Page 146 of Divorced from Number Thirty-Eight
And luckily, it works.
Luna’s tears dry up and she squeals, clapping her hands together. “Tell me everything.”
“No, tell us everything,” Harper says.
I look nervously at Kailey and Bri, but they both seem interested too (and further from tears)…so, I do.
And then we talk about other things—TV shows and books and food and…everything and nothing.
But eventually, Luna starts to wane and Bri has homework to do and Kailey has work to complete and Harper needs to go to bed because she has to get up early in the morning for a big event she’s cooking for tomorrow.
I walk them to the door.
“Are you sure you don’t want to come back with us?” Luna asks.
“I’m sure.” I give her a hug. “I have another meeting with the contractors early tomorrow morning. No sense in me getting a ride there only to have to come right back.”
“You’ll call if you change your mind?”
I nod.
She fixes me in place with a glare. “And you won’t go searching again without backup?”
My heart squeezes. “I won’t.”
Her eyes narrow. “Promise?”
“I don’t want the wrath of Luna Black neé Maybelle now, do I?”
She pats me on the arm and smiles. “You sure don’t.” Then she starts to turn away, pauses. “It looks like Gray’s got a couple of packages here.”
“I’ll grab it,” Bri says when Luna starts to bend as though to pick the boxes up. “But they’re not for Gray.” She squints at the label. “They’re for Faye.”
I try to remember what I’ve ordered.
But truthfully, I’ve had to replace so much it could be anything.
“Thanks,” I tell Bri as she passes them over.
“Oh!” Luna says as I set the packages in the house, just inside the door. “Don’t forget your phone.”
Frowning, I accept it from her.
“It must have fallen out of your pocket,” she says, hugging me one more time before stepping back. Something flickers through her face I can’t read, something that almost looks like guilt, but then the others are moving in and we’re exchanging goodbyes and then I’m waving as I watch them drive away.
I step back into the house, see the boxes…open the first one.
Then freeze, right there in the hall, every cell in my body in agony.
It’s a shadow box and within, professionally framed…
Is the first book I ever wrote.
Dolphyn’s Advenchure
Preschool me couldn’t really spell either, but even the cuteness of that doesn’t distract me from the pain of knowing that Gray loves me enough to do this for me…
But that he doesn’t love me enough to stay.
