Love Becomes Her (7 page)

E
lizabeth sat outside Delectables, the café and local gathering spot that her daughters owned. She was so very proud of them and all that they’d accomplished. She watched them through the plate-glass window as they jointly handled their last customer. If nothing else, those two girls were one thing that she and Matthew did right.

It was Dawne who came to the door when the customer left, and locked up behind him. Elizabeth hesitated a moment. Maybe now wasn’t the right time. Maybe she should wait, at least until she spoke with her attorney about her options. But she didn’t want to risk Matthew getting to them first and twisting his version of the facts. Although she was really unclear how he could polish up being an adulterer and making it palatable. But with Matthew, his charm could turn coal into diamonds with just his smile. It had been her downfall, and ever since he’d dropped the bomb on her life, she’d begun to wonder
how many others may have succumbed to Matthew’s charm.

She turned off the ignition and got out, setting the alarm with the remote as she walked to the entrance. She tapped lightly on the door. Her daughters’ faces beamed with delight when they saw her.

“Mom,” they chorused.

“What are you doing here?” Dawne asked, putting her arm around her mother’s shoulder and ushering her inside.

Desiree pushed her twin playfully aside. “What kind of question is that? Mom is always welcome.”

Dawne stuck her tongue out at her sister. “Hungry, Mom? We can whip you up our specialty, the Delectable veggie burger—on the house, of course.” She giggled.

“No, sugar. I’m not hungry.” She stopped in the center of the shop and turned to look at her daughters. She took their hands. “I need to talk to you girls.”

Their identical expressions of alarm set Elizabeth’s pulse flying. She pulled in a breath. “Let’s sit down.”

“Mom, you’re scaring me,” Dawne said.

“You’re not sick, are you?” Desiree asked, slow sitting down at the table. Dawne followed suit.

Elizabeth put her purse down on the wood surface and sat down. “No, I’m not sick. Nothing like that.”

Dawne exhaled a sigh of relief, then her eyes widened. “Is it Dad?”

“Yes, but not what you think.” She paused a beat. “Your dad and I are getting divorced.”

A heavy silence descended on the rectangular room. Each and every sound from the street seemed to be amplified in stereo as the trio sat in utter stillness.

Desiree’s expression slowly hardened. “Is it because of that woman at his office?” she said, barely moving her lips.

“Desi!” Dawne admonished.

Desiree flashed her sister a look. “I knew it!”

“What did you know?” Elizabeth asked.

Desiree sighed. “I went to Dad’s office a couple of months ago. I wanted to surprise him with our new recipe—”

“A vegan carrot cake,” Dawne cut in.

“Can I tell my story, please? Anyway, I wanted to surprise him, like I was saying, so I went straight to his office. And when I walked in, without knocking, like I always do, Dad and Terri sprung apart like they’d been shot with a bolt of lightning.”

Elizabeth felt nauseous.
That bastard
.

“They were both very nervous and Terri raced out of there as if the starting bell had gone off. She couldn’t look me in the eye. When I asked him what that was all about he said she’d been crying—some nonsense about an ill family member and he was only comforting her.”

Dawne sucked her teeth with disgust. “Yeah, right.” She folded her arms.

Desiree leaned forward. “Well, is it her? Is she the reason?”

Elizabeth momentarily closed her eyes and nodded her head in agreement. “Yes,” she murmured. “Your father said he’s in love with her.”

“Oh, I have a word for what it is, and it ain’t love,” Dawne spat.

“Mom, it’s not your fault. I know you and I know that’s what you’re thinking,” Desiree offered. “It’s Dad’s loss.”

“Exactly, Mom. If that’s what he wants to do, then as much as I love my father, I’d say let him go. You deserve to be happy and not living with someone who is sneaking around.”

“And we’re not kids anymore. You don’t have to worry about staying together because of us,” Desiree said.

“Exactly,” Dawne concurred.

Elizabeth looked at her daughters, the two beautiful little babies who’d grown into beautiful, successful, intelligent women, and her heart filled with so much love for them it was enough to get her through anything. She swallowed over the big knot in her throat and blinked back tears.

“Thank you. Thank you both. I…I didn’t know what to expect when I told you. I know how much you both love and adore your dad.”

“Mom, we love and adore you, too.” Desiree grinned.

“Yeah, even when you still nag us,” Dawne teased.

“So,” Desiree, always direct, began. “What are you planning to do?”

