Page 13 of Second Chance

9

U-turn

[Mati]

I don’t hear from Denton again, and I hate to admit, I’m disappointed.

Are you lonely without him? While I first thought he meant to insult me, I’ve been thinking more and more about the question, wondering why he asked me. Is he lonely, too? Of course, I quickly blow off the thought. He’s all Hollywood—rockstars, actors, and models. He can’t possibly be lonely.

“Whatcha looking at?” Hollilyn asks me, peering over my shoulder as I stare at the empty chat after Denton’s last comment.

I’ve upset you. I’m sorry.

I can’t tell him I’m not upset, because I am. A smiley face seems trite. I don’t forgive him for what he said. Instead, I’m confused by it all and my reaction to him.

“Nothing,” I say sharply, dipping the phone into my apron. Most girls don’t wear them, but I still do. I’m old, what can I say. I like the short apron with pockets for everything. I can’t pull off sticking my phone in my back pocket as the young things do. They aren’t supposed to have their phones on them while they’re working.

Hollilyn bumps my shoulder, and I look up at her. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. She’s the opposite of Jax with his dark hair and dark eyes. I like my son’s girlfriend, although I didn’t at first. She’s a professional waitress, having worked several of the local establishments before settling at the pub for a time. Now she works for Dolores’s diner as she believed waiting at the pub was a conflict of interest—fraternizing with the staff and such—as Jax works the business side of our craft beer distribution. My son, however, had been rather wayward with the waitstaff, dismissing the no-fraternizing clause, so I wasn’t surprised when he ended up with her. I just didn’t want it to be permanent. I like to think I don’t judge, but I know I did in her case. Hollilyn Abernathy is from the other side of town, and at first, I supposed she saw my son as a means to move up the social ladder.

When she announced she was pregnant, my first thought was not kind, but she’s grown on me. When I see them together, I see how much she worships my son. I wish I saw the same in him. I want him to marry her. The longer he holds off, the more wary I become that he’s not in love with her. She moved in with him, but I’m not convinced that means anything.

Jax also works hard. As the chief salesperson for the Giant Beer brand, he travels often, and I worry the absence will take its toll. I want Jax to be happy. I want Hollilyn to be happy, and most of all, I want a healthy grandbaby.

Hollilyn still peers at me, waiting for an explanation. She doesn’t accept nothing as an answer, and I’m wondering what she’s doing at the pub. She must have met Jax for lunch.

“Just checking my phone for messages,” I say too cheerful for me.

“Since when?”

“Since none of your business,” I snap, but I’m teasing, hoping she’ll let it drop. Her eyes open wide.

“Oh my gosh. Do you have a date? A secret lover? A boyfriend?”

“What? No,” I admonish, blinking at how rapidly this girl’s mind fires off possibilities.

“Who has a boyfriend?” my brother Billy asks as he rounds the bar. Tall, dark, and devilishly handsome, with silver streaks in his slightly longer hair, hinting at his age. He has a perpetual twinkle to his dark eyes and a smile on his face, but inside, he’s still hurting from lost love. He’s the manager of BRMP, but tonight he’s playing bartender.

“Mati,” Hollilyn offers.

“I do not.” My voice cracks like a teen.

“You bonking someone?” my older brother asks, winking at me like we share a secret. I make a face, scrunching up my nose. Then his expression sobers. “Never mind, don’t answer that.” As if I’d share my sexual goings-on with my brother.

“Bonking? What are you, a hundred? Who even uses such a word?” I chuckle, awkwardly trying to cover the fact I’ve been thinking about bonking for the past twenty-four hours, but no one needs to know such details.

“I was trying to be delicate, seeing as you’re a female and all.” He winks again. My brothers love to tease me about being a woman—the token girl child in the family—the one my parents wanted most, or at least, my mother did. Too bad I turned out to be such a disappointment. I’m not the debutante my mother hoped for. I didn’t even have a coming-out party. I got mono around my sixteenth birthday, and the event was canceled. Thank goodness for semi-contagious diseases.

“Speaking of bonking. What number you up to?” I can’t believe I’m asking this question, but I want to shift the spotlight off me, and there’s nothing my brother likes to talk about more than his sex life. Billy keeps a tally of how many women he’s laid since his divorce. That’s all he’s done, for nearly seventeen years—get laid. Most people say it’s because he can’t get over Rachel, his ex-wife. I think there’s more to the story. In my opinion, he needs to stop bonking and settle down. Not quite as rebellious as our brother James, who disowned the family when his wife left him, but still a wild one, despite being forty-six.

“I can’t even count that high.” This is his new standard answer.

“You know what they say about a man who brags about the bedroom.”

“What?” he asks, wiping some glasses and setting them on the bar.

“He’s overcompensating for what he doesn’t have.”

“Ew…don’t be disrespecting my junk. You’re my sister.”