Page 60 of Flirting with Forever

“What do you mean?”

“My mother was the one who taught me to care about justice. About doing the most you possibly could for the people around you. To care about what was right or wrong. To never give up in the face of some all-powerful issue that you might never have a chance at correcting. It wasn’t just my dad leaving us that made her that way. She was always taking me to marches and town hall meetings and protests. She was always petitioning the city for this or that. And meanwhile, making dinner for the people on our block who’d just gotten back from the hospital or had relatives visiting. You know, Cormac really did start out as our tenant. He’d just gotten out of rehab and his life was a mess. He’d had a fair amount of legal trouble himself, which, now that I’m thinking about it, probably motivated me toward becoming a public defender as well. He needed people on his team, just like so many people who’d reached a low point. He had next to no money and no real family to speak of. He once told me that my mother had let him live with us rent free for six months until he got back on his feet. Just to help him out.”

“Wow.”

“And then, once he’d started paying rent and had a good job working construction, they fell in love. A lifetime kind of love. But she wouldn’t have ever had the opportunity for that kind of love if she hadn’t taken a chance and opened her door to him in the first place. Those were all things that I learned just from being her son.”

Mary was quiet for a long moment. “I can see why it would bother you that your dad assumes the public defender choice was in reaction to him. Kind of a conceited assumption.”

John chuckled. “Well, my dad is kind of a conceited guy. He has a lot of trouble seeing an issue for anything beyond what it means for him.”

“You don’t have that problem.” She lowered her chin to her palm and smiled. Her face was friendly, but John felt pinned in place by her expression.

“Not usually. No.” His voice was slightly hoarse. He cleared his throat. He wanted to change the subject. “You know, Mary, I’ve been wondering about something my dad brought up at that brunch.”

“Oh, yeah?” She straightened and dropped her eyes to her beer, as if she already knew what he was going to ask.

“Yeah.” He cleared his throat again. Okay, he was just going to ask it. He’d been wanting to know pretty much since the day that he’d met her, and he hadn’t been able to figure it out just from getting to know her. He was going to have to flat out ask at some point, so why not now? He ignored the hollow banging of his heart and just jumped right in.

“Mary, whyareyou single?” John cleared his throat again. “I mean, I know my dad is an asshole for asking that the other day, but it actually sparked a curiosity in me. It doesn’t, ah, really make sense to me that you haven’t met someone.”

He could only imagine that her answer would be laden with someones she’d dumped for some reason or another. He couldn’t imagine reality being any other way. Because once a man actually got a chance with Mary Trace, John couldn’t imagine him doing anything but holding on to it with both hands. And superglue. A nail gun, if necessary.

Mary twisted her mouth to one side and stared out the window again. “I kinda thought that Estrella would have laid it all out for you already.”

“Hmm? You’ve talked to Estrella about it?”

Mary blushed a little and nodded, twisting her beer one way and another. “Remember at the block party? When you asked if I was desperate?”

John groaned and knocked his forehead against the table with a comical whack, making Mary burst out laughing. “Please don’t remind me of that,” he pleaded. “That was the second worst thing I ever said to you.”

He looked up just in time to see a vulnerable expression flit across her face, but then she sequestered it immediately behind a smile. “It’s okay, John. You wanted to know why your mother was pushing the issue so much. If I wasn’t totally desperate for dates, then why the heck was she foisting every man in Brooklyn into my lineup, right?”

He nodded, still feeling an uneasy, humiliated chagrin at his own clumsy rudeness.

“Well, the answer is that about two weeks before that, Estrella came over to my shop around closing time and we ended up having dinner together up here in my apartment. She asked me the same question that you just did. And though we’ve been casual friends for a long time, it was the first time we’d ever had a real heart-to-heart like that. It...affected her, I guess.”

Mary twiddled with her beer some more and John stayed quiet.

“I told you that I came back to Brooklyn after my aunt died. I didn’t mention that it was right after my best friend died as well.”

Her eyes met his, and John’s heart constricted. He leaned forward across the table, wanting to take her hand but scared to break the spell. “Oh, Mary,” he whispered.

“It was terrible. She was killed in a car accident. Drunk driver hit her. She was Matty’s mom. Sebastian’s wife.”

“Oh.” John blinked. “I guess I didn’t realize that Via wasn’t Matty’s mom.”

“They make a good family,” Mary agreed. “The three of them. But yeah, Cora and Seb were married. When Aunt Tiff died, Cora wanted me to come to Brooklyn, but I wasn’t sure if I could handle coming here and taking on the store. I was working at an interior decorating company in Connecticut, still trying to make my mother happy in at least one regard.” Mary smirked. “But after Cora died, I realized that here was where I needed to be. Sebastian and Matty were so lost without her, and I had an apartment and a shop just waiting for me. I just had to come and do the hard work and claim it. So, I did. I threw myself into getting the shop off the ground, and I threw myself into their lives. Both Tyler and I did. That’s how he and I became friends. And for a long time, it was just Tyler, Sebastian and I. A trio.”

She smiled fondly, and John had to ask. “Were you ever, ah,witheither of them?”

Mary laughed and rolled her eyes. “That would be a no. Sebastian had been my best friend’s husband and a total mess besides. And Tyler is...not quite my style. Lovely, wonderful, perfect for Fin, but not for me. I don’t think either of us ever even entertained the idea.”

John nodded, feeling foolish for the swamping relief of knowing that she’d never been kissed by either of her stupidly good-looking best friends. “So, you’re saying that for a long time dating just wasn’t on your radar?”

“Yeah. I was just too hurt. Losing Aunt Tiff was like losing a parent and a best friend all in one. And losing Cora was like losing a best friend and a sister all in one. I felt friendless and family-less.”

“Even with your parents?”

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