It had been a hell of a long day. The skin on my neck from where Brett had held his forearm was bright red, and I’d had to tie a scarf around my throat to hide it from Sam, who had shown up with Rosie only an hour after Zach left. I’d had just enough time to clean up the bulk of the mess: the broken vases and the bloodstains on the carpet from Brett’s face.

There was still some straightening up to do, and Rosie was presently working at it as I walked Sam from the bathroom to his bedroom. He was in his pajamas and had just brushed his teeth. His teddy bear was clutched in one hand, and he padded to his bed and climbed in. I pulled the blanket over him as he settled down on his pillow and looked up at me.

“Did you have fun at mommy’s work today with Uncle Ryan and Auntie Rosie?” I asked as I brushed his hair off his forehead.

Sam could barely keep his eyes open. Each blink cost him energy as he forced himself to stay awake. “Yeah. Uncle Ryan let me eat those candy cherries.”

“Maraschino cherries?” I grinned.

Sam nodded. “Yep.”

“You get some sleep, kiddo. When you wake up, the house will be clean, and it’s just going to be you and me living here. Everything is going to be better now.”

“You won’t be sad anymore?” Sam asked.

I stared down at my son. He was looking back at me, eyes droopy and innocent, with his bear tucked under his little chin. I had let things with Brett go way too far. Sam never should have picked up on my sadness. I believed I was hiding it from him so well. I had been a fool. “No, sweetheart,” I said softly. “I won’t be sad anymore.”

Sam smiled and closed his eyes. “Good. Goodnight, Mommy.”

“Goodnight, kiddo,” I said, and I kissed his forehead and tucked the blankets in tight around him. Like me, he loved being tightly wrapped in his blankets. “Sleep tight.” I got up and walked to the door, where I flicked off his light. His nightlight was on in the corner, casting blue stars up on the ceiling. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Sam said.

He was asleep before I closed the door behind me and stepped into the hall.

I met Rosie in the living room. She was straightening out the books in my bookshelf that had toppled over and looked up at me when I came in. She pointed her chin to the coffee table, where a bottle of red wine and two glasses sat. “I brought that over. Wasn’t sure what kind of night this was going to be. Sad drinking or happy drinking. I figured red wine works for both occasions.”

I chuckled and pressed my hands into my lower back. I stretched, cracked my spine and neck, and then rolled my shoulders. “It does suit both occasions. And, for the record, it will be happy drinking.”

Rosie went to the bottle and poured us each a glass. She raised hers in a toast. “Fuck Brett?”

I nodded. “Fuck Brett.”

We spent the next two hours cleaning up. I didn’t vacuum because I didn’t want to wake Sam, but we did everything else. The place looked good as new, minus my now missing vases and a few broken picture frames, when we both sat down in opposite corners of my sofa with our glasses of wine.

“So,” Rosie said slowly. She glanced at me, the corner of her mouth curling upward. “Zach came to your rescue, huh?”

She had no idea. He’d rescued me from more than just Brett’s wrath today. He’d spared me a loneliness I hadn’t been able to escape for five years. He’d made me feel safe and loved for the first time since our night back in San Antonio. “He did,” I said, tracing my finger around the base of my wine glass.

“And he beat the shit out of Brett?”

I nodded as I pictured the brawl that had torn apart my living room that afternoon. Brett was unhinged and mad with jealousy, while Zach managed to stay calm and collected. Up until the end, that is. He’d lost it a bit too, and I wasn’t sure what would have happened had I not stepped in and made him stop. Brett would probably have been a puddle of broken bones at his feet if I’d let him keep pummeling him. “He did. Brett got a few swings in, too. But he doesn’t have the power Zach has. That comes from years of training.”

“I would have paid to see it,” Rosie said.

I chuckled. Chances were, if Rosie had seen it, she’d be having a hard time forgetting it now. Violence was all good and fun when it happened in the movies or when you heard stories about it. It was a whole different ball game when it happened right in front of you and you cared about the person who was also taking hits while trying to defend you. I appreciated Zach coming for me, but I wished he hadn’t had to. I wished I’d sorted it out on my own before things got so fucked up.

“You all right, Jo?” Rosie asked after taking a sip of wine.

“I will be,” I said. “It’s just a lot.”

“The fight?”

“Among other things.”

Rosie tapped her finger against her glass and waited to see if I was going to elaborate. I wasn’t the kind of girl who easily talked about her feelings, so after a few moments, Rosie started to encourage me with gentle questions. “What else happened while Zach was here?”

“A lot,” I said again, always falling back on vague answers.

Rosie arched an eyebrow. “Come on, Jo. You can tell me stuff. It will help clear your mind if you get it off your chest. I promise.”

I could feel my cheeks starting to get hot. Maybe it was just the wine.

Rosie giggled. “Did the two of you, you know?”

So it wasn’t just the wine. I covered my face with one hand and sighed. “We did.”

Rosie kicked her heels against my sofa cushion and squealed. “Oh man, I was totally hoping you did! How was it? Wait. You didn’t fuck on the sofa, did you?”

“No!” I blurted out, horrified and blushing even more fiercely.

“Oh girl, please tell me he rocked your world.”

I downed the rest of my wine, reached for the bottle, and refilled my glass. “I don’t like to talk about this kind of stuff, but yes, he rocked my world. It was almost too good.”

“I want details.”

“Hell no.”

