“I think he still wants to touch your boob,” Eden said sagely. “He had that look about him.”
“Shut up! You only saw the back of him.” The back of her neck was hot now.
“I saw the way he turned around just then. All huffy and... sexy.”
“What? How the hell does anyone turn around ‘sexy,’ Eden?”
Eden ignored this question. “And macho. And your heads were practically touching when you were talking.”
“Were not.” Were they?
Edie was grinning. “I’m teasing. But boy did you ever take the bait.”
Avalon snorted. “We were arguing. It wasn’t anything sexy at all.” Which actually felt like a lie, because, let’s face it, she told herself, everything he did felt sexy. “He’s an arrogant—” She recalled she was around a passel of ten-year-olds and refrained from saying “SOB” aloud. “He’s arrogant. And he wants to buy this house. He apparently tried to buy it at auction. He’s not well-pleased that I bought it.”
“You’re not gonna let him, right?” Eden knew her sister.
“Of course not. But he owns Devil’s Leap. The part with the swimming hole. Turns out these are two different parcels.”
Eden took this in and wisely didn’t editorialize. “Did you know that going in?” She attempted to be neutral but there was the faintest whiff of schoolmarm about that question. “Wait. Don’t answer. You’ll get that land from him somehow.” Being a mom had edited Eden’s schoolmarmy impulses a little. “You talk to Corbin yet?”
“Nope. Texted him once and told him to stop texting me. I bought myself at least this week of time away from the office. He’s going to just have to keep handling things.”
Eden could gauge her mood. She wisely didn’t pursue that line of questioning.
Avalon lowered her voice. “So what’s up withyou, Edie? Going to let anyone touch your boob?”
“Sure. I think I have ten minutes next Wednesday between the time I pick Annelise up from school and her guitar lesson for some stranger to cop a feel. Maybe we should send out a press release.”
Eden didn’t date. She claimed she didn’t want to. It was pretty clear she didn’t have time to, given her work and her devotion to Annelise. Avalon was pretty certain guys went out of their way to order flowers and buy various gewgaws from her shop just for a chance to talk to her. Eden probably didn’t notice.
“I’ve almost forgotten the point of men.” Eden shrugged. “I’m getting it done, aren’t I? The momming, the shop, everything? With a little help from my friends?”
Two cars pulled in one after the other to pick up the Hummingbirds.
More moms would be on the way soon.
“Sure,” Avalon said, after a second, because now was not the time to advance her theory that Eden was kidding herself, at least about the man part.
Although that could, of course, make two of them.
About twenty minutes later, all the little Hummingbirds had gone home with a mom or a dad, and that included Eden and Annelise.
“Bye, Auntie Avalon! Bye! Bye!” Annelise walked backward blowing kisses at her. Little goofball.
Damn, but she was alone. Not that she wasn’t before, but the sudden influx of light and joy made everything seem a trifle fuller in contrast. They all seemed to have taken just a little bit of her with them when they left. Surely that was an illusion.
She sat down at the picnic table, which could stay right where it was for now, and rested her chin in her hands.
She’d been buzzing from the pleasure of bedeviling him and from being around her family and the kids. But Mac’s question bothered her. It burrowed right in and felt almost like an accusation, an existential quiz.Why aren’t you a teacher?
He’d sounded genuinely troubled.
She plucked up the friendship bracelet Annelise had made for her and twiddled it in her fingers.
She gasped when a squirrel hopped up on the table.
Her heart gave a happy skip. They really were characters, sparkly little individual souls, with their smooth gray coats and plump white tummies, their curving tail plumes. She’d rescued and nursed a squirrel back to health. Trixie had lived with Avalon for almost a year, and Avalon had loved her with her whole heart. She’d passed away in her sleep in her cage for mysterious squirrel reasons, and to this day the memory was an ache. Funny how something so small could take a divot right out of your heart.
Avalon found a scrap of hot dog bun on the bench next to her and held it out. The squirrel leaned delicately forward, snatched it and ran off with it in its mouth.
And she was alone again.
Get a grip, Avalon, she told herself.This maudlin ruminating is ridiculous.
She knew exactly how she intended to spend the next couple of hours.