Free Holding Hands by Judith Arnold Page A

the most popular girl on campus until Meredith’s
father had successfully elbowed aside her many other suitors and
staked his claim. Now that he was gone, why shouldn’t she go back
to being a prom queen?
    “ Anyway, I wanted you to
hear about Charlie from me,” her mother continued. “Your sister
freaked out when I told her. I knew you’d be sensible about
it.”
    In that case, Meredith had better be
sensible. “If it makes you happy...”
    “ I feel reborn,” her mother
said, her voice lilting. “Last Saturday, he gave me a single red
rose. It was so beautiful. And we’ve had wine up at his apartment,
and—”
    “ I thought all you did was
hold hands.”
    “ That was yesterday at the
movie,” her mother explained. “They’re showing fabulous movies here
lately. I think they’ve got a subscription with one of those
places, Netflix or something. Some of the residents here don’t want
them showing anything that doesn’t have a G-rating, but honestly,
we’re all adults, and if they can’t handle a few dirty words, they
don’t have to watch the movie. Not that there are dirty words
in The King’s Speech.”
    “ Mom.” Meredith sounded to
herself the way she did when she used to reprimand Emily or the
boys. Behave yourself. Clean your room. Do
your homework . Now she was her mother’s
mother, scolding. “You’re drinking wine in his
apartment?”
    “ Don’t worry, I won’t get
pregnant.” Her mother giggled like a flirty schoolgirl. “Thanks for
not freaking out like your sister. Next time you visit, I’ll
introduce you to Charlie. He’s a doll.”
    Yeah, right, Meredith thought after she said
good-bye to her mother and slid the container of stir-fry onto a
refrigerator shelf with the other leftovers. A real doll, romancing
Meredith’s mother while he had a wife tucked away in the loony-bin
across the courtyard.
    However, since her sister had freaked out,
Meredith would not. In fact, as she sponged down the table and
reran the phone conversation in her mind, she realized she wasn’t
terribly shocked. Her mother was seventy-five years old. Married
forever, widowed for three years, lonely and depressed—and now
feeling reborn. To catch a man’s attention again, to be courted, to
be the prettiest girl in the room... Lucky woman.
    The kitchen tidy, Meredith strode to the
mudroom to get Skippy’s leash. He must have heard the rattle of the
hook where the leash hung when it wasn’t in use, because he bounded
into the kitchen, barking exuberantly. “Hush,” she murmured
half-heartedly as she bent over to clip the leash to his collar.
Skippy couldn’t possibly remain silent when something as thrilling
as a walk loomed in his immediate future.
    She moved to the den doorway and peeked
inside. Scott lounged in the recliner, his laptop perched on his
knees and a football game tumbling across the flat-screen TV
against the far wall. “I’m taking Skippy for a walk,” she told
him.
    He nodded.
    “ Would you like to join
us?”
    “ I can’t,” he said without
glancing her way. “I’ve got all these essays to get
through.”
    “ My mother’s dating a
married man,” Meredith informed him.
    “ Great,” he grunted,
distracted from his laptop by the effusive babble of one of the
sportscasters as someone did something spectacular on the football
field. A catch, a tackle, a touchdown—who knew? Who
cared?
    Apparently, Scott did. Meredith gazed for a
moment at her husband’s back, his broad shoulders filling an old
oxford shirt, a few telltale strands of silver woven through the
thick dark waves of his hair. If she could see his face, she’d be
transfixed by how handsome he still was. Her husband, her mother,
her sister, her children—she was surrounded by beautiful
people.
    Thank God Skippy was a scruffy, mismatched
hodgepodge of breeds—terrier with a bit of collie, making him both
frisky and bossy. Emily and the boys had insisted that Meredith get
a dog to make the transition to