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should be apologizing for being mean.
    “Of course Marissa doesn’t want a beer because she’d rather have her favorite lemonade I made for her,” her mom said. “Here, have a nice big glass.”
    The lemonade cooled Marissa off.
    “So, Mom, have you gone to that menopause support group yet?” Jess asked.
    “Connie and I are going tomorrow night.”
    Connie Delgado and Marissa’s mom had been best friends since kindergarten. They’d grown up together, got married and had kids, and now shared menopause together. Marissa wondered what it must be like to have a relationship over so many years. She hadn’t kept up with any of her school friends. They’d just drifted apart after she’d left Hopeful.
    As if to make up for her earlier snarky comments, Jess was on her best behavior for the rest of the evening. Marissa actually enjoyed sharing childhood memories of catching fireflies in a bottle on a warm summer evening or camping in a tent in the backyard with Jess, who had been afraid of polar bears attacking her.
    By the time Jess left, Marissa shared a genuine sisterly hug with her. Their dad had yet to really become engaged in the conversation. He’d smiled during their reminisces but hadn’t really contributed much beyond an occasional “Hmm.”
    Upstairs in her bedroom, Marissa sat curled up on her bed facing the window. Lightning flashed, warning of an approaching storm. She checked her BlackBerry for the latest weather update. No watches or warnings.
    How prophetic was it that it was storming on her first night home? She sat there and watched it come closer, the flashes becoming zigzags across the night sky. The thunder swelled, beating down her defenses as tears slowly rolled down her face like the rain rolling down the windowpane.
    Her emotions were a brittle jumble. She hugged her pillow the way she’d hugged Bosco during the tornado. The way she’d hugged her first love, Connor, the wayshe’d hugged her husband. What did that say about her, that everything she’d hugged and loved was gone?
    Okay, she hadn’t read any self-help divorce book that talked about comparing the men in your life to your pets, so that probably wasn’t a helpful path to traverse. And she still had her family, after all. She’d loved and hugged them and they weren’t gone. They were here.
    Her strength was fragile but it would grow. She flinched as a clap of thunder rattled the windows.
    There was a knock on her door. “Are you okay?” her mom asked as she entered the room.
    “I don’t know,” she admitted, the tears falling easily now.
    “Oh, hon.” Her mom sat beside her and moved the pillow aside so she could hug her daughter.
    “I still can’t process it all,” Marissa admitted on a sob. “The thing is, I was so clueless about Brad that I had no time to prepare. It came out of the blue, like that tornado.”
    “Oh, baby.” Her mom stroked her hair like she had when Marissa was little. “I’m so sorry you have to go through this. But things will get better. I promise.”
    Marissa wished she could believe that.
    *  *  *
     
    Connor sipped his morning cup of coffee as he stared out the window of his apartment very early Sunday morning. The sun was barely up. Things were quiet. The neighborhood was still asleep.
    Then he saw her. Marissa. Walking down the sidewalk. She wasn’t jogging or running. Just walking. Not even power walking with that weird arm swinging thing going on.
    She was wearing a blue T-shirt and conservative shorts. No Daisy Dukes for her. He should have just let her walk on by. He told himself that all the way outside.
    She turned to confront him before he could say a word. “Is there some law against taking a morning walk?”
    “Hey.” He held up his hands in mocking surrender. “Chill out…Rissa.”

Chapter Three
     

     
    “What did you say?” Marissa demanded. Connor was sans sunglasses this morning and she could see his face clearly, especially his hard-to-define eyes.
    “You