“Pretty please?”

“No.” I laughed, shaking my head. “The personal stuff is just for me. But it was even better than the first time we had sex. And…”

“Yes?” Rosie prompted as she crossed her legs under herself and leaned forward eagerly.

“I told him about Sam.”

Rosie stared at me in shock. Her mouth moved, but no words came out. She shook her head and started over, this time giving voice to her thoughts. “Hold up. He knows he’s Sam’s dad? How did he take it? Was he mad?”

“He took it really well. He wasn’t mad. You know what he said? He said he was sad that he had already missed out on five years.”

“Oh,” Rose said, resting her hand on her chest. “My heart.”

“Tell me about it. I felt like an idiot and just sat there crying, completely naked.”

“Naked?” Rosie asked. “Did you tell him after the sex?”

“Maybe.”

“Josephine!” Rosie scolded. She couldn’t keep a straight face though and started laughing. “No wonder he wasn’t mad. He was still riding the high of being in your—”

“Hey,” I said, cutting her off before the conversation took a turn.

She sipped her wine and eyed me over the rim of the glass. She looked devious as hell. Her mind was probably racing with dozens of dirty thoughts, as it usually was. “So a lot of things are going to change, aren’t they?”

I nodded. “Yeah. A lot of things. He wants to meet Sam.”

“And you’re good with that?”

“I told him I thought it would be best if we wait a couple of weeks. I want to make sure that Sam doesn’t miss Brett before I introduce another guy. And if I’m being honest, I don’t think I’ll introduce Zach as his father right away. Too much information all at once could send him into a fit.”

Rosie pursed her lips and nodded. “Probably the right call. Once they get to know each other, it will be an easier conversation to have with Sam, I’m sure. How did Zach feel about having to wait? Does it bother him?”

“No. He said we should see each other to pass the time.”

“Like, date?”

I beamed at her.

“I’m so happy for you, Jo. Seriously. This is what you have deserved all these years. He’s a good guy.”

“He is,” I agreed, sipping on more of my wine. I could feel it starting to buzz around in my head, and it was pleasant. For the first time in three and a half years, there wasn’t a crushing weight on my shoulders, pushing me down to the earth and reminding me of how lonely I was. “You deserve the same thing, Rosie.”

Rosie topped up her wine glass and leaned over to pour the rest of the bottle into my glass. I thanked her as she leaned back in her corner of the sofa.

“And on that note,” I said slyly. “Where do things stand with you and my brother?”

Rosie turned as red as I felt. She stared into her wine glass and shrugged, playing off my question like it wasn’t a big deal. “I’m not sure. Probably nowhere. We just like to flirt and have fun is all. I don’t think he likes me like that.”

I knew for a fact that he did. He brought her up in conversation constantly, and whenever she was around, he lit up like a star on top of a Christmas tree. “Well, do you like him like that?”

“He’s your brother,” Rosie said, like that was an answer enough.

“So?”

Rosie hesitated and swirled her wine around. “Would you care if I was with your brother?”

“Of course not!” I exclaimed. “Rosie, I’ve been wanting the two of you to get together for almost a year. You both love spending time together. I’ve never seen someone make him laugh like you do. And he would treat you so well.”

“I really, really like him, Jo,” Rosie admitted, her cheeks burning an even fiercer shade of red.

I lifted my wine glass. “Another toast, then. To new beginnings. For both of us.”

Rosie grinned and we clinked our glasses together. We finished our wine and spent the next couple of hours acting like high school girls with crushes on boys on the football team. When it became difficult to keep our eyes open, I went to my linen closet and grabbed blankets and pillows. I made a bed on the sofa for Rosie, and she went to the bathroom, where she brushed her teeth and took her makeup off. As she did that, I pulled my duvet off my bed and brought it and all my pillows into the living room. I laid them out on the floor and went back to my room, where I changed into my favorite oversized sleeping shirt.

Rosie was in the living room slipping under the blankets on the sofa when I came back while brushing my teeth. She teased me for being a slob when toothpaste dripped from my bottom lip and landed on my boobs.

“Damn it,” I muttered, hurrying back to the bathroom to floss and swish mouthwash around in my mouth. After, I turned off all the lights, minus the outside one above the front door, and climbed into my makeshift bed on the floor.

Rosie sighed and pulled her blankets up under her chin. “I haven’t had a girls’ sleepover since college. And that was only because I had a roommate in my dorm room.”

“I haven’t done this since high school,” I said. “Unless you count the Coast Guard.”

I could feel Rosie looking at me in the dark. “Do you miss it?”

I nodded. “Every day. I miss the sense of purpose. Of making a difference.”

“You’re making a difference with Sam,” she offered.

“Thanks,” I said, suspecting she was only trying to make me feel better.

“No, really. Think about where Sam was just two years ago. Panic attacks on a weekly basis. Frequent trips to the ER because he couldn’t breathe. You’re the only reason he’s gotten better. You’re an amazing mom, Jo.”

I felt tears leak out of the corner of my eyes and trickle into my hairline above my ears. “Thanks, Rosie. That means a lot to me.”

“Just don’t ever forget it. A lot of us aren’t lucky enough to have moms like you. He’s a lucky kid. And now he gets to have a dad like Zach?” Rosie sighed. “He’s truly blessed.”

My heart was stabbed with something I hadn’t felt in a long time, and it took my breath away.

Joy.