“You have plenty of friends, Parker. And you’ll find plenty more wherever you end up. You don’t need Jamie Burke. You never did.”
I blew out a breath. “Mom, did you know that I didn’t have a single meaningful relationship in Boston?”
“What?”
“Not one. Not any. I had acquaintances and coworkers, but not a single boyfriend for longer than a month, or even a friend I keep in close touch with other than Ethan, and I knew him before Boston. No one has ever gotten me like Jamie does. And it killed me when he broke up with me—”
“Hebroke up withyou? But I thought it was mutual. I thought you had finally come to your senses.”
“Yeah,” I admitted. “I wanted you to think that. I was mortified. And hurt. We’d been planning a whole future together, you know? In the end, he didn’t want it.”
“Parker, honey—”
Ugh.If mymothergave me sympathy, I was gonna feed myself to sharks somehow.
“All over with now!” I said, forcing a smile and hoping she could hear it. But I wassucha liar. It wasnotover. The way I felt about him now was more ridiculous than ever. “But don’t talk shit about him, okay?”
I’d loved Jamie as a boy, but Ilovedhim as a man. His sarcasm, his quick wit, the way his hair caught fire in sunlight, the way he’d brace his hand on the small of my back sometimes and make everything better for just a second with only that one small touch.
The door to the bakery opened and Angela Ross stepped out onto the sidewalk with a white box tucked under her arm. She saw me sitting in the truck and waved, then stopped, like she was waiting for me to emerge.
“Oh, Mom, gotta go! Angela Ross needs me.”
“Angela Ross?” she demanded. “What doessheneed you for?”
I smiled to myself. Angela had been her frenemy for as long as my parents had lived in O’Leary. It was an accidentally perfect interruption.
“Well, I won’t know until I talk to her, will I?” I cut the engine and the call transferred to my phone. “Gotta go, Mom. Speak to you… next week or sometime.”
“But, Parker, you never said—”
I hit End and felt no remorse. Well…almostnone.
“Morning, Angela,” I said, jumping down and slamming the truck door behind me. I jammed my hands in the pockets of my sweatshirt and took a deep breath.
“Morning, Parker! Pretty day, huh?”
“Itis,” I said, returning her broad smile and feeling my good mood returning. “How are you?”
“Couldn’t be better! Heading over to the flower shop for a minute. I’ve got a bonus son to bribe into helping me with plans for the Lilac Day festival. Fortunately, I know exactly how to do it.” She shook the pastry box.
“Abonus son,” I repeated. “You mean Micah?”
Angela grinned. “Bonus sonsounds so much better thanmy son’s boyfriend, doesn’t it? Especially when the man in question is forty?” She glanced from side to side, like she was checking to make sure no one else could overhear, then lowered her voice to say, “I called him my son-in-law once. Constantine turned five shades of red, choked on air, and told me later, in no uncertain terms, that if I gave away the proposal he was planning, he’d name his future children after my mother-in-law.” Her lips twitched, and she flipped her black braid over her shoulder. “It was a darn good threat.”
I laughed, because I could totally picture Con saying that.
It was kinda crazy that no one in town had known Micah and Con were even athinguntil maybe a month ago, when Micah had gotten into some trouble around Valentine’s Day and Angela had recruited us all to help him out. But since then, the two of them had become as much of a fixture around town as Cal and Ash, holding hands and generally making all of us sayawww.
I’d even caught Jamie looking at them sappily once, but when I’d called him on it, all he’d said was, “Another happy couple. It’s like there’s something in the water around here.”
If that was the case, I needed Jameson to drink the fuck up.
“Speaking of Lilac Day,” Angela continued coyly. “You know it’s one of the biggest celebrations in O’Leary.”
“Oh, sure,” I agreed, fighting a smile. “Along with the Light Parade, and the Pumpkin Fest, and the Fourth of July, and the Summer Picnic.” Cal liked to say that if something in O’Leary stood still for two seconds, they’d build a monument to it or hold a festival for it, and I’d learned as a kid that thebiggestandmost importantfestival in town was whichever one happened to be coming up next.
Angela waved a hand in the air dismissively. “Yes, those too.” Her smile turned a little cagey. “You know, your food was one of the most popular draws atallthe festivals last year and at the farmer’s markets too.”
