Page 73 of Someone to Watch Over Me

“Are they still close to their dad?” I ask.

“Very much so, but they can see both parents are happier apart than they were together, so they’re cool with it.”

“They sound like great kids.”

“They really are. It’s all good, except for the part about how she could die and leave me devastated again. You think there’s something wrong with you for not caring about being laid off, Lex. What level of masochist does it make me to get involved with her knowing what may be coming?”

“Ah, hell,” Joy says. “It’s coming for all of us.”

“See, I know that,” Hallie says. “And I think about what happened to my Gwen and your Craig as an example of how lightning can strike at any time, without warning. It’s all a risk. Every fucking thing is a risk. But some things are riskier than others.”

“Very true,” Brielle says, “which means you have to decide if you can handle it if the worst happens again.”

“I’d probably handle it better than I did the first time around. At least this time, I’d have some warning, you know?”

Gwen’s suicide left Hallie shocked to her core. It’s taken her years to even think about dating again.

“Knowing it’s coming doesn’t always make it easier to accept.”

“Lexi is right,” Joy says. “My grandmother was sick for years before she finally passed, and I was flattened by it anyway. And that’s not the same as losing a significant other.”

“Loss is loss,” Brielle says. “And it all sucks. I’d rather talk about when Lexi is going to start getting busy with Tom Terrific.”

Her nickname for him makes me laugh. “Where’d that come from?”

“That’s how I’ve thought of him since he offered you a place to live and wined and dined you for the better part of a year while he waited for you to be ready for him.”

“Is that what you think he’s been doing?”

“Duh, honey,” Joy says with a grin. “We’ve all thought that.”

“Really?”

“Lexi, sweetheart,” Naomi says, “no man makes dinner for a woman six nights a week and serves it with candles while making her lunch and coffee and doing whatever else he can to make her life easy and sweet without hoping she might someday see him as more than a platonic roommate. You aren’t so far out of the dating loop that you can’t see that, are you?”

“No, but…”

“No buts, my love,” Joy says. “The man is crazy about you and has been from minute one. I only met him on moving day, but I’m crazy about him for the way he’s cared for you without expecting one single thing in exchange. If you ask me, he’s given the master class on how to successfully date a widow without her knowing she’s being wooed.”

Her assessment makes me laugh. “I’m so dumb.”

“No, you’re not!” Brielle laughs along with the others. “You just weren’t ready to see it until you almost lost him and had to ponder life without him, too.”

“I used to be quick on the uptake. Once upon a time.”

“Didn’t we all?” Joy asks. “Chalk it up to widow brain. It’s a real condition.”

We order dinner, and they get more margaritas since they’re Ubering. I stick with water because, clearly, I need to keep my wits about me for when I get home to Tom Terrific. That nickname cracks me up. I love that Brielle calls him that, and she’s right that he’s earned it.

My chicken enchiladas are delicious, but I end up boxing half the meal to take home. The servings at this place are enormous, and I’ve never finished an entire meal in one sitting. I’ll have to hide the enchiladas from Tom, who loves all things Mexican and will be drooling over them.

The girls have given me a lot to think about as I drive home through drizzle and fog that has me taking it slower than usual.

15

Lexi

When I get home shortly after ten, Tom is watching moreSportsCenter, his favorite thing.

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