Page 78 of Boston
“I’m sorry,” Cora said.
“Are you sleeping okay in your new place?” Momma asked. “It’s got to be a lot different than your apartment in South Miami.”
“It’s very quiet,” Cora said with a smile. “It took a couple nights of getting used to that, and now I sleep like a baby.”
Momma nodded, and Cora didn’t really have any emails to check.
“Momma,” she said, not sure why she suddenly wanted to tell her mother about Boston before Kat and Jeremy arrived. “I’m seeing someone.”
Momma’s eyebrows went up, and Cora stopped pretending that she had something to do on her computer. “It’s Boston, Momma. I really like him, and we’ve been dating for a couple of weeks now.”
“A couple of weeks,” Momma said, blinking quickly. “You’ve only been back for a couple of weeks.”
Two and a half, to be exact, but Cora didn’t correct her. “I actually ran into him the first day I was here,” she said. “Saturday night before the horseback ride on Wicker Road Trail. He helped me with Goldie.”
“Boston is very helpful,” her mother said, and Cora wasn’t sure what kind of reaction she’d expected from her momma. She was an Even Stevens and always had been. She never flew off the handle. She hardly ever yelled. She had strong convictions and was passionate about things, but she expressed herself in a calm way almost all the time. Sometimes she would negotiate things, and other times it was her way or no way at all, but still, Cora had never felt bullied as a child, or that her mother didn’t listen to her.
“Do you think it will be a problem, Momma?” Cora asked. “Boston’s worried that the other employees here will think I’m favoring him.”
Her mother frowned. “How would you be favoring him?”
“I don’t know,” Cora said. “Giving him a better schedule, letting him take more time off, moving him up to management positions.”
Momma nodded along with each of the suggestions that Cora gave. “You haven’t done any of those, right?”
“No,” Cora said.
“We don’t have a policy here about employees dating,” Momma said thoughtfully. “I think for something like this, anything that’s offered to Boston should go through a committee. You, Kat, and Jeremy. There’s three of you. You need at least two people to approve any promotion of his, any extra time off that he normally wouldn’t get, or anything else that the two of you might be worried about.”
Cora nodded, pure relief filling her. It made her insides cool as she relaxed into her chair. “Do you think Kat and Jeremy will be okay with it?”
“I think Kat will be thrilled,” Momma said with a half laugh. “She was telling me just the other day that she hoped you would be happy here, and maybe if you could meet someone, it would help.”
Cora smiled because she knew her twin sister loved her and wanted the best for her. “It’s funny how Kat always thinks that a man will make someone happy, and I think that I can make myself happy.” She looked at her mother, because while she and Kat were twins, they were also very, very different in a lot of ways.
Momma leaned forward. “You know, Cora, sometimes both can be true.”
She nodded, though she wasn’t quite sure what her mother meant. She put it in her mind to think about later, something she’d often done with things her father told her. She drew in a breath as Kat and Jeremy entered the office.
“Oh, everyone’s here already,” Jeremy said. “I told you it would be fine if we showed up a little bit early.”
Kat came in after him, and while Cora saw her nearly every day, it sure looked like she had grown bigger around by at least a foot.
“Holy cow,” she said, getting to her feet and going to help Kat the last few feet to her chair. “These babies have gotten really big.”
“You’re telling me,” Kat said. “And I still have ten weeks to go.”
“They could be born at any time,” Jeremy said. “Tons of people have twins early.”
“You girls were five weeks early,” Momma said, as if Kat and Cora had never heard that before.
Kat groaned as she settled into her seat. “I’m not going to be able to stay here long, Cora. This chair is hard.”
Cora grinned down at her, her eyes dropping to the pair of leopard print, peep-toe heels she wore. She always pulled these out when she needed a boost of confidence, because they made her feel sexy and strong and capable.
Even if she attributed too much power to her footwear, she was still able to open her mouth and say, “Thanks for coming. I just wanted to let you guys know that I have a new boyfriend, and he’s an employee here at Silver Sage Mountain Lodge and Resort.”
Kat sucked in a breath, even as Cora heard the strength and confidence in her own voice.
