Page 72 of Another Fox Bites the Dust

“I’ll go with you,” Vanessa says, taking her arm.

Vanessa is sleeping in the guest room. I’m sleeping on the pullout sofa bed in Mom’s office, which is downstairs, off to the side of the entryway.

“Mindy, honey, I got you set up in the den down here. I’ll show you where everything is.”

Mindy disappears with my mom into the den before I can say goodnight.

ChapterTwenty

Mindy

“Thank you for dinner, Catherine,” I tell Luke’s mom after she shows me to my room.

“Oh, honey, it’s no problem at all. It was lovely to have you here.” She stands in the doorway, wringing her hands and watching me.

She spent the last ten minutes showing me the futon bed, the bathroom, and where the towels are located, a tour that should have taken thirty seconds.

“Do you think Luke is happy?” she blurts.

I blink, taken aback. I expected, I don’t know, recrimination or blame for enabling Luke’s departure from medicine.

After a second, I nod. “He loves music. And he’s truly incredibly talented.”

She worries her bottom lip. “When he was a teenager, he would lock himself in his room and play music all day, he and Kevin.” Her lips tilt down. “It was just a hobby. Something they did for fun. I worry that he’s wasting his abilities when he had so much potential.”

“He was blessed with many gifts. One of those gifts is music. He’s chasing the dream that will make him happiest.”

She frowns, but after a second, she nods and her lips tilt up. “Sleep well.”

“You, too.”

After she leaves, I tiptoe across the hall to the bathroom to get ready for bed, throwing on a soft set of flannel pajamas, washing my face, and brushing my teeth while my mind turns over the events of the day.

Luke’s parents are cute together despite the friction over Luke’s career choices. The only examples of healthy relationships I’ve seen up close are Archer and Finley’s, and Piper and Oliver’s, but those are both recently begun. I can’t imagine being married to someone for thirty years. That’s like a lifetime. What would it be like to be that close to someone? To know all their faults and habits and for them to know yours? Would it be comfortable or suffocating? Would it be long-lasting, like Luke’s parents’ relationship, or a sham, like Blake and Jeanette’s?

I exit the bathroom and run into a warm wall, releasing a short scream.

“Hey.” Luke’s hands cup my shoulders. “I’m so sorry.”

“Holy shit, you scared me.” My heart tries to beat its way out of my rib cage.

“I didn’t mean to startle you. This is the only bathroom downstairs.”

“Oh.” I peer up at him. “Are you sleeping down here, too?”

He nods. “In the office. It has a pullout sofa.”

“Ah.”

His thumbs rub small circles on my shoulders. “Do you have everything you need?”

“Your mom made sure I had everything I needed and then some.”

“That sounds about right.” The dimple in his cheek makes an appearance.

My stomach clenches.

We stare at each other.

---