“We can do it … I mean …” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I can start working for you. Well … your business … whenever.” Gah! I might as well of had “parochial-schooled virgin” tattooed on my forehead.

Chapter Five

The next day, my mom took me to lunch and gave me a quick tour of Denver, promising me we’d go to a Rockies game when she returned from Los Angeles. That night, I sat on her bed next to her suitcase while she packed.

“Is it weird?” I finally got the nerve to broach the subject. “Being with someone so much younger than you?” It wasn’t the question I needed to ask her, but I hadn’t worked up the nerve to ask her why she was growing pot in the storage room of her salon.

She folded a pair of black pants and added them to the growing pile in the suitcase. “You’re my daughter.” A hearty laugh followed her answer. “Or are you meaning that the women I was around in the correctional facility were all my age? Because they weren’t. Crime comes in all ages, sizes, colors, and social statuses.”

“No. I mean Fisher.”

She shrugged. “He’s my landlord. I think he’s twelve years younger than me. So … twenty-eight. I suppose I’m a little envious that he’s been so successful this early in his life. But it doesn’t bother me to have a landlord younger than me.”

My nose wrinkled. “Again, that’s not what I’m talking about.”

Her eyes narrowed, lips still curved into a grin. We had the same smile. My dad used to say it before she went to prison. Then he stopped comparing me to her at all. But she had tiny dimples like mine, and her smile was a little crooked like mine. Hair. Eyes. I was her mini me.

“Then what are you talking about?”

“Fisher is … your boyfriend. Right? I mean … I know he’s your landlord too, but you seem to be close to him, more so than a landlord-tenant relationship.”

Her lips parted, eyes unblinking for several seconds. “N-no …” She coughed a laugh. “We’re just friends. I can promise you that.”

“Really?”

Another laugh. “Really.”

“Does he have a girlfriend?” That question came out so quickly I didn’t have a single second to stop it.

Adding more clothes to her suitcase, her eyebrows lifted a fraction. “No. Why? Are you into older men? Please say no.”

“Of course not. I mean … I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with a year or two older, but not ten years older. I only asked because I noticed he didn’t lock his side of the door at the top of the stairs. And I think if he had someone living with him or even visiting, he wouldn’t want you going into his space unannounced. I’m not at all interested in him.” I rolled my eyes.