Page 116 of Desolation

I look over at Mari who is watching us. She has the saddest smile on her face. I know she worries that what we have won’t work. That we can’t find a way to be together. And now that her kids, especially Olivia, have grown on me, it will be even harder.

“Olivia,” she says. “Do you want to go get ice cream now?”

“Ice cream!” Olivia shouts as she jumps off my lap.

“Help Makayla pick up your toys.”

I walk over to Mari and help her with the beach umbrella.

“You don’t have to do this you know,” she says to me.

“What do you mean?”

She looks away from me as she folds the towel she was laying on. “Act like… oh, I don’t know what I am saying. You don’t have to play with them.”

I put my hand on her forearm. “I want to.”

She sighs. “If this doesn’t work it’s going to be so much harder.”

“Mar, they don’t know anything is going on between us. They think I am your friend. It will be fine.”

She nods and shoves her things into a beach bag.

We grab the kids’ toys and place them on the deck of her mom’s house before we head to go get ice cream. The four of us, almost like a family. It’s when I realize this is exactly what I want.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Mari

I wash the dishes with my mom after a dinner with far too much food. She is quiet while I wash and she dries.

Landon took the kids upstairs to bed a few minutes ago. Olivia insisting that he read her a story. Makayla looked excited even though she is nine and hasn’t had anyone read her a bedtime story in almost three years.

I glance at my mom who has a smug look on her face. “What?”

“Oh, nothing.”

“Mama, I know that look.”

“What look is that, mija?”

I shake my head and go back to the dishes as I mutter in Spanish. “Madre eres ridiculo.”

She throws her towel on the counter. “I hope you know what you are doing.”

“What do you mean?”

“Has Michael signed the divorce papers yet?”

“Ay dios mío, Mama.”

She props her hip against the counter. “I’m not blind, mija. I see the way you look at him. And the way he looks at you.”

I groan and lean on my elbows over the sink.

“He is good with the kids. Olivia loves him. I have never seen her warm-up to someone so quickly. Makayla has been talking his ear off all day and he lets her. He seems to be a good man. Much better than your husband, who seems to forget you exist.”

“Mother,” I scold.

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