The Perfect Gift

C H A P T E R 🎄6

R O S E A N N E

After my—what the hell could I even call it? Tryst? Fling? Crazy hot sexcapade? After my encounter with Lisa, I was more confused than ever. If I thought for a moment that sleeping with her again would give me some sort of closure, I'd been sadly mistaken.

Now, she was on my mind constantly. My emotions were all tangled up with my desires, a wicked web from which I saw no escape.

The day after we'd screwed each other's brains out, I was still considering the Lisa conundrum when Jennie called.

Actually, she'd been calling and texting for some time, but I kept putting her off. I guess I was afraid of how my past was going to line up with my present. Understandable, given what I was going through with Lisa.

But I was being rude, and we'd been pretty good friends before I'd left town. We'd double-dated to senior prom. She'd called my mother "Mom." That sort of closeness.

"Hello?" I cringed, hoping she wouldn't take me to task for being so slow to respond.

"Hello, Rosie? Is that you?"

"Yes, it's me, Jennie. Sorry I missed your calls earlier. There's all kinds of stuff going on with the family gallery these days, and—"

"Hey, say no more. You're a working mom, and I know you've got family stuff to deal with. Tell you what, if you've got time right now, why not come on over to my place? We can drink hot cocoa and talk about the good old days."

"Can we make it mulled wine instead of hot cocoa? It's been that sort of day."

She laughed. "Mulled wine it is. I remember the first time we had it, and we thought we were sooo adult and sophisticated."

The memory brought a smile to my face. "Yeah, it was supposed to be a milestone. I guess it sort of was. If you text me your address, I'll come over."

"Oh, that's right. You haven't seen my new place. Are you bringing the little man?"

"Miles? No, he's off with Grandma at the shopping mall across the highway."

"Cool, then we can get blasted."

We shared a laugh, knowing full well we had no intention of getting drunk. Mulled wine was a comfort, not a way to go on a binge.

I drove across town in Mom's spare car and hit the outskirts, where the houses were fewer and farther between.

Jennie's quaint little cottage reared up in my windshield. It looked like she had a good-sized yard in front of the off-white single-story dwelling. A brick chimney dotted the roof, smoke curling invitingly from its tapered spire.

Jennie opened the front door before I'd made it up the sidewalk. She wore a fluffy sweater and a pair of leggings and a smile as wide as a river. I greeted her with a warm hug.

"Hey, you," I said.

"Hey, so glad you could make it over."

I looked over her shoulder and marveled at her cute little cottage. "I love your place. This is just too much. It's everything you always talked about."

"Yes, I love it, too," she tittered, barely able to contain herself. "Would you like a tour?"

"I'd love one."

She led me off the front porch and gestured toward some objects in the front yard. "So, here's my birdbath, which used to have this weird metallic globe on it until I took it off."

"That's some kind of weather prediction device, I think," I said. I'd seen a few at the gallery. "They never work as far as I know."

"Interesting. I think I still have it in my shed out back." She gestured at the bare ground in front of her cottage. "I was thinking of putting in a rock garden here. You know, nothing too fancy, but just some general landscaping."