First-Time Caller (Heartstrings, #1)

by B.K. Borison

I laugh and Jackson goes bug-eyed on the other side of the glass. He presses his face up against it, nose squished to the window, hands cupped around his eyes to get a better look. What? I mouth, as Maya and Lucie go back and forth about the true reason for the call. Jackson forces a grin on his face and gestures to it. He looks like a demented clown. The mechanical ones outside the flea market on Broadway, defunct and broken-down, smiles stretched forever wide in chipped red paint. It’s terrifying. Stop it, I mouth.

Joke’s on him, though. We absolutely won’t be talking about this later. We won’t be discussing it ever again because I plan on packing all my belongings into the back of my tiny Subaru and driving off into the sunset.

I don’t like her careful word choice and I don’t like the look on her face. I cup my hand around my jaw and wish I saved a cookie for emotional support because it feels an awful lot like I’m in trouble.

I’ve been with my husband for sixty-five years. Every day isn’t a fairy tale. We’ve worked hard for our relationship. To build it. To maintain it. I’ve become so many versions of myself and so has he, but we’ve found a way to fall in love with one another over and over again. Every time.

“With a root canal?” she asks, distracted. I laugh. “I don’t think you want me in your mouth.” That statement earns her full attention. She turns to look at me slowly, arching one dark eyebrow. Her eyes are a pale green beneath her bangs. “I mean—I don’t—I don’t have any dental qualifications. To be in your mouth.” Christ. How did it get worse?

I silently beg for a conversational assist. For one of the ancient ceiling tiles to give and release some of the equally ancient plumbing on top of my head, dragging me through the floor to the basement.

“Aiden?” I ask after a while, my body deliciously heavy. “Yeah?” “Do you think I’ll find someone?” I voice the question that’s been banging around in my heart for the past decade. “Do you think I’ll get my magic?”

Cringe

“Listen. I need to be honest with you.” I eye him warily. “Okay.” I brace myself for something horrifying. He’s a convicted murderer on the run. He doesn’t think Die Hard is a Christmas movie. He eats his chicken nuggets without sauce.

“Fuck it,”

boy. Oh god. I officially want the planet to swallow me whole. I want to become one with the magma within the Earth’s crust.

“Do you still have the key to the back entrance?” Maya huffs. “Of course I do. It’s cruffin day, Mom. I’m not an idiot.” She clicks her heels against my sides. “Onward, noble steed.” I give a halfhearted neigh and Lucie’s laugh wraps itself around me like ribbons.