Page 19 of Lyrical

I laughed.See you soon, Perry.

We often had lunch together since she worked at the Lakeshore Jewelers nearby. Ironic, considering she really didn’t care for jewelry all that much. Maybe it was a similar situation to that time I worked at the ice cream parlor as a teen. By the time August rolled around, the thought of looking at another cone, much less eating it, made me want to gag. And I even liked sweets back then. Not Perry-sweet but—

I caught movement out the window from the corner of my eye, and I turned to notice her coming up the steps.Wow, that was quick. She must’ve been right down the block when she texted.I gestured for her to go around to the front and I went to meet her.

I opened the door and she stepped inside, kicking off her boots. “What’s that boneheaded buttfuck doing here?” She thumbed towards the driveway.

“What?”

“Isn’t that his car?”

“Oh, Mike. Daniel’s using it for a while. What did you call him?”

“Boneheaded buttfuck.” She tossed her hat to the ground, her long, inky hair still perfect. “It’s fun to say, but I don’t get to use it too often. Fortunately, your ex gives me a reason. At least he has one purpose.”

“All right, Perry, that’s enough. He’s still Daniel’s father. What if he can hear you?”

“He can’t. I can hear the shower running. And if it were Mike here instead, I wouldn’t care if he heard me. I saw how you were last night after he left, even if you were trying to hide it. What’d the asshole say to you?”

I kept one ear on the bathroom. She was right; as long as the water was on, it’d be impossible to hear anything other than my loud-ass doorbell.

“Yeah, he was kind of a dick, Perry.”

“Kinda?”

“The short version: As long as I’m with Chase, I’m a bad mom.”

“That is so fucked-up, Jills. You’re not letting any of that shit get into your head, right?”

I shrugged. “I’m trying not to, but you know how I worry about it anyway.”

“Which just proves you’re not a bad mom. If you didn’t give a fuck, you wouldn’t think twice. You and Chase are perfect together, and anyone who’s around you two for half a second can see that.”

I smiled. Perry was the one on the sidelines, holding the biggest pom-poms. If it weren’t for her, I probably wouldn’t even be with Chase. Her methods usually left something to be desired, but her heart was exactly where it should be.

“Besides, Daniel seemed cool with it last night, right?”

“I think so. I even talked to him about it today, and he said he was fine with everything.”

“Then why do you look like I just ran over your chicken?”

“My chicken?”

Perry went into the kitchen and opened my fridge, poking her head around. “I had a friend who had a pet hen once. I told her not to let that thing strut freely in the driveway.” She shook her head, pulling out my box of leftover pizza. “And well, I’ll spare you the rest.”

“I thought roosters were the ones to strut?” I started up another pot of coffee, debating if I wanted a slice. I wasn’t very hungry yet.

“Whatever, Jills. You know what I mean.”

I turned to face her. “With Daniel, it feels off somehow, like it was almost too easy. And he says ‘fine’ too much. It’s hard to believe that he has absolutely no issues with any of it.”

In Mike’s dickheaded way, could he have been right about Daniel only pretending this didn’t bother him?

Perry ripped off the end of the pizza and stuffed it into her mouth cold. “Fuck, Jills,” she said with a mumbled voice. “Are you worried about things going wrong or things going right? Make up your mind already.”

I blew out a puff of breath. Yeah, if I were lying on a psychiatrist’s couch, I was sure there’d be a disorder for the way I was behaving right now. But I couldn’t stop the suspicion levels from creeping higher the more things were “fine.” ‘Waiting for the other shoe to drop’ syndrome.

“I think Mabel’s coming up to your door. And she’s walking something in pink bubble wrap.”

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