Free Next Time by Robin Alexander Page B

market. I was hungry, and they’d just baked them.”
    “That sounds good.” Payton stuffed the ladder into the closet and mouthed yes .
    “Why do you want to be in shape all the sudden? Does it have anything to do with the new woman?” Grace called out as she walked into her kitchen.
    “There’s no new woman,” Payton said as she joined her. “I mean, I just met her, but she’s not my woman. She belongs to someone else.”
    “Oh, so you’re up in someone else’s pudding.”
    Payton shook her head and fought the urge to roll her eyes. The last time she did that, Grace rapped her with a rolled-up newspaper reserved for Trevor. “We’re only friends, but I felt this odd connection with her, even though I’ve only talked to her twice. That’s the other reason I joined the gym. I need to get my mind off of what I can never have.”
    The coffee brewed while Grace listened intently as Payton told her all about meeting Ryann, finding Leigh’s profile, and how Melanie had handled things with Leigh. Payton confessed her guilt over not stepping up as a friend and telling Ryann what she knew.
    “You got no business getting in the middle of that,” Grace said firmly. “Sure, if you knew this Ryann like you know Jana, then you’d be obligated.”
    “I feel like I do, though.” Payton pulled two plates from Grace’s cabinet. “It’s so weird.”
    “Love at first sight, it happens sometimes…usually way up in the sticks where people are sparse, and when they do see another human, they call it love. It’s usually their cousin.”
    “I’m not that hard up,” Payton said as she sliced the pie.
    “You dated a woman who thought she was a squirrel.”
    Payton grimaced when she recalled Lydia’s ass sticking out of the azalea bushes in Jana’s yard on her search for acorns. “I wish everyone would stop reminding me of that.”
    “Let me tell you about my sister.” Grace motioned for Payton to sit down. “During the war, she worked at a munitions plant in St. Louis. My folks and I were visiting her then, and she took us out for a night on the town. We were at a club, and this young man hobbled in on a pair of crutches, got his foot blown off in battle, the army sent him back stateside. I happened to be looking at Myrna when her gaze fell on him, and something happened just that quick. A light flickered on in her eyes. I turned and found him looking at her the same way.”
    Grace poured the coffee and joined Payton at the table. “It was magic. Myrna was engaged, but the second she laid eyes on Paul, all bets were off. Caused a big stink with my dad, he said it was just lust and told Myrna that she was throwing away a good man because of hormones. She and Paul were married a month after they met, ran off, and eloped.” Grace’s eyes misted as she stared out her window. “When he died, she did, too, only her body didn’t get the message until a year later, she was eighty-six.”
    “Wow, that’s a long time to love someone.”
    “Mm-hmm,” Grace agreed with a nod. “I was jealous. My Ronald was a good man, and I loved him with all my heart, but what we had didn’t compare. Myrna and Paul were joined at the soul the moment they met. I’ve never seen two people so close. That kind of love is rare, but it happens.”
    “So you believe in love at first sight.”
    “No,” Grace said as she cut into the pie. “That’s just what we call intense attraction and luck. Myrna and Paul were awestruck by each other. Luck played its part, and they turned out to be extremely compatible. Falling in love was easy for them, but it didn’t happen the day they met.”
    “Ah,” Payton said, and her last string of hope broke.

Chapter 8

    Shelly pursed her lips as she stared at a handful of paint samples. “I don’t like any of these.”
    “Do you want me to see if they have more in the storeroom since there’s only a hundred thousand on this display?” Ryann asked.
    “I told you this is a long and drawn-out