Elizabeth smiled for the first time since she arrived. “Well, the other night me and the girls came up with this brilliant idea….”

E
xcitement coursed through Barbara all day at work. She should be exhausted, but instead she felt revitalized, as if she’d been given a shot of happy juice. She and Michael had talked for hours, well into the early morning, until they’d both fallen asleep curled in each other’s arms on her bed. He told her about his life growing up in North Carolina as the only boy in a family of four sisters.

“I spent the bulk of my growing-up years waiting to get in the bathroom and giving the evil eye to wannabe boyfriends.”

Barbara laughed at the images. “I was an only child,” she’d confessed. “I always wondered what it would be like to have sisters and brothers. I guess that’s why I’m so attached to my friends. They’re the sisters I never had.”

“I’d like to meet them.”

Her eyes widened for a moment. “You would?”

“Of course. And I want you to meet my friends, too.”

She was shaking her head as she spoke. “Mike… meeting your friends…”

“I want to show you off. I want my friends to know how lucky I am to have found you.”

“Let’s give
us
some time first, okay?”

Reluctantly he agreed. “You say when.”

“It won’t be long, promise. I told my friends about you already.”

“What did you tell them?”

“You really don’t want to know.”

“Yes, I do. What did you tell them?”

“That you were one of my patients and that you were young enough to be my son and that…I really like you.”

“What did they say about the age thing?”

“They all told me to go for it. That you only live once.”

He grinned. “I like them already.”

Barbara felt good inside thinking about the big step she’d taken with Michael. She’d been stopped several times by staff members on how “glowing” she appeared. Guess there was some truth in the saying that happiness made you glow.

Before he’d left her apartment, shortly before dawn, he’d told her that he had to go out of town for
a few days but would be back in plenty of time for their date. He had a meeting with his coach and the team doctor in Florida who wanted him to begin a restricted training program to see how the knee was coming along.

When he told her he would be going away for a few days, she actually felt sad, maybe
disappointed
was a better word. Sure she was glad that he had come far enough to go back into training, but she would miss him. The time they’d spent together was balm for her soul. She felt complete and looked forward to the days ahead.

She took a stack of towels from the supply cabinet as she prepared for her next patient. The reality was, she mused as she placed the towels on the exercise table, if she planned on continuing a relationship with Michael she would have to get used to his traveling, being away from her for weeks, sometimes months, at a time. She sighed and pressed her lips together in thought. Was that what she wanted—a part-time lover?

Her years of marriage to Marvin had molded her in a way. She enjoyed the daily routine, of waking up next to her husband, always knowing she had a “date” for the holidays, someone always there at the end of a hard day to listen to her, and for her to be a shoulder, as well. Could it ever be that way again? Could it ever be that way with Michael? It would be
several years before he would hang up his sneakers. Was she willing to wait?

Whoa, she was getting way ahead of herself. They’d made no lasting commitment to each other. And if she knew nothing else, great sex didn’t a solid relationship make.

“Barbara, your next patient is here. Mrs. Wells.”

Barbara turned and forced a smile. “I’m ready. Send her in.”

Mrs. Wells was one of her favorite patients. She was a young ninety years old and had broken her hip in a horseback riding fall nearly six months earlier. Unlike most senior patients with that kind of injury, Mrs. Wells was determined not to become an invalid. She’d made a miraculous recovery and was walking with a cane, something that really “pissed her off,” her feisty patient would say. “Makes people think I’m old.”

Barbara smiled for real when Veronica Wells walked into the room, head held high, back straight, accompanied by her husband, Herb. They’d been married sixty years and both swore they had another sixty in them.

“And how is my favorite patient today?” Barbara beamed.

“She’s still pissed off,” Herb announced.

Veronica elbowed him in the side. “I’d stop being pissed off if I could toss this infernal cane.”

Barbara came over to help her to the table, but Veronica waved her off.

“I can manage.” She set her cane aside and took off her stylish trench coat. She looked up at Barbara, placed her forefinger beneath Barbara’s chin and turned her face from side to side. Veronica’s right brow rose an inch. “New lover?” she asked, unabashed.

Barbara blinked several times while the question ricocheted around in her head looking for traction.

“You can tell me. I’ve been around long enough to have heard everything and I can tell when a woman has had great sex, a mile away.”

“Veronica!” Herb warned. “You have to excuse her, Barbara. She hasn’t taken her medication this morning. She’s a little crazier than usual.”

