"That's the spirit."
"Nowadays, there's more to being a groupie than following the band for a summer."
Her mother laughed out loud. It was a sound that brought back memories of game nights and firepits and s'mores.
"Oh, there was back then too. Nothing wrong with having a summer of love before settling down."
Mercy was done settling in her life. She settled for a lot of stuff, including a small wedding, a used car, and an apartment when she wanted a house. However, the last time she settled turned out to be a blessing in disguise because she would have been saddled with a mortgage payment if she hadn't.
"I still remember making love all night long on every surface in the room. I swear that's how I ended up with that slipped disc in my back," her mother said.
"Geez, now I have to wash my eyes out with soap and water to get rid of that vision of you and Kenny I conjured." Now that she thought about it, her older brother, Mike, kind of looked like Kenny Loggins. "Is Michael really Dad's?"
"Oh, honey, you know better than that. I didn't have Michael until Daddy and I were married over two years. Besides, your father wouldn't let me go to a concert alone once he learned of my wild ways, but as soon as your daddy entered my life, there wasn't anyone else I wanted. I mean, Elvis was dead, and Burt Reynolds was taken."
Why didn't I get Mama's luck and her zeal for life?
An exciting weekend was canning jam or going to Bishop's Brewhouse for a single light beer.
"Dream big, sweetie. Life never gives you exactly what you want, but it never hands you more than you can handle."
She didn't dare dream bigger. At one time, she wanted three kids by the time she was thirty. That ship sailed five years ago, and now her eggs were probably withered and dead, or those that were viable knew it was unlikely they'd ever get fertilized and exited her fallopian tubes on a waterslide to freedom each month.
"Daddy was a smart man to swoop you up and make you his." If he hadn't, her brother Michael might look like Burt.
"I tell him that all the time. Anyway, I called to make sure you were okay."
It had been a year ago today that Randy died in that car accident. At first, she was in shock, but as things unraveled, she experienced more pain than she ever expected.
"I'm okay. You don't have to worry about me."
"Oh, honey, you're my baby, and I'll always worry." She growled into the phone. "If that man hadn't had his pecker bitten off during the car accident, I would have severed it myself with that Ginsu your father bought me last Christmas."
The amazing Ginsu would do it. Sometimes life dealt us ugly hands, and sometimes it meted out justice. For Randy, a road blowie wasn't the smartest thing to do on a winding highway in the Rockies. At least he died on a happy ending.
"You know, Mom, the worst part was the humiliation. My life was a page right out of the National Enquirer." It was an article in that rag mag called When Biting Off More Than You Can Chew is Deadly. Who knew her entire school district would read it? Their snickers and giggles were poison darts aimed at her soul. It was bad enough her husband cheated on her with a client, but it was the city councilman's wife, and that made the story newsworthy—infamous actually.
"I'm glad you moved away from there. Silver Springs was never the place for you. Are you still loving Aspen Cove?"
"Yes, I love it here. Too bad there isn't a school in town. The commute to Copper Creek isn't fun in the winter, but the school district is great, and the people are nice." She lucked into the job when the first-grade teacher at Creek Elementary got married and moved out of state.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm perfect, Mom, really. It's not like I'm mourning the loss. All is good." She was grieving, not the loss of Randy, but the loss of her hopes and dreams.
"Do you need money? I know they don't pay teachers enough."
"You're right, they don't, but I'm okay." She never let her family know the truth of it. Randy's insurance barely covered his burial. There were the charges for hotel rooms and fancy dinners he'd put on their joint credit cards. She still owed money on his car, even though it was totaled—once again because of a lack of insurance. Thankfully, she negotiated a lower payoff. Yep, he was right. Life with him and without him was interesting. "I love you so much, Mama, and wish you were here." Her parents lived in Arizona, where the weather was hot and dry and suitable for their arthritic bones. "Talk to you soon?"
"You know you will. Now go out and live a little."
"Yep, groupie is at the top of my list."
She hung up and laughed at the silliness of their conversation. What mother told her daughter to be a groupie? Apparently, hers did. She stared at the list. "Why not?" She'd seen Indigo play on the Fourth of July. The bass player was cute, and so was the guitarist. The drummer was a fan favorite, but not her type. She liked the clean-cut, not so gritty men. Besides, she couldn't fall for a man whose hair was prettier than hers.
In the living room, her basket of folded clothes sat abandoned, so she grabbed a pair of pink underwear she recently bought from Walmart and shoved them into her pocket.
There were three new houses built in Aspen Cove. Rumor had it they belonged to members of the band. She knew Axel lived on Rose Lane because Sosie, Baxter, and she had a conversation about tucking underwear into his chain-link fence, and while she said she'd never do it, she would
