Page 25 of Legal

What Perry called fate, I called meddling, and I must say, I was doing a stellar job restraining my urge to toss her into the pond.

I was stuck at the end of some cartoon, and I was the crazy character shaking their fist in the air and saying, ‘And I would have gotten away with it too if it weren’t for those darn meddling kids.’

“Perry, just what the hell were you thinking? You could have at least warned me.”

“I only did it for you, Jills. Would you have gone if I told you who her coach was?”

“I would have still picked up Emily if you needed me to.” Perry had sworn up and down that she really was in an important meeting. Even if I didn’t like how the situation was handled, I still believed her.

“Yeah, but you wouldn’t have gotten out of the car. And you probably would have worn a babushka.”

I sighed, knowing she was right to some extent, but damn… these weren’t the kind of surprises I wanted hurled my way. If she had just left well enough alone, Chase and I might not have crossed paths again. But who even knew if that was correct either.

I flopped down on the bench, probably resembling an overcooked noodle. Between the humidity and my inner chaos, I was drained. I pulled out my phone and banged it against my bottom lip. “I’m going to cancel. I don’t know what I was thinking when I agreed anyway. He had me all flustered.”

“That sounds like a good thing to me.”

I shook my head. “It felt like a hormone-infested teenager had possessed my vocal cords and spoke for me.”

Perry stood in front of me, rolling her eyes, hands on her hips. “Just go on the damn date, Jills. You can always decide not to do a second one.”

“It’s not a date. It’s dinner.”

“Whatever.”

She sat down beside me and put her head on my shoulder, snatching my phone away. We watched the ducks for a while as I turned over everything in my mind. I couldn’t believe how much I struggled with something that should’ve been exciting and fun. If only I were fifteen years younger….

“Do you think I’m drawn to Chase because I miss Daniel?” Perry lifted her head and looked at me. “Because I just want someone to mother again?”

“Hmm, that depends…. When you see Chase, do you want to feed him milk and cookies, or do you want to screw his brains out?”

I dropped my head in my hands. “Oh, my God, Perry. I’m a cougar.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“I looked it up. I’m late thirties. There’s a fifteen year age difference…”

“I think the fact that you’re going into this kicking and screaming kinda negates the whole predatory requirement.”

I lifted my eyes to watch the clouds swirling above me. The blue still poked through, but the rain was coming. I could smell it. There was a pretty good chance the skies would be too hazy to shoot anything off tonight.

“I don’t understand why you’re acting like this. You’ve never had a problem with your age before. So what if you’re attracted to him? As long as he’s legal, it’s all good.”

No, she really didn’t understand, but my brother would. “You’re not going to mention any of this to Stephen, right?”

“Not if you don’t want me to. I don’t need him freaking out on you again for stupid shit.” It wasn’t stupid to me. I took my phone back and secured it in my hand. “And I know what you’re thinking,” she said, “but what your dad did wasn’t an age thing, it was an asshole thing. No offense.”

“None taken.”

Perry rose, then grabbed my hands and yanked me up. “We should start walking back. You need to get home and into something hot. Where’s he taking you, anyway? You never mentioned it.”

My gut twisted, spiraling up to my throat. “Dammit, Perry, it’s not a date.”

“Calm down. I didn’t say it was. Not this time.”

I studied the sharp edges of the grass as we headed back down the hill. It looked very… green. I decided to look for the turtle instead. It had to be around somewhere.

“Hey, I have an idea.” Perry stopped dead. “If it’ll put you more at ease and give it a less date-ish feel, why don’t you invite him over instead? Order some takeout and keep it casual.”

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