Mid Life Love (Mid Life Love #1)(99)

“They don’t,” she said. “But when you tell them your date is Jonathan Statham they’ll make whatever you want.”

“Is that so?”

She smiled. “Would you two please excuse me for a minute? I need to take this call.”

“Of course.” I stood up and helped her out of the chair, giving her a quick kiss before she walked away.

“Since when do you celebrate your birthday?” Hayley crossed her arms once Claire was out of earshot. “Do I need to buy you a gift too?”

“No.” I laughed. “She made me do this. What made you come during the semester?”

“Your girlfriend is pretty damn persuasive. She made me fly in yesterday. Is she a lawyer or something?”

“No, she works with me at the company...You talk to dad lately?”

“Unfortunately...He got sent to solitary confinement again last week—contraband. It’s going to be a rough six years for him. You talk to mom?”

“New job. Eastern sea-docks. Five months post-rehab. Decent therapy sessions.”

“Noted...Maybe the thirteenth time really is the charm.”

I picked up my wine glass. “We’ll see.”

“You must really like Claire, huh?”

“What makes you say that?”

“Well for one, you two can’t take your eyes off one another for more than five seconds. It’s actually quite nauseating. You also haven’t called to check on me in three weeks. Considering that you usually call me every other day...”

“I have checked on you. I texted—”

“No, Greg texted me.” She laughed. “It’s okay. It’s nice not having to report to my over-protective big brother for a change. “

“Don’t get used to it.”

“Trust me, I won’t.” She looked at her watch. “I’m gonna go now. Bring Claire to Memphis this summer okay? My Scrabble tournament is going to be the last week of August. There’s always a blues festival going on if you want to come some other time.”

“You’re leaving? Right now? You just got here!”

“Yeah...You clearly weren’t paying attention to anything I said over dinner were you?” She shook her head. “I kept asking you two questions and you just kept staring at each other and smiling. You think I want to stick around for another second of that shit?”

“I am so sorr—”

“It’s okay. Greg is outside waiting to take me to the airport because my brother is too in love to pay me any attention right now.”

I rolled my eyes and helped her out of her chair. “Have a safe flight. Thank you so much for coming.”

“I will. I love you.”

“Love you too.” I gave her a hug and watched as she left the room.

I realized Claire had been gone for quite a while and stood up. I started walking towards the restrooms, but I saw her walking my way.

“Where’s Hayley?” she asked.

“She was sick of us staring at each other apparently. Are you okay?”

“Yeah...It’s just...Ashley and Caroline are driving me crazy about their shared car again...They called me on three-way to ask about letting one of them drive my car tonight.”

“You said no?”

“Of course I said no. They need to stick together and share what they have.”

“Okay... Are you ready to go?”

“After you open your presents. Let’s do that first and then—”

“I want to open them at home.”

I set the two presents—one sparkling red rectangular box, and one fat silver box—in front of the fireplace, waiting for Claire to sit next to me.

“Which one should I open first?” I asked.

“The silver one...”

“Okay.” I took my time un-wrapping it, unfolding every corner and gently pulling away each strip of tape. I placed each torn sheet in a neat stack and stuck all the tape pieces together.

“Why is it taking you so long?” She laughed. “Do you need help un-wrapping it? You’re acting like you’ve never received a birthday present before.”

“I haven’t.”

Her eyes widened and her face paled. “I’m sorry...I was just joking. I didn’t—”

I pulled her close. “You didn’t know. It’s okay.” I peeled the last bit of paper off and flipped over the box. I took the lid off and sucked in a breath once I saw what it was.

“I wasn’t sure what to get you since you seem to have everything already,” she said as she pulled the golden sea hooks out of the box. “Since you love yachts so much I figured I’d get you these...They say that sea hooks are—”

I knew exactly what sea hooks meant, exactly what they stood for. To someone who didn’t know yachts, they were simply huge golden metal hooks in the shape of an anchor, but I knew better. Every man who owned a yacht had a set of loose sea hooks, and whenever he was seeing someone he loved, someone he couldn’t live without, he was supposed to personalize them and weld them onto the ship’s real anchor. They were a symbol of longevity, a way of saying “I want to be with you.”

I looked over them and noticed that she’d already personalized them: Her name was etched alongside the edges in cursive and my name was etched at the bottom.