Page 38 of It's Not PMS, It's You
I turned around and nodded. “Very nice. I like her, but she kind of bummed me out at the same time. Remember I told you that all her friends had moved away, and that she had outlived her husband and her daughter?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, she sits at home most days and most nights, watching reruns of her favorite shows. She gets all her food delivered. She’s not even motivated to leave the house anymore. And the last three times she did leave the house was to go to three memorials for friends who died. How sad is that?”
Dee nodded. “Very sad.”
“I want to do something for her.”
“Like what?”
I shrugged. “I haven’t figured out that part yet. Maybe a weekly get-together over tea, unless I can think of something else. She seemed to really enjoy the time with me and being out. I think the only thing stopping her from going out is that she has nobody in her life, really.”
“Maybe she needs to find other ladies who get together regularly, like for a book club, a meetup, or something else. My mom is in a Bunco group and she has a blast. Well, I think they focus more on the food and drinks and chatting than the actual Bunco itself, but they do have fun.”
“Not a bad idea at all.”
“I know.” Dee smiled and gestured to the backyard. “What do you think of the progress in the yard? I closed the sliding glass door, just in case there was any dust.”
“I haven’t seen it yet.” I flipped back around to take a look at the fountain. “Oh, wow.”
It was already flowing with water. I knew what it was supposed to look like since I’d picked it out of a catalog, but it looked even more amazing in person. And Nick had already set up the two concrete benches I had picked out, one on each side of the fountain.
I opened up the sliding glass door to hear the water. “This I could get used to.”
“How could you not have seen it when you came in? You were looking through the glass when I walked up behind you.”
“Was I?” I could feel my face heating up, but I wasn’t going to admit that I was gawking. “Hmmm. I’m not sure.”
Dee leaned forward to get a look at my face and then laughed. “You were checking out the guys, weren’t you?”
I turned to her, grabbing her arm and squeezing it. “It’s allyourfault. You put those thoughts of glistening muscles and all that in my head.”
She was still laughing. “Yeah, but I didn’t think you would believe me. Okay, I call dibs on Brandon. You get Nick.”
“Shhhh! Keep it down or they’ll hear you.” I shook my head in disbelief. “And you’re calling dibs on Brandon like he’s the last piece of pie?”
“Piece of meat,” Dee corrected. “Beef cake. And mama’s hungry.”
“Now, you’re starting to sound like Barney.”
She laughed. “I have no idea what that means, but let’s take a closer look.”
“No! I’m not going to go gawk at men.”
“Of course not, you already did that.” Dee slid open the screen door. “I’m talking about the fountain, silly.” She grabbed me by the hand and dragged me outside.
“Oh . . . that. Right.”
“Hey, guys!” Dee said, waving.
The guys turned around, both smiling and approaching us.
“The fountain looks amazing.” Dee continued to pull, but I was able to yank my hand free, and did my best to look relaxed. “How about some lemonade? You haven’t even taken a break in the last few hours and you must be thirsty.”
“I’m good, but thank you,” Nick said.
“I would love some,” Brandon said. “Thank you.”
