Page 19 of Grown-Up Second Chance

“See? It’s tradition already.”

I groaned and heaved myself out of my chair. If I didn’t, my sister would just go on and on until I relented. May as well cut to the chase.

A half-hour later we were seated in our chairs, drinks in our hands, each with plates of nibbles that Liz had conjured out of nothing. At other sites people were settling into their own end-of-day routines. Some, like us, were enjoying pre-dinner drinks; others were already preparing meals.

Then there were the amblers, the couples who took their cocktails and dogs on a walk around the loop, intent on making new friends wherever they could find them.

Kathleen waved at everyone who passed by. Some ventured closer and started up conversations. Liz kept talking about the amazing colors of the mud while Kathleen never missed an opportunity to retell the story of my fall. The noise my butt made when it hit the ground got louder with every retelling.

I sipped my cocktail and listened to the animated conversations, but my mind was still grinding away at the question of Joe Kelly. When the man himself appeared, I wasn’t particularly surprised.

“Why, Joe Kelly,” Kathleen said as if she hadn’t known he was at the park. “Pull up a chair and join us. It’s so nice to see someone from home out this way.”

“Kathleen O’Sullivan,” he said. “You haven’t aged a day.”

“Go on with you,” she said, echoing the Irish lilt my dad had employed until the day he died.

He stopped in front of Liz. “I don’t know if you remember me.”

“Of course I do,” she said. “You were Diane’s friend.”

“Still am, I hope.” He favored me with a smile that brought a flash of heat to my entire body.

I shrugged. “It was a long time ago, but I’m sure we’ll still get along.”

Reserve masked his features for a second, then he smiled again. But it wasn’t quite as bright and easy as it had been a few moments ago.

The sequence took me aback. Was he still interested after all these years?

Unimaginable.

“So where have you been off to today?” he asked, settling into a chair.

“We saw the mud pots!” Liz hadn’t lost any of her enthusiasm. As she told Joe, in extreme detail, the colors and aspects of what we’d seen, he listened intently.

A memory arose. I’d been upset at something another girl at school had said to me. It had been mean and hit me to the core. I’d thought she was someone who’d liked me, and her betrayal hurt.

I’d finally blurted it all out on one of our walks. He’d sat me down on a nearby rock and listened. He didn’t say much, or try to fix it, or worse, dismiss it like other people often did.

No. He’d sat there, sitting still with his gaze on me, just as he was doing for Liz right now.

He looked up at me then, and something stirred within my heart. It was as if I’d been sleepwalking through the last forty years and had been jolted awake.

His lips turned up at the edges, then he returned his attention to Liz.

I leaned back in my chair and stared up at the blue sky. What had happened?

Liz finished her story, and Kathleen immediately recited the tale of my almost-tumble into the boiling caldron.

Joe laughed at her description.

I glared at him.

“Can’t help it,” he said. “She tells it too well.”

“That’s because she’s had hours of practice.” I switched my gaze to my sister.

Kathleen simply shrugged.

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