Page 38 of Flirting with Forever

“Mary, stop. Mary!”

She skidded to a stop and swung around to face her mother.

“That is not what I was intending to do,” Naomi whispered fiercely, her eyes red, her eyelashes clinging to one another.

“Mom, you get me all teary and then just zing me like that?Buried between two strangers?That’s not a question! That was an accusation. What do you want from me, Mom? You want me to marry someone I don’t love just so that you can sleep better at night? That’s really what you want?”

“Mary, I felt terrible after your visit last month. Your father—It seems that I was too hard on you. I know we aren’t close. But...you bring lavender to Tiff’s grave because of how well you knew her. And I am just trying to understand you.”

“By accusing me of wanting to be buried next to strangers?”

“It...came out wrong.”

“No, Mom. I think it came out exactly as you intended it to. You’re just unhappy with my reaction to it.”

Naomi’s mouth worked open and then closed. Her eyes filled again as she half turned from Mary and looked up at the bright blue sky, as if she could make her tears dry in the sun.

Mary stood there, breathing hard, wishing it weren’t so bright, so hot. Wishing that she weren’t fighting with her mother in a cemetery. Wishing that Tiff were here to referee.

And most horribly, part of Mary wished that she could still be that young-twenties version of herself that her mother had so adored. The apologetic, shrinking, soft-spoken girl she’d been. The one who’d let the world walk all over her, tell her what to do. Well, that girl had met Cora. And spent time with Tiff. And now this woman, the woman that Mary was now, was all that she had left of either of the strongest women she’d ever known. She wasn’t going to let some crocodile tears make her regret who she’d become or the women who’d helped her get there.

“Mom, I’m getting in a cab and going home. If you want to share that cab with me, then you’d better come now.” She turned on her heel and strode back toward the entrance to the cemetery. For some reason, the sedate clopping of her mother’s heels behind her made sharp tears spring into Mary’s eyes.

BYTHETIMEher first guest arrived on Saturday afternoon, Mary figured she was as recovered as she possibly could be from her mother’s hit-and-run of a visit. She’d had no choice but to just shove the whole encounter to the back of her mind, which was where it should have been anyway, considering there was a very good chance that she’d never fully understand her mother.

Either way, Mary swung open her apartment door and grinned at her neighbors from down the block, Josh and Joanna Coates, and their daughter, Jewel. “You made it!”

“Wouldn’t miss it!” Josh chirped, nearly bowling Mary over in his quest to get indoors.

“Our air-conditioning is out,” Joanna explained with a wink.

“Gimme the baby, Jo,” Josh called from where he stood over the air vent in Mary’s floor, his shorts billowing in the breeze. “I’m just gonna post up right here.”

“Not a baby,” Jewel grumped, a pattern of lines pressed into her cheek from where she’d obviously been sleeping not long ago. But even so, she toddled over to her dad, her arms up, wanting to be cuddled in the cool air.

“Sorry, we’re not...” Joanna started to apologize for her family and then sort of gave up, shrugging. She laughed. “It’s been a long few days with our A/C out.”

Mary tugged Joanna inside, took her by the shoulders and pointed her toward the kitchen. “Please, my climate control is your climate control. Plus, there are yummy drinks and snacks in the kitchen. And, I might add, a guest bedroom down the hall if you want to stay with me while your air-conditioning is out.”

Hot on the Coateses’ heels were a handful of other neighbors, most of whom had bucked Mary’s rules and indeed brought food and drinks of their own. Next up the stairs echoed a loud-shoed clomp that Mary would recognize pretty much anywhere. She waited for him in her open doorway, her hands on her hips and a huge smile on her face.

“My man,” she said as soon as Matty Dorner made it to the top of her staircase, a mutinously grouchy look on his blunt face. Mary knew that Sebastian and Matty were practically carbon copies of one another, everyone said so, but Mary couldn’t help but see Cora when she looked at Matty. Sebastian’s face, though just as blunt, was always open and generous, his personality showing through. Matty’s eight-year-old face was usually set in stubborn or humorous lines, just like his mother’s always had been.

In the way of young children who teetered on the cusp between two phases of life, Matty high-fived Mary like a teenager might and then leaned his cheek against her hip, looping an arm around her leg like he used to as a toddler. “They didn’t let me eat anything on the drive over here.”

Mary laughed at the look of affronted injustice on the kid’s face.

“Matty,” a firm voice said from the top of the stairs. “Just because we didn’t let you pick at the chips and dips we brought doesn’t mean we were starving you.” And there Via was, holding a tray of food that Mary should have known she’d bring and giving Matty a stern eye that told him to behave himself at the party.

Via was nothing like Cora in most ways, forgiving where Cora had been unrepentant, thoughtful where Cora had been brash, observant where Cora had been the center of attention. But when it came to handling Matty with a firm hand, Via actually really reminded Mary of how Cora had been. Loving and stern and confident with the kid who’d take a mile every single time an inch was up for grabs.

“Is there snacks inside?” Matty asked, looking up at Mary.

Sebastian sighed as he too came up the stairs, still standing two steps down but drawing level with Via all the same, such was their height difference. “Tell me he at least said hi to you, Mary.”

“He was a perfect gentleman,” Mary lied, winking at Matty as she swatted him on the butt and pushed him inside. “Shoes off and then there are snacks in the kitchen. But put them on a plate. Don’t just eat out of the bowls.”

She kissed Via on the cheek and then Sebastian. “So glad you’re here!”

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