Page 8 of The Man Next Door
That he was. The man was a hormone fire-starter. But Zona didn’t need her hormones catching fire. In fact, her hormones needed to be put on ice. Permanently.
“He may be gorgeous, but I don’t want to share my cookies.”
“It’s been two years since your divorce. The dust has finally settled. You could move on,” said Louise.
“From the frying pan into the fire? Mom, I’ve got my hands full trying to get financially healthy. I don’t need to add relationship angst to that.”
“I bet he’s doing okay financially,” said Louise.
“Betting is what got me into this mess. And anyway, with my track record, no one would be betting on me.” Ugh.
Louise shrugged. “You don’t want to stay single forever. And you know what they say. The third time’s the charm.”
“Theysay a lot of things. And you know what elsetheysay? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I’m done being duped. Anyway, I’m not sure he’s in the market. He was on the phone with somebody when he got out of his truck just now, and that somebody was getting an earful.”
“Well, there you go. What he needs is a good woman.”
“You don’t really want to see me getting together with someone after what happened with Gary, do you?”
“I want to see you getting together with someone who will erase what happened with Gary from your heart,” Louise said. “There are still good men out there. Like your father was.”
“Yes, and there are unicorns living in Echo Park,” said Zona.
“I wonder what would have happened if your father and I had stayed in Florida,” Louise mused later as she helped Zona with the cookies. “Your life might have turned out so different if you’d grown up there.”
“Dad might not have had a job,” Zona suggested. Her father had done well working in California as an urban planner.
“You wouldn’t have met Luke,” Louise said.
“Or had Bree.”
“There’s proof that something good can come out of anything.” Louise brightened. “So, who knows what good will come out of all of this?”
“Maybe I’ll write a memoir and become famous?”
They both laughed at that. Even though she liked to read, Zona was not a writer.
What was she? Good with kids. (She’d always wished she and Gary had been able to have a couple. Now that failure looked like a blessing in disguise.) Maybe she should have become a teacher. Although she’d never been very good at helping Bree with her homework. She searched around her mind and, as she had before, she didn’t find any spectacular talent that made her special. She liked to hike, she liked to read. She enjoyed being in the kitchen, but she wasn’t clever enough to make it on any TV cooking competition. She could sing, but she didn’t have the voice of a superstar. She was just an ordinary woman, one who had a lovely, smart, and very bitter daughter.
Bree. What a mess Gary had made in her head. Like Zona, Bree had loved him. He’d spent more time with Bree when she was growing up than her real dad ever had. It made his betrayal all the worse.
There it was again, another verse of the lame song, playing in Zona’s brain. She had to stop that. She needed to focus on the future.
She’d found Angel Ram, a finance guru who had an entertaining and informative money management podcast, and had checked out her latest book from the library. She was taking Angel’s words to heart. “Debt is an ugly beast. Throw that beast off you. Get going and get working!” Angel liked to say. “Your past is not your future. Change your attitude now. Change your habits now. Tomorrow will thank you.”
Angel Ram was right. Zona had bucked that beast off her and she was rebuilding. Her tomorrows would be better. She would make sure of it. After all, she had chocolate.
She scooped up four cookies from the cooling rack, put them on a plate, and set the plate on the kitchen table. Then she got out the milk.
“Cookies and milk,” Louise said happily as Zona poured them each a glass. “That always brings back such happy memories of my childhood.”
“Mine, too,” Zona said and smiled at her.
Louise lifted her glass. “Here’s to better times ahead and making better memories.”
“I’ll drink to that,” said Zona, and the ground under the house gave a little quiver.
Darling whimpered and Louise said weakly, “Oh, I don’t like the timing of that.”
