Page 22 of The Wedding Favor

I gave the bag a good yank to open it. Nothing. I yanked again. Still nothing. I frowned and put more force behind it. Foil-wrapped eggs erupted from the bag, landing on the floor and rolling in all directions. Like a pinball machine.

Or my life.

“Seriously?” I dropped to my knees and scrambled to gather all the eggs. Abe knelt beside me to help. After a couple of minutes, we’d grouped most of the eggs into a pile between us. I picked one out, unwrapped it and stuffed it in my mouth with a sigh.

“Chocolate at nine in the morning?”

“Chocolate is the most important meal of the day.”

This close to him, I took in the little things that I’d not noticed before. His soft brown eyes had a black ring around the irises. Thick black eyelashes more straight than curly. The hint of lines at the corners of his eyes. The barest trace of gray mixed into his scruff. A tiny white scar on the side of his nose. I was surprised to realize how much I wanted to know how he’d gotten it.

A small smile curved his mouth. The sort of smile that made a woman want to know what he was thinking and if it was about her. The sort of smile that said he knew exactly what I was thinking.

“Well, this has been awkward,” I said, reaching for the pile of chocolate.

He put a hand on the back of mine. I froze and met his eyes.

“Hey, it’s going to be okay, you know,” he said in a quiet, steady voice, his eyes impossibly kind.

I wanted to believe him, to know with conviction that I’d figure out my life in the next couple of months, make all the right decisions, find security in knowing what came next. Lately, it felt like I was on a road trip without a map.

He sat back, taking the warmth of his hand with him. “I need to get back to the shop. It might take me a few weeks to get your car fixed up but I’ll take care of it.”

“Does this mean I owe you another favor?”

He grinned. “Don’t worry. I’m keeping track.”

EIGHT

“Falling in love with your best friend is the hardest easy thing in the world.”

—excerpt from the unpublished memoir,

Darling, I Must Say by Gloria Hayes

My best friend cheated at poker.

She was also eighty-seven years old. I figured if anyone had earned the right to cheat at poker, it was her.

The other players were not as forgiving.

“Gloria, you’re cheating. I know it,” one of them said as he threw his cards down. Jonathan Clark. Age: Eighty-one. Formerly a bank president. Currently glaring at Gloria across the table. “Four of a kind? For the second time in an hour?”

If he’d taken a moment to look closely, he may have found that two of her four kings were clubs. Gloria banked on dodgy eyesight when she came up with her poker strategy. That strategy being: cheat and don’t get caught. It was working for her.

Gloria laughed, a deep, low sound that spoke of her two pack a day smoking habit from her younger years. I liked to imagine her draped over a chair with a long, thin cigarette holder held delicately between her fingers. Full makeup and heels, too. Because this was Gloria Hayes, after all. “Guess I’m just lucky today.”

“Quit your whining,” the fourth member of our game said as she gathered up the cards. Name: Elizabeth Clark. Age: She refused to say. A retired nurse without a drop of silver in her red hair. Also, wife to Jonathan. “Even if she is cheating, it’s not like you could see it. Where are your glasses?”

“I don’t need glasses,” Jonathan said. “I can see just fine. Watch this.” He pointed at the flyer pinned to the bulletin board across the room. “See? Right there. Someone has a hog for sale.”

“You mean that one with a picture of a miniature poodle on it that says DOG FOR SALE.”

“Dog for sale. That’s what I said.”

“You’re an idiot.” The Clarks had been married for fifty-five years. Happily, of course.

This was how I was spending my Friday night—a poker game at Shady Cove Long Term Care Facility. I spent a lot of my evenings here. Tuesday night was BINGO night, Friday was occasionally poker night, Saturday was movie night (where I’d discovered my love of classic movies), and every month, there was a themed dance.