Page 56 of Where Are You Now
“Mine is traumatic. Why won’t you tell me yours?”
She took a drink of her crisp, citrussy cocktail. “I’m afraidto tell you mine because it might impact this.” She waggled a finger between them.
“You’re telling me there’s a reason we’ve met up again, but if you disclose that reason, it might impact us? That makes absolutely no sense.”
“It might scare you away,” she said honestly. She wanted to tell him, to have him understand and say that she wasn’t crazy at all, but she wasn’t sure what he’d think.
“Believe me, nothing can scare me these days. I’ve faced mortality head-on. There’s nothing bigger than that.”
Mortality?
So had she.
“I’m telling you,” he said, “I’ve seen it all. Your thing can’t be any worse than my thing, and if it involves both of us, I think you should tell me.”
But Ava wanted to give him more time to get to know this version of her so he wouldn’t think she’d lost her mind when she told him about the near-death experience. She hadn’t told anyone but her mother, and she wasn’t sure how a story like that would be received.
“One day, maybe I will.”
He shook his head. “One day? Does that mean we’ll at least keep in touch?”
“Absolutely.”
“I can’t believe we were both in New York the whole time. If only I’d known. It might have made things a lot easier.” That veil of thought fell over him once more, but this time, he lifted his drink. “To second chances.”
“To second chances.” She tapped his glass with hers, incredibly thankful for all her second chances.
“How was your date with Lucas?”Ava’s mother asked when she walked in.
Ava waved to Lucas from the open doorway as he drove off and then shut the door. “It wasn’t exactly a date. It was lunch.”
Martha winked at her and placed a bookmark in her book.
Ava took off her heels and dropped them by the door. Then, she sat on the sofa next to her mom, folding her legs under her.
“I told the preacher I’d let you know about his church. You should go sometime. You might meet some people.”
“Maybe I will. But right now, it’s just nice to have you here. We should do something fun tonight—just us.”
Ava scooted next to her mother. “What do you say we have a girls’ night?”
Her mom perked up.
“I packed a honey mud mask that’s one hundred dollars a jar.” She made a face.
Martha’s eyes rounded. “How decadent.”
“And I have three different colors of nail polish. We can pile all the blankets and pillows on the sofa, put a romcom on TV, pour two glasses of wine, and give ourselves mani-pedis.”
Martha stood up and clapped her hands. “You’ve sold me.”
Her mom had hung back when Ava had been with her dad. This moment was for her and her mother. Ava got up and went into her bedroom to gather her things, feeling a kind of wholeness she hadn’t felt in a long time.
When she came out of her room wearing her bathrobe and slippers and carrying her bottles of nail polish, her mother was busily fluffing up the pillows on the sofa.
“I’ve gotWhen Harry Met Sallyready to go,” Martha said, “and your wine is on the table.”
Ava retrieved her glass while her mom hit play on the movie and then looked over the bottles of polish.
