Page 42 of Grown-Up Second Chance

Kerplunk! Both of us ended up on our asses in a couple of feet of water.

We looked at each other and laughed. I handed him the rod.

“Sorry. It got wet.”

“No problem. It’s meant to.”

The giggles overtook me again, and Joe joined in. We started splashing each other and played until we were both exhausted.

I took long breaths trying to recover my equilibrium.

He was quiet.

I looked over to see him staring at me.

Everything within me stilled at the expression in his eyes.

He leaned toward me and stopped, his gaze questioning.

I didn’t dare move.

He must have taken my paralysis for a negative reply because he drew back and leveraged himself to his feet before lowering his hand to help me up.

“I guess it’s time to call it a day,” he said.

“A day,” I replied, knowing even as I said it that a joke we’d shared often as kids had fallen flat on its face.

“Bad.”

“I tried.”

“Yeah.”

Silently we walked back to the road.

“See you,” he said.

“Yeah.” As I started to walk away, he stopped me.

“Di? Want to go to church with me tomorrow?”

I shrugged.

“Sure. Why not?”

“Good,” he said. “Good. I’ll see you in the morning.”

I gave a small wave and returned to the RV.

Chapter Thirteen

I stood damp and naked in front of the vanity mirror. In high school I’d been what they called athletic, even though I avoided exercise like the plague. It was a polite way of saying I’d descended from strong peasant stock, the kind of people who’d populated much of the plains once we’d pushed the Native Americans out. In my case, it was the stock of the Irish who came to Butte to toil hours a day in the pits beneath the earth.

The Treasure State. That’s what they’d named Montana as they pulled out her copper, silver, and coal, sold them to the highest bidder, and sent the profits to eastern banks. They hadn’t realized the true treasure was the people who’d come to Big Sky Country and stuck it out.

In high school, I was one of many with a body like mine.

California, with its blonde surfer girls and LA obsession with all things fit, had done me in. No matter what diet I followed or how many gyms I joined, I was always going to have the body I did.

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