico that had some LSD or something on it, and soon the whole world went albino and he was—”
Josie cut her off. It was a well-developed skill. “No. What I mean is, if you heard about an albino moose in a zoo, would you go see it?”
“Maybe.”
“If you owned an albino moose and heard about a second one, wouldn’t you go see it?”
“Well, sure, because that would be so rare that—ooohhhhhh. I get it.”
“Good. Because I was about to pull out the hand puppets and leotards and do an interpretive dance to explain.”
“You don’t have to get pedantic.”
“Can’t help it.”
They both laughed.
“You have any idea how hard it’s going to be to convince Joe to go to Jeddy’s and sit at a table with two other guys who do what we…do? He can’t even tell his mom we’re dating.”
“What about Trevor?”
“I’ve met his parents. Nice people. We all met up at some town concert and walked around eating ice cream. They think me and Trevor met at an online dating site.”
“There’s a lie.” Josie’s words were true, but she knew they stung Darla.
“If you count being a fangirl as ‘online dating,’ it kinda works. They don’t know anything more than that.” To Josie’s surprise, Darla wasn’t defensive. A little sad, though. It made Josie even more determined to make sure Laura and Darla talked.
“He won’t tell them the truth?”
“Would you?”
Josie tried to imagine calling her mother, Marlene, back in Ohio and explaining she had two boyfriends. At the same time. No, really—at the exact same time.
“Uh, no. But then again, with my mom, I’d probably get some story about how she’d had five men at once, and exactly which holes you can use for—”
“Lalalalala I can’t hear you talking about Aunt Marlene that way!” Darla shouted.
“You asked.”
“Question retracted.”
Josie let out a long, slow sigh, the kind you can only release openly with someone who knows you inside out.
“I know that sound,” Darla cracked. “That’s the sound of Mama going to get the belt.”
“Aunt Cathy never whipped you!” Josie protested, knowing this was all a joke.
“No, but she’d pull out Daddy’s belt and tell me that if he was alive my ass would be tanned.”
“And then what did she do when you didn’t listen?”
“Huh,” Darla uttered, the phone popping with the force of her sound. “I don’t know. I always obeyed. I think I figured if she was calling on the belt of a dead man to get me to do what she wanted, I’d better do it.”
They shared a chuckle, and then Josie returned to the matter at hand. “You need to get Joe and Trevor there. They can eat pie with Mike and Dylan.”