Veronica turned to her husband and clucked her tongue. “Can you honestly stand there, Herb, and tell me that this woman doesn’t look radiant? And what is the one thing that puts a glow in a woman’s cheeks and a secret sparkle in her eyes? Great sex!” She nodded her head definitively. “Don’t you always say that to me after we’ve done it?”

Herb shook his head in surrender. “I think I’ll wait outside.”

“Good! Let us girls talk.” She waved him off, then turned her attention back to Barbara. “Is he cute at least?”

Barbara started to laugh, a deep soul-stirring laugh of release. “Yes, very,” she was finally able to say.

“That’s a start,” Veronica said, waving a finger in
Barbara’s face. “All that stuff about ‘in the dark’ is for the birds. You have to turn the lights on sometime and you want to be able to take him out in public.” She chuckled. “Help me with this zipper.” She turned her back to Barbara, who unzipped her dress.

As usual, Veronica was clad in the latest Victoria’s Secret undies. Barbara smiled to herself. Mrs. Wells was something else. She helped her up onto the table and prepared her for her exam and massage.

“Well…” Veronica questioned.

“Well what?” Barbara braced Veronica’s hip in her right hand and lifted her leg with her left.

“Who is he?”

“Tell me when it hurts,” Barbara said, avoiding the question. She raised the leg a bit higher. “He’s just a friend,” she confessed.

“And…is he any good?”

“Veronica!”

“Well, is he?”

Barbara pressed her lips together as visions of her and Michael danced in her head. “Yes,” she said on a breath. “Very.”

Veronica clapped with delight. “That’s what I like to hear. So what’s the problem?”

“Why do you think there’s a problem?”

“The hesitation in your eyes. Is he married?”

“No.”

“Babies?”

“No.”

“Gay?”

“Definitely not!”

“So what is it?”

“He’s…much younger than I am.”

“And what’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing, it’s just—”

“Happiness only comes around a couple of times. And when it does, we have to snatch it and hold on to it for as long as we can. I know.”

Barbara lowered Veronica’s leg, went to the cabinet and took out the massage oils. She returned to the table. “How do you know?” she asked, really needing to hear some wisdom.

“Maybe you don’t know this, but Herb is not my first husband. Divorced that S.O.B. and took him for everything he had.” She shrugged. “And when I finally decided to get back in the market, Herb came along. Young, handsome and sexy. Just the way I like them.”

Barbara giggled.

“No one thought it would work. That Herb was a rebound lover and too young for me. But we proved them all wrong.”

Barbara’s interest perked up. “Too young?” She applied the oils to the incredibly smooth skin and began to rub.

“Herb is fifteen years younger than me. Snatched him right out of his mama’s house.” She giggled.
“And I’ve never regretted one minute and neither has he.” She angled her head to look at Barbara. “Is that it? He’s younger than you?”

Slowly Barbara nodded. “Almost twenty years.”

Veronica slapped the table in glee. “Now,
that’s
what I’m talking about. And what he lacks in experience he makes up for in energy. Keeps you young. Look at me. If I was married to some old coot do you think I would still keep myself in the shape that I’m in? I don’t want any of these young hussies getting their hands on my Herb.”

Barbara had to admit, Veronica was in excellent shape. She had the toned body of a forty-year-old woman, give or take a few years, and she had the personality and mentality to go along with her youthful appearance.

“So you think I should pursue it?”

“I sure as hell do. Ride the wave.” She giggled.

All the way home, Barbara thought of her scandalous conversation with Veronica. Maybe she was right. She should just enjoy it and stop being so conventional. Go with the flow, as the kids would say. Even the girls said to go for it.

At the red light, it hit her. If Veronica could do it so could she.

When the light changed she made a left and headed toward the shopping strip on historic One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street.

If she was going to cross that line she was going to do it in style and give Michael something to look at while she was at it.

She found a metered parting space and crossed the street. Taking a deep breath of resolve she pulled open the doors of the newly established Victoria’s Secret.

It had been a while since she’d used her credit card on something for herself. She was long overdue.

Barbara pulled up in front of her building nearly two hours later. She took her four pink-and-white stripped signature bags from the car and practically skipped to her front door.

She grinned as she put her key in the lock. Wait until Michael saw her in these. Yeah, go with the flow. After all, it wasn’t as if they were planning on marriage.