The Red Hat Society's Acting Their Age

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Authors: Regina Hale Sutherland
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hand slowly lowered from her hip.
    “And Mia?”
    “Yes?” Her voice was quiet.
    “Back in school? Your hair always smelled like strawberries. I never forgot that.”
    Leanne removed her eye makeup then washed her face and applied moisturizer. She was slipping into her nightgown when the bathroom door opened and Eddie walked in, carrying his shoes.
    “Hey.” He glanced at her as he walked past, headed to the closet, pulling his shirttail from the waistband of his pants.
    “Hi. Where’ve you been?”
    He opened the closet door, put his shoes inside, then began unbuttoning his shirt. “Shooting pool at Joe Pat’s.”
    “All night?” Leanne crossed her arms.
    Eddie shrugged. “You were at your meeting.” He took off his shirt, tossed it toward the dirty clothes basket then unbuckled his belt, avoiding her eyes.
    His dismissive attitude stung. “I cooked.”
    “I wasn’t sure you’d be here for dinner.”
    “I told you I would.” When he didn’t respond, she said, “I was here.”
    “Were you?” He looked up at her as he bent to step out of his pants. “Physically, maybe. I doubt if you would’ve noticed me sitting across the table.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    Without answering, Eddie walked past her wearing only his boxers.
    She followed him into the bedroom, watched him pull back the comforter on the bed then climb beneath the covers. He plumped the pillows, leaned back against them and reached to the nightstand for the novel he’d been reading the past few nights.
    For a moment, Leanne just stared at him. Time had been easy on her husband. The silver threaded through his dark, wavy hair and the faint lines fanning the bronzed skin at the sides of his eyes only made him more handsome. Eddie wasn’t tall—only five-ten—but he was broad shouldered and as fit as he’d ever been, thanks to all the sports he continued to play, week in, week out, all through the year. An adult basketball league in the winter. Baseball in the summer. And in the spring he volunteered as coach for an elementary school boy’s soccer team, where he ran up and down the sidelines, cheering the little guys on.
    Leanne climbed into bed beside him. Eddie was right; she hadn’t been here in a long time, not really. Not since Christmas. Along with the shopping and carols and twinkling lights, the holidays had brought the reality of her future into focus. She and Eddie were both only children. Her parents were gone, and so were his; his father had died over the summer. They had no other family left besides Aggie, and Aggie was fast approaching seventy. Someday soon, their lives would truly be empty.
    Leaning back against the pillows, Leanne closed her eyes, and there it was . . . the memory that had kept her awake for more nights than she could count. Thirty-four years ago . . . driving home with Eddie from a party at Cooper Lake on a Saturday night, both of them blind drunk. God, they were so young; she was sixteen, Eddie was seventeen. Leanne was behind the wheel; she’d charmed him into letting her drive his new car. Even now she could hear their carefree laughter, feel Eddie’s hand on her thigh. She could see his hazy dark eyes, then the startling flash of an animal in the headlights when she looked back at the road.
    Leanne’s heartbeat kicked up as she remembered Eddie’s yell, her scream, her hand jerking the steering wheel. The looming tree, the impact. Eddie pulled her from the wreckage before anyone arrived, then took the blame.
    Leanne opened her eyes and glanced over at Eddie, aching for him to hold her. They had lost a baby that night, a child she hadn’t known about until she miscarried. A child no one except Eddie, Aggie, and Mia knew about even today. She had also lost the ability to bear more children.
    There’d been a time when she and Eddie had discussed adoption. Twenty years ago, they had even applied to be foster parents, but never went through with it. Leanne started therapy instead.

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