by Cara Bastone
Whenever her mother called, whenever it was time for Mary to visit again, she’d have John. And it was important to remember that.
This time, she had John.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
TWO WEEKS LATER, the end of August was bearing down on them and the weather hadn’t let up one bit. Mary had gotten distracted in her cool storeroom that morning, sighing over the fall decorations she wouldn’t be able to put up in her shop window for another month at least. October couldn’t come soon enough for her. She was tired of underboob sweat. She was tired of her summer wardrobe. She was tired of having to eat her weight in fruit popsicles just to make sure she didn’t succumb to heatstroke.
She was also excited about weathering a new season with John. This summer had spanned on for years, it felt like. Though, so had her connection to John. They’d been together only a few weeks, not even a real month yet, but Mary felt like the strength and quality of their relationship was so much more substantial than that. She was anxious for time to catch up with her feelings.
She spent the day in her shop, relishing the air-conditioning and helping customers. Though the end of summer was usually a little slow retail-wise, she’d noticed a surge in customer interest since the break-in. Maybe the way she’d rearranged the shop was catching more eyes off the sidewalk, or maybe people who’d heard about the break-in were stopping by to see how things were going. Either way, Mary’s business was doing well enough that any second she wasn’t with John, she was busy in her shop.
Mary helped a customer choose between two sets of handblown glass tumblers and carefully wrapped and packaged them for him. She was dimly aware that he was an attractive man and that he was probably flirting with her, but her mind was elsewhere as she handed him his purchase and gave him a bright smile.
She noticed that his eyes had strayed to her left hand, a look of confusion on his face as she merrily sent him on his way. With a defeated shrug, he was gone.
When Mary looked over at the door, it was a double take. She was surprised to see John standing off to one side of her shop, just past the entrance, his eyes pinned to her.
Her insides turned to a slow-moving wildfire. She knew that look he was giving her. That was his I-know-what-Mary-looks-like-naked look.
Another customer with a question pulled her attention away, and it was ten more minutes before the shop was empty. Kylie was sorting through inventory in the back room, finally back on a regular work schedule post break-in.
John, hands in pockets, strolled quasi-casually over to her. She leaned across the counter to him, her elbows planted, and accepted a quick-hot sip of a kiss.
“What a lucky woman I am,” she told him easily, almost thoughtlessly. “To have such a broody, handsome boyfriend.”
She froze for a moment, shocked at herself.
She hadn’t meant to call John her boyfriend. They hadn’t quite discussed it yet, what they were to one another. Did John even have girlfriends? The word sounded so juvenile. Fun, exhilarating, but juvenile. She was positive they were monogamous simply due to the amount of sex they were having. The man would have to be addicted to sex, Red Bull and Viagra if he were going to somehow be having more sex with someone else on the side.
His brows pulled down in that V that she’d come to love so dearly, and his lips twitched in a smile so slight, a stranger wouldn’t notice it. But Mary did. “I was just thinking the same thing,” he said in his two-toned voice.
“You were just thinking how lucky I am?” she asked innocently, widening her smile and batting her eyelashes. “How sweet.”
He laughed. “I was thinking how lucky I am.” John slipped his hand across the counter and grabbed hers, doing that palm-kissing thing he always did with her. The man had a serious thing for her palms. “Remember that day Estrella and I came to your shop?”
“When she dragged you in by your ear?”
“I came willingly!” he insisted. “I told you that I knew I needed to apologize. And apologize I did.”
Mary squeezed his hand. “It was actually a very good apology, by the way.” She cocked her head to one side. “That apology was the first thing I truly liked about you. Not every person can apologize and mean it the way you did.”
“I already liked everything about you,” John admitted, those light eyes eating up her entire expression. “I felt like such an ass for what I’d said on our date, and then I felt like an ass for witnessing you ask that guy out when you obviously wanted to do it privately. Remember that guy? James.”
She laughed in surprise as a look of disdain crossed John’s face. “You remember his name?”
The tips of John’s ears went pink, but he shrugged. “It was a memorable moment. And he stuck in my head because I couldn’t for the life of me believe that anyone in their right mind would reject you, for any reason. Married or not.”
Mary laughed again. “John, you’d rejected me not two days before that!”
He shook his head adamantly. “I stupidly pushed you away, but I certainly didn’t reject you.” He kissed her palm again. “The point is, I was jealous of that guy, flirting with you so easily. And he didn’t have his mother there with him.” John shook his head with a little laugh, looking down at their laced fingers and then back into Mary’s face. “I wanted to be that guy.”
“I wouldn’t want you to be that guy,” Mary replied immediately, vehemently. “Because then you wouldn’t be you. And there’s no one else like you. Seriously, I’ve looked. I’ve had thirty-seven years to search, and you’re the only one I’ve found.”
John’s eyes dropped back to their hands and Mary took the opportunity to really look at his face. Sometimes, when his eyes were on her, that iceberg blue was the only thing she could see, she missed the forest for the trees. But now she took great pleasure in observing the inky black frame of his hair and eyebrows. She relished the cut of his jaw, highlighted with blue-black stubble, the way his ears lay so flat against his head. Jeez, she was gone for him.
