Take the ten minutes, go back and wait a minute to cross the street.
Get the life back you