Page 24 of Books and Hookups

“Hi, honey,” I said when she answered my video call.

“Lucie! What a surprise!” She leaned back against her ’90s-style oak kitchen cabinets.

I grinned. How had she not figured out it was no accident I’d call her on a Friday? “Just thinking of you on my walk to work.”

“Be careful, sweetie. You wouldn’t want to trip and fall.”

“Don’t be such a mom.” I glanced down at her face on the screen, then back to the crowded sidewalk. “I’ve got my eyes on the sidewalk, see?” A guy in a blue suit walked ahead of me. “What are you doing?”

“The banana bread is in the oven, and I was about to start brownies in case the kids come over this weekend.”

Uh-oh.Was she stress baking or only regular baking? It was hard to tell with Savannah. I couldn’t recall seeing her in any room other than her kitchen on our video chats.

“You feeling okay?” I paused at the don’t-walk sign.

“Of course. Baking relaxes me.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What do you need relaxing from?”

“Oh, you know… Life. Jason and I had anotherconversationlast night. He doesn’t understand why I won’t move back into the bedroom with him.”

“Did you tell him why?”

“I tried. I told him I don’t feel like he values me as a person, only as the woman who cooks and cleans and…you know.”

“Good for you!” The light turned green, and I stepped into the crosswalk. “What did he say?”

“That of course he values me. That he cares about me. That we’ve come too far to throw away our marriage.”

Huh. Dude had upped his game since their last conversation, when he’d only whined that they needed to reconnect in bed. “Do you believe him?”

“I don’t know. Maybe, until he asked if I could make his colonoscopy appointment.”

I shook my head. “How’s the counseling going?”

“We haven’t found a time to go yet. He’s so busy…”

Too busy to save his marriage? How could he not try anything he could to stay with her? But Savannah and I had been over this before, and from the look on her face, she was replaying it right now. Time for a distraction. “Are you going to see your kids this weekend?”

“My daughter’s coming over this weekend. She’s bringing her boyfriend.”

“Ooh. Meeting the parents? Think you’re going to like him?”

“I’ve already met him, and he’s fine, I guess. But she’s too young to get serious.”

“How old is she?”

“Twenty-three.”

“And how old were you when you got married?”

“Twenty-two. Don’t laugh. I was definitely too young to get married. I see that now.”

Watching Savannah on my screen, I’d stopped looking where I was going and bumped into blue-suit guy. “Sorry,” I muttered through the pain radiating through my chest. He hadn’t even noticed, but I had to stop walking and take a minute until the stars cleared my vision.

“Lucie, what’s wrong?”

I took in a shallow breath and blew it out. “Wasn’t watching where I was going and bumped into someone. I’m PMSing hard, and my boobs are super-tender. It’s torture to even put on a bra.”

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