The Friendship List(38)

He smiled at her. “I did.”

She shifted so she was angled toward him. “Dagmar has told me you own property and you also help companies that are in trouble. Is that right?”

He nodded. “I have real estate holdings and I own a company that does turnarounds. I don’t go in and fix the companies. I have people who do that.”

He was so different from anyone she’d ever met. “When did you move here?”

“About seven years ago. I went from San Diego to Las Vegas to Seattle.”

“Las Vegas?” She wrinkled her nose. “I’ve never been. I’m not a gambler.”

“I’m not either.” He glanced at her, then back at the road. “I was working construction in San Diego and I met this girl. She wanted to be a dancer in a Vegas show. I followed her.”

Unity smiled. “How old were you?”

“Twenty. Young and foolish.”

“What happened with the girl?”

“We broke up but I stayed in Las Vegas. I managed to put myself through school. I have a degree in finance. I started investing and here I am.”

“That’s quite a journey.”

“What about you?”

She resumed sitting straight in her seat. “I married Stuart out of high school. He joined the army and went off to basic training. When he was done with that, I joined him. I’ve lived in a bunch of places around the US, in military housing.”

“No kids?”

She shook her head. “Stuart planned on staying in for his twenty years. We were going to start our family when we were thirty so the kids wouldn’t have to move around a bunch with his various assignments. Once he retired, we were going to move back to Willowbrook. But his mom passed away unexpectedly about the time we were going to start trying and that put it off. Then Stuart was killed.”

She got through the telling without getting too much into the emotion of it. If she didn’t think about the details, about how much everything had changed once she’d lost him, she would be fine.

While the biggest regret was losing Stuart, of course, she also mourned the children she would never have. Without Stuart, she wasn’t going to be a mother.

“I’m sorry,” Thaddeus murmured.

“Thank you.” She faked a smile. “You don’t have kids either?”

“No. I want them, but so far it’s not happening.” He slowed as they passed a doe and a fawn standing beside the road. “You doing okay with the talking thing?”

It occurred to her then that even though Thaddeus was like no one she’d ever met, he was also a kind man.

“I am. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Unity drew in a breath. This wasn’t so bad. Maybe change was possible. Maybe she was going to be just fine.

  Ellen’s pride in her hangover nearly made up for the headache that took two ibuprofen and three hours to go away. When they stopped for their midmorning gas and potty break, she followed Lissa into the convenience store.

“I need advice,” she told the teen as they picked out sodas for the next leg of the journey. “I want to get a couple of fashion magazines and I don’t know which ones are good.”

Lissa grinned. “Let’s go look.”

They walked over to the magazine racks. Lissa pointed out Vogue and InStyle.

“Both of those would be good for you.”

“Vogue scares me,” Ellen admitted. She picked up InStyle and flipped through it. “This is more my speed.” Maybe she would get some ideas for cute clothes. If nothing else, it would be good for Coop to see her reading a fashion magazine.

They chose a few snacks, then headed for the checkout line. When they were back on the bus, Ellen flipped through the magazine. She paused at an ad that showed a sexy couple embracing. She studied how the man’s hands were on the woman’s impossibly narrow waist. They were staring into each other’s eyes and doing a good job of convincing Ellen she’d stumbled on a personal moment.

She’d never had that, she thought. Not the sexy guy or the embrace or any of it. To be honest, until recently, she’d never much thought about having a man in her life. She’d been too busy, scrambling to get through every day. And maybe she’d been a bit unwilling to take a risk. Dating, at her age, seemed fraught with potential disasters. Plus, in her town, the dating pool was small.

But suddenly she was thinking it would be nice to have someone who cared about her. The sex thing was different. She’d never really thought about pursuing it. How would that even happen? Was it a natural progression of dating? She had no one to ask. Unity hadn’t dated since high school and Keith found women online. That was hardly traditional.

Everyone else trooped back on the bus. Keith pulled out onto the street that paralleled the freeway, then merged into the southbound traffic. In the rear of the bus, Luka opened the Spanish language app on his phone. In a matter of minutes, all the kids were speaking along with him, teasing each other about mispronunciations.

Ellen shifted from her seat to the one behind Keith.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, meeting her gaze in the mirror. “You were quiet this morning.”

She grinned. “I had a hangover.”

“You sound proud.”

“I am. I’m better now.”