“No, that’s not an option. Besides, he basically told me he was going to Costa Rica to get over this thing.”

“Hm.” Minerva reached for the whiskey bottle again, but she didn’t bother with the coffee this time as she poured some in each of our mugs. “Costa Rica…is a long way away from everything and everyone he knows.” Her eyes met mine over the rim of her mug as she brought it to her lips. “And everyone you know, too,” she added.

“It is, I guess…” My mug was halfway to my mouth before I realized what she was saying. The suggestion that she’d left unsaid. It was far away from everything and everyone we knew. If I went with him, I could love him out loud. We could test the waters to see if what we felt for each other had a future.

His caustic words came back to me as I took a sip of the whiskey.

What the fuck do you expect me to do with that, Darcy?

The question was if he would even want me to join him.

It had been a long time since I’d been to The Cocktail Bar. Shannon had always liked it more than I did. And as it turned out, he brought Jolene here when I wasn’t around so I felt it was best to meet her at the place she felt most comfortable to deliver my news. Not that finally agreeing to sell my real estate business and give her a share of the profits was bad news. She’d wanted me to sell when we were settling Shannon’s estate, but I wasn’t ready to do it then. But now I was about to blow my life up, and I needed the money from the sale to finance it.

Blowing up my life…

I had to stop thinking of it that way. Starting over in your fifties was completely normal. There were plenty of women who reinvented themselves and launched successful second careers at my age. Except I wasn’t selling my business to start something new. I was just chasing a man to Costa Rica. A man that I wasn’t even brave enough to call and share that plan with.

I was wrong before. This was how you lost your mind.

Jolene was late, per usual, so I ordered a drink and sipped it until she came through the door. As she searched the room, I caught a glimpse of what Shannon probably saw in her when they first met. She couldn’t have always been this desperate version of herself, grasping at the scraps and edges of someone else’s life.

“Darcy,” she said as she pulled out her chair and sat. We were alone, so she didn’t bother to perform her good graces or place the usual perfunctory kiss on my cheek.