“So. Boyfriend, huh?” His eyes flicked up and she froze, flushing deeply.
“I...thought so? I mean, obviously it’s not a decision that can be made unilaterally, but yeah. It rolled off my tongue so easily I think because it suits what we are to one another.” She cleared her throat. “Right?”
He was full-on grinning now, the way he had on the dance floor. It was the kind of smile that changed his entire face. “I can’t believe MFT just asked me to be her boyfriend.”
Mary laughed and warmed and smiled all at once. She’d told him about Cora’s nickname. She loved so much that there was someone on planet Earth who called her that again. “So what if I did?”
“I haven’t been a boyfriend since undergrad. I might be bad at it.”
“I’m not particularly worried.” A thought occurred to her. “Although maybe you should be. Boyfriends tend to meet parents.”
He gave her a look that was so patently Estrella that Mary nearly laughed aloud. “I’ll be thrilled to meet your mother. I’ll tell her all about my cougar fetish.”
Mary threw her head back and roared with laughter. “Oh, my God. She’d have a heart attack. It would serve her right for laying into me about my age this much.”
Mary sobered and absently leaned forward to kiss John again, barely registering that she was seeking comfort from him. “It really is going to be terrible, John. Meeting her. I’m going to be humiliated the entire time with the way she speaks to me. You’re going to see what a pushover my dad is. Ugh. Let’s just skip it.”
“Mary.” His hand went up to her cheek, pushing her hair back. He opened his mouth to say something, but the bell over the door jingled, and they both looked back to see who was coming into the shop.
It was Via and Matty, chatting with one another and grinning about something. They both looked extremely sweaty and Mary saw that Via had their softball stuff strapped to he
r back. Via was volunteering for Matty’s summer Coach Pitch league, and their practices took place in a park only a few blocks from Mary’s shop.
“Hi, guys!” Mary called, thrilled to see them.
Via looked up, her eyes taking in the way Mary and John leaned toward one another, the grip of their hands. “Hi.”
“Water,” Matty croaked, dramatically clutching at his throat. “Preferably Gatorade.”
The adults all laughed at his antics. “I have water and lemonade up in my apartment. You’re welcome to it.”
“Let’s get some and bring it down for the girls, Matty,” John suggested, nodding his head toward the stairs up to Mary’s apartment.
“Which girls?” Matty asked. “Them?” He pointed at Mary and Via. “They’re definitely ladies.”
The adults laughed again, and John held the door for Matty, saying something to him with a smile as he followed him up to the apartment.
“Ooooh,” Via teased softly, leaning her petite frame against the counter much the way John just had, her eyes sparkling. “Mary’s got it bad.”
Mary blushed and smiled. “That obvious, huh?”
“You two seriously seem over the moon for each other.”
Mary took a deep breath. “I think we are.”
Mary and John had spent time with her group of friends twice over the last month. Tyler’s skeptical deep freeze of John had lasted about seven seconds once he’d realized how sweet John was to Mary. How lucky he obviously felt. John didn’t fit seamlessly into the group. He didn’t have a ton to talk to Sebastian or Tyler about, and honestly, he’d seemed at his most comfortable tossing a Frisbee with Matty out back. But still, to Mary it had been perfect. Because as compatible as she’d been with each person in her friend group as individuals, for a long time she’d felt like the odd person out. The only single one. The one who’d had more of a connection to Cora than she had with Via or Fin. A relic of the past.
Not that she didn’t love Via and Fin. Not that she didn’t value their friendships deeply. She did. The same way she did with Tyler and Seb. Her best friends. The two people who’d been there in her darkest times. Who’d helped her start her shop. Who’d helped her rebuild her shop. But somehow, having John there, as odd a fit for the group as she herself was, made Mary finally feel like she fit. Because no matter what, John was going home with her. He wanted to go home with her. He checked her drink level to make sure she wasn’t thirsty, literally and metaphorically, and at the end of any gathering, they held hands on the train, on the way to one of their houses, wherever Ruth currently was. It was a fresh, potent heaven that Mary had barely let herself hope for.
Via, still smiling over teasing Mary, paused for a second and twiddled her fingers on the counter. “Listen, while Matty’s upstairs, I wanted to bring something up to you.”
“Shoot.” Mary didn’t often see Via look nervous.
“We’re headed up to White Plains this weekend to spend time with Art and Muriel.”
Art and Muriel were Matty’s grandparents on Cora’s side. They’d met and interacted with Via plenty of times since she and Sebastian became an item, but to Mary’s knowledge, this would be Via’s first time in White Plains. AKA Cora’s childhood home. That might be...a lot.
“Wow.”
“Yeah.” Via let out a deep breath. “I’m really nervous about it. But also, Matty asked to go see Cora’s gravesite. And he really wants me to be there too.”
Something twisted inside Mary, but not in a bad way. “That makes sense. You’re his other parent. He wants you to be with him.”
