Page 79 of The Best Friend Power Play

After some time, Culver hooks his pinkie around mine. "This okay?"

I smile at him. "It is."

We both look up at the sky, drifting quietly in the salty water, enveloped by a peaceful stillness, but connected to each other by our pinkies.

I really do feel free.

Some of that is due to the kids leaving, but there's something else going on.

I'm changing.

I can feel it.

This hot girl summer thing is showing me there's another way to live. I'm not getting carried away and thinking this is a long-term arrangement—as much as I'd like it to be.

I know summer is going to end, the kids are going to go to college, and Culver is going to hit the road for the next season.

But when all that happens, for the first time, I'm starting to think I'm not going to hate it. Sure, it'll be a big adjustment living alone, not having to think about the kids, and I'll have a lot more spare time on my hands, but that's a good thing.

I've been wanting to volunteer at the hospital for a while.

I'm keen to continue painting, and I might even take a few more classes.

I may even dip into my savings and hire someone part-time to help out at the shop so I can travel a bit farther afield than Fresno, or any of the day trips we've been doing.

I have the chance to start my adult life. Properly this time. Nothing is holding me back anymore. I've got my whole life ahead of me, and that feels…incredible.

"I'm reading a book on anti-gravity." Culver's deep voice pulls me out of my thoughts.

"Excuse me?"

"I said I'm reading a book on anti-gravity," he repeats. "It's really good."

"Oh. Okay."

"Yeah, it's so good I can't put it down."

He lifts his arm out of the water and starts uncurling his fingers, one at a time. It takes me four fingers to get his attempt at humor.

"You'll make a great dad someday," I say. "You've already got the jokes."

"The jokes I'm fine with. It's the dad bod I want to avoid."

My mind immediately conjures up an image of him in a Speedo, and why have I not paid more attention to his body before?

Oh, that's right. Because Culver is my best friend and not some guy on a reality TV show.

Different ogling standards apply here, Hannah. Get it together, girl.

"Uh, this is the part where you're supposed to tell me I don't have a dad bod."

"You know you don't."

"Yeah, but still…" He smiles a little playfully, a little shyly, and a whole lot adorably. "It'd be nice to hear you say it."

"Why?"

The question fires out of my mouth before I have a chance to logically consider it…which, I guess, is a good thing since I'm trying to be less structured but could also be a bad thing since it could lead to a conversation I'm not sure either one of us is ready to have.

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