This was it. I’d had my share of bad luck. After decades of caring for my ailing parents and alcoholic husband, then losing all of them, one by one, it was time to put myself first. Midlife, I decided, would be a new beginning. The mid-point of a novel, after all, isn’t the end of the story, but the moment the protagonist takes charge of their own destiny.

Where better to kick-start a change in fortune than Las Vegas?

“What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!” Nina slurred, and we all clinked glasses.

“Don’t look now,” she shout-whispered into my ear. “Hot guys, by the Blackjack table.”

I cringed. “We’re old enough to be their mothers!”