“I know. It’s silly, but I really don’t want to be stepping on anyone’s toes about it. I’ve never attempted to replace Cora or anything like that. And part of me would really like to go to her gravesite and pay my respects, you know? She is the reason that I have a real family now. Seb and Matty are everything to me. But I guess... I was just wondering...” Via cleared her throat, many layers of emotion all swirling together in her throat. “If you’re not doing anything this weekend, if maybe you might want to join us?”
“You want me to come with you guys to Cora’s grave?” It surprised Mary simply because she would have thought that might be something their family wanted to keep very private.
“If it’s too painful or too private for you, please, feel no pressure at all. But Seb mentioned that you used to take Matty there when he was a toddler, when it was too hard for Seb to do it himself. And it just got me thinking about family and how hodgepodge all of our families are. And how grateful I am that you were there for Seb and Matty before I knew them. And—”
Emotion thick in Via’s throat cut her off. She let out a long breath.
“And you’d love to have your friend there with you,” Mary guessed softly. “Both to support you and maybe to take some of the intensity out of the moment?”
Mary could only guess what it might be like to visit your partner’s deceased wife’s grave for the first time. Especially when it had become so clear that Via and Matty were as close to mother and son as two people could really get. Mary figured that if her presence there would tone down the symbolism in Via’s mind a little bit, that if it were a group of people there, and not Seb and Matty bringing Via to, like, introduce her or something, it might be a little bit easier. Well, Mary could make that happen.
“Yes,” Via said quietly, clearing her throat. Her eyes flicked to the ceiling, where they could hear Matty’s and John’s footsteps as they started descending the stairs. “Seb thought it would be a good idea too. If you want to, that is.”
“I’d be honored,” Mary answered immediately. She’d have to refigure the shift schedule at the shop for the weekend, but that was small potatoes, really. “Can I bring John?”
“Of course!” Via squeaked, both with relief and pleasure. “I really like John!”
“Oh. Good,” he said from behind her, a pitcher of lemonade in one hand and glasses in the other. “I really like you too.”
Via turned bright pink and just laughed at herself.
“I found cookies,” Matty informed the group, holding up a box of Girl Scout cookies that Mary didn’t even remember purchasing.
“How in God’s name did you find those?”
“They were in the back of your cabinet.”
“He literally got on his hands and knees and disappeared into the cabinet,” John said, laughing. “The kid is like a bloodhound.”
“Let’s check the expiration date on these, shall we?” Mary reached down and laughed. “Yikes. Two years old. I think we’d better skip it, my dude.”
Matty’s face fell.
“There’s that bakery down the block,” Kylie said, emerging from the back of the store and wiping her dusty hands on her trousers. “If you need a cookie fix, Matty.”
Matty took a gasping gulp of air after he was finished demolishing an entire cup of lemonade. “Yes. I do. I need cookies. Will you come too?”
Kylie smiled at him, her red hair in a style that she’d only recently started wearing, a sort of complicated braid crown that suited her fox-like face. She was beautiful, Mary thought. And happy. And so was Matty. So many harsh things had happened in these kids’ lives and here they were grinning at each other about cookies.
“Can I take my break, Mary?”
“Of course.”
“I’ll go too,” Via decided, her eyes bouncing back and forth between Mary and John. She leaned across the counter, kissed Mary on the cheek, and then the shop was empty again.
“Via wants me to come with them the first time she ever visits Cora’s grave,” Mary said without preamble.
“Wow.” John’s eyes grew wide, his expression somber. He knew the gravity of the ask. Mary had explained to him the complicated web that held Mary, Sebastian, Via and Matty all together. The hole that Cora had left behind, the balm that Via had become for all
of them. Not a replacement, but a beautiful addition to lives that had been missing Cora for far too long. “Wow. Do you want to?”
Mary nodded. “Yes. It’s been a while since I’ve been there. And I’d love to make things easier for Via, for all of them, if I can.”
John’s somber expression softened infinitesimally. “Sweetest person on planet Earth,” he told her.
Mary smiled. “Will you come too? For the weekend? It’s just up in White Plains. We could get an Airbnb or something. Maybe Estrella could watch Ruth? Oh! We could invite Fin and Ty and Ky to come too. They don’t have to do the whole cemetery thing, but they could hang out with us in the meantime. What do you think?”
John nodded. “I think,” he said carefully, “that White Plains isn’t very far from Connecticut.”
She frowned. “You want to meet my parents.”
“Well. No,” he answered with his patent honesty, making Mary laugh. “But I wonder if maybe we shouldn’t end the standoff with your mother. It wouldn’t have to be a huge deal. We could just pop in for an hour. Get things moving again.”
“I’ll think about it,” Mary promised. The weekend would be emotional enough without adding a trip to her mother’s house. But maybe he was right. Maybe it was time to see if things could be repaired. Mary had always been the odd man out at her parents’ house. But maybe John would be the odd man out as well, just like with their friends. And they could be odd together. Emphasis on together.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
AS MUCH AS John didn’t understand the desire to ever leave New York City, he had to admit, all that cement sure seemed to trap the heat. As soon as they left the city limits, the sizzling temperatures just sort of sedated themselves, tumbling down into the manageable eighties range. That was nice.