Page 9 of Flirting with Forever

John scowled at her, his bright eyes shadowed by the pull of his brow. “To answer your question, yes, people have told me that before. Never quite so...creatively. But yes, I’ve been known to bring the mood down.”

“It’s annoying.” She scowled at him.

“Yes,” he agreed immediately. “It really is.”

“Mary,” Estrella said, huffing and puffing a little, as if she’d stridden quickly across the party. “Where’d Samuel go?”

“Ma,” John cut in. “Sammy? Really? You’re setting her up with Sammy? He’s not even divorced yet.”

If looks could have turned someone back into a nine-year-old boy and sent him to his room, the mug that Estrella was shooting at John certainly would have done it. “Samuel is a good boy. But fine. He wasn’t your taste, Mary? There’s more. Come with me.”

Estrella tugged on Mary’s elbow.

John got in his mother’s way. “Who’s next in the lineup?”

“None of your business.”

John followed his mother’s gaze and made a sound of disbelief. “Jonah?Oh, for fuck’s sake, Ma!”

“Estrella, I’m going to run to the bathroom. Be right back!” Mary tried to shoot both of them a bright smile, but she had the feeling that it might have come off a little canned. She appreciated what Estrella was doing, she really did. But setups were awkward enough without them being loud and confrontational and causing half of a block party to crane their heads to stare at the new girl.

Mary ducked back into Estrella’s house, found the bathroom and washed her hands. She’d go back out there, get something to eat, chat with some people and head home. She didn’t have to overthink this.

She walked back through the house and found John sitting on the front steps to his mother’s house, passing his beer back and forth between his hands.

“Hi.”

He looked up at her, rising quickly. Mary realized that due to some optical illusion, sans his perfectly knotted tie, he looked both taller and wider. Like his open collar and the triangle of gold skin it revealed had allowed his body to stretch out to its true size. “My mother has terrible taste in men.”

Mary couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m starting to learn that.”

“Besides Cormac, really, just terrible.”

“Who’s Cormac?”

For the first time since she’d met John, his face truly softened. It was still a very far cry from friendly, but some of the ice had defrosted. He nodded his head across the block party toward the large redheaded man that Estrella had been leaning against before. “My mother’s live-in.”

Mary’s mouth fell open. “Estrella has a partner? She never mentioned. Not once...”

“It doesn’t surprise me. My mother is old-fashioned. Officially, she doesn’t believe in premarital sex.”

“Yet she has a live-in boyfriend?”

“Ah, ah, ah,” John said with one finger ticking back and forth. “He’s not her boyfriend. She refers to him as her tenant. I think I was about twelve when I finally realized that most tenants don’t share your mother’s bed with her.”

“They’ve been together that long?”

“Almost as long as I can remember.” Something pained flicked across John’s face, but the scowl resumed almost immediately.

“Why don’t they just get married?”

“My mother also doesn’t believe in second marriages,” he said with a roll of his eyes. That striking gaze flicked down to Mary. “She does, however, strongly believe in gray areas.”

Mary laughed, despite her surly company. “So. What’s wrong with Jonah?”

“Hmm?”

“The apparent next on Estrella’s list. You said his name is Jonah. What’s wrong with him?”

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