Page 15 of Dependable Cowboy

“She said we’d love to,” her dad interjected. “And she’s right. Bring her over anytime, Joy.”

For a minute, Joy opened and closed her mouth like a fish, no words coming out. Had they seriously fulfilled her request with no issues? Maybe that was why she asked her next question.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, we’re sure,” her mom spoke up again. “We would delight in it.”

Joy contemplated this. While she and Kara had been staying at their house, she’d kept out of her parents’ way as much as possible. Conversations had been tense, and she didn’t want to be any more underfoot than necessary.

She and Kara had remained in her bedroom or gone out rather than loiter in the shared family spaces for the most part. And beyond those first couple of meals, they hadn’t eaten with her mom and dad, either. She’d tried to save them the trouble of additional awkwardness by eating in her old room with her daughter.

Had that been a mistake?

Or maybe the problem was Joy herself being there. After all, it was her they’d been so furious with all those years ago. Maybe her future interactions with them could be positive any time they centered around Kara as their granddaughter. It wasn’t quite an olive branch, but it was something she could work with.

So, she called Aaron back.

“What time would you want to go?”

“Eight, okay?”

“Eight should be fine. Meet you there?”

“I could come pick you up if you give me your address,” he suggested, but that felt too… like a date. And thiswasn’ta date. Not even close.

“No, I’ll drive and meet you there. I remember where The Steer House is.”

Everything went okay. She was able to drop off Kara without any negativity with her parents. She’d worried that her daughter might not want to go back to her grandparents’ place after having so recently moved away, but her dad waved a pair of coloring books at her.

“These are fantasy ones with unicorns and flying horses. Do you like that, Kara?”

She did, but Joy had no clue how he knew.

“I do, Grandpa.”

“Then, let’s get busy coloring.”

Together they’d strung out a whole series of crayons, using the coffee table as a surface. Suddenly, Joy was taken back to her childhood when her dad had done the same with her. Her mom had worked puzzles with her in the same way.

How had she forgotten such things?

“Kara be good for your grandparents,” Joy admonished her, but Kara seemed unfazed.

“I will, Mom.”

“Have fun with Aaron,” her mom said, and she couldn’t help digging into that remark for evidence of condescension or animosity. Yet, she could detect none. Her mother seemed to mean it. Which maybe shouldn’t come as a shock. It’d been Wayne her parents had loathed, not Aaron.

Never Aaron. Never her best childhood friend and first boyfriend.

“Okay. Thanks for watching Kara.” Her dad already had half a page colored in as Kara created some sort of pattern on hers using a fingernail file underneath the paper. Joy didn’t even know where the file could’ve come from.

“It’s our pleasure.”

So that left Joy with nothing to do but leave. She finished putting her makeup on in the car, then drove—even if the engine sputtered once or twice—to the restaurant without incident.

The dinner itself proceeded fine, too, except for one little issue. He kept touching her. Nothing inappropriate or egregious. Just a casual touch here and there. A brush of their fingers when he handed her the pepper. How his body leaned against her chair when he went to pay the bill. Then, his palm at the small of her back as he guided her out of the restaurant, and a steadying hand when she stumbled on some loose gravel out in the parking lot.

But she noticed. And for some reason she couldn’t explain, she liked it. It had been forever since Wayne treated her this nicely, with all his concentration on her. It was lovely.

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