Page 15 of Love Song, Take Two

Micah nodded slowly, weighing the pros and cons of getting involved with Fletcher again. On the one hand, she’d have sex for the first time in years. On the other hand, she could fall in love with him. And her friends were right, it didn’t have to be anything more than sex. Part of the reason why she didn’t date was because she didn’t want to introduce people to Emery and then have them vanish one day. Plus, dating was so exhausting. Her last tryst had been with a woman named Veronica, who said that she was only interested in continuing the date if Micah was looking for a serious relationship. She barely had the time for herself most days, so a serious relationship?

Then again, for the right person…Micah might make an adjustment.

Two days later, on Saturday, she sat in her office waiting on a new client. The clinic was closed for the break, but when the request had come in before Thanksgiving, she couldn’t refuse the person. Not that she knew anything beyond the basics—woman in her early eighties with learning difficulties. While most of her clients were under the age of eighteen and had speech troubles, Micah had been taking on a few with other learning problems. A lot of the time, the two things went hand in hand. It wasn’t so much about reading as it was about reading aloud in many cases. Like her, if you had a stutter, reading out loud or presenting in front of people sometimes made the stutter worse. Most people put it down to nerves and stage fright, but more often than not, it was so much deeper than that.

At the knock on her office door, she pulled it open to find her childhood neighbor waiting on the other side. When her parents were still in Sirena Beach, they’d lived next door to Mrs. Hershey, a widow who was both opinionated and hilarious. Micah had been scared of her as a kid—telling her older brother about the witch that lived next door who ate small children—but looking at the woman now, she seemed pretty harmless.

“Are you sure you’re qualified to help me?” Mrs. Hershey asked as she waddled into the office, nose up in the air.

Micah closed the door and gestured to the diplomas she’d hung up on the wall. “More than. Graduated at the top of my class, got all my certifications.” She didn’t like flaunting her achievements, but the other doctors at the clinic told her that it would go a long way if she had some proof visible for everyone to see.

“But you’re so young.”

“I’m thirty-eight, Mrs. Hershey.”

The old woman’s eyes widened behind her thick glasses and a hand landed on her chest. “Not possible. I still remember you running into the backyard to do number two because that’s what Basil did.”

Basil had been Mrs. Hershey’s cranky, one eyed dog who hated everyone. Micah, on the other hand, loved Basil and smothered him with so much love and affection. She caught him pooping in their backyard while her parents were out and decided that if Basil could do it, so could she. Mrs. Hershey had come out at the moment when Micah rushed to the spot where Basil had done his job a few days ago, dropped her underwear and pooped like it was the most normal thing in the world. Safe to say, Mrs. Hershey gave her parents an earful and then pointed her already mangled fingers at little Micah and told her to behave like a young lady before vanishing into her house.

No wonder Micah thought she was a witch who ate small children.

“That was at least thirty years ago,” Micah told her with a laugh, then waited for the older woman to sit down before doing the same. “What brings you by, Mrs. Hershey?”

Patting down her coif, Mrs. Hershey hesitated and then pushed back her hunched shoulders. “I don’t know if your mother ever told you this, but I never learned how to read and write. I understand that it’s late in life, but there’s a book club that I’m a part of and they’re starting to pick books that don’t have audiobooks. And I don’t want to miss out.” She then lowered her voice and flashed, what could only be called, a salacious smile. “We’re reading those new age historical romances with mentions of cocks and pussies. It is quite the experience having a young stud mumble those words into my ear. Alas, the ladies want to read a book and apparently I have to do the same.”

Micah stared at her in shock, but mostly amusement. She loved that Mrs. Hershey was in a book club that read sexy romance novels with open door sex—oh, she was in a club or two of her own—but it was only slightly disturbing to see that smile accompanied by those words.

Clearing her throat, she shifted in her chair and tilted her head. “Is that why Mom used to do all your grocery shopping?”

“Your parents were very generous with their time and understanding of my plight. I was raised in a home where my father believed my only purpose was to cook, clean and procreate. So education wasn’t important.”

Micah hated how that generation believed women served such ridiculous purposes, like they were there for one thing and one thing only. It took away the importance of who and what a woman was and could do.

“Do you also want to learn how to write or are we only focusing on reading?”

Mrs. Hershey shook her head. “Only reading for now. I’m hoping they’ll pick more that are available as audiobooks again. Here,” she rummaged around in her bag and pulled out a paperback that featured a shirtless man in half of a Santa outfit, abs fully on display, “this is what we’re reading.”

“How about we start with something a little simpler?”

The older woman didn’t look impressed. “Does it have a sexy half naked man on the cover?”

“Unfortunately not,” she said, fighting back her smile. “Do you have some time today?”

“I suppose so.” She sighed dramatically and then set her bag on a chair before giving Micah her full attention. “What are we doing?”

“We’ll go through the alphabet and some really easy words and see what your base level is, then work from there.”

“I don’t have a lot of time before this book club, I better be ready by then.”

Chuckling, Micah reached for the children’s book with big words and pictures. “We’ll have you reading that book in no time.”

“We’re out of milk,” Emery announced from the couch as Micah cleaned up after dinner. “And probably cereal, too.”

Her session with Mrs. Hershey ran a little longer than expected, so when she got home, Emery had made dinner. But also very kindly left the kitchen an absolute mess. No matter how much she tried, teaching her daughter to clean up after herself was a difficult task. They’d eaten together on the couch, watching an old episode of Cheers. Then while Emery switched to her phone, Micah had gone to clean up. It was their deal from the minute her daughter had the ability to carry heavy things—one person cooked and the other person cleaned. The difference was that Micah cleaned up as she cooked, so all Emery ever had to do was put the leftovers away and load the dishwasher.

When Emery cooked, Micah had to power wash the kitchen.

“Are you still snacking at midnight?”

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