“Dallas is a bit bigger than Denver, so it might be nice to live in the suburbs instead of in the city. You know, a bit less hustle and bustle?”
“I’ll see what I can do. Would you like a house or another apartment?”
“Ooh, a house would be lovely. It would be nice not to have people only a wall away.”
“Wouldn’t you miss smelling Mrs. Garvey’s cooking?” I ask teasingly. My mom’s next door neighbor tends to use a lot of pungent ingredients in her recipes. Of course Ma never complains, but the amount of air freshener she uses daily could fumigate a small city.
“Getting away from that would be a plus,” she says with a laugh.
“Good. I’ll try to find us houses close to each other.”
“You know my budget, right?” she asks anxiously.
“I do.”
I’m already making plans to find her a nice fucking house and put a giant down payment on it so she’ll have a very minimal monthly payment. Somehow I’ll work it out with the realtor so my mom won't know.
I know better than to offer to buy her a house outright, even though doing so wouldn’t even put a dent in my wallet. Ma asserted her independence over two decades ago, and I’d never want to take that sense of accomplishment from her.
“Well, I’m getting excited now,” she says, her voice almost a squeal. “It will be a new adventure.”
“I hope so, Ma.”
“It will be,” she insists, strengthening into mom-mode. “You’re going to grab life by the horns and make it your own. If I can do it, you can too.”
Something relaxes inside my chest, and I nod even though she can’t see me. Switching hockey teams seems like nothing compared to what she went through when I was ten years old, and I need to stop feeling sorry for myself and do exactly what she said.
Grab life by the horns and make it my own.And I’m going to start by not leaving this island until I talk to Juliette McNamara and figure out where I went wrong.
“I love you,” I say as my heart fills with emotion.
“I love you too, son. Oh, and I saw Gramps earlier. He was having a good day and said, and I quote, ‘Tell Reno I hope he’s getting some vacation nookie while he’s there.’”
“That sounds like him,” I chuckle. “Give him my love.”
“I will.” She pauses before saying, “Anything else you needto talk about?”
“No, Ma. That’s all,” I fib. “I was worried about the trade, but you made me feel better.”
“That's my job,” she chirps happily. Nothing pleases her more than helping other people, especially her family. “We’ve got this, Reno.”
“Because we’re in it together.”
“We damn sure are, son.”
I hang up with a smile on my face. Hearing a noise from outside, I peek out the front blinds to find a uniformed woman walking up the path toward the cottage next door. She knocks, Juliette answers, and the employee hands her the tray.
After a brief conversation, the blonde beauty glances over to my cottage, and I let go of the blinds and dip into a crouch beneath the wooden sill.Shit. Did she see me?When I hear footsteps again, I risk another glance to see the employee walking back up the path… without the tray.
She accepted the food.A sense of victory passes over me, and like a fucking psycho stalker, I stare out the blinds for thirty minutes until I see Juliette’s door open again. She places the food tray on the porch table, and my heart turns into a bass drum when I see that the plates are empty.
Satisfied, I carry my phone into the bedroom, undress, and turn off all the lights except for the lamp beside the bed. Since I can’t stop thinking of the woman next door, I pull up the reading app on my phone and look up Juli Mack. As I settle against the headboard, I scroll through her books and finally select one that looks good to me.
Then I begin reading.
Chapter 11
Groveling is best done on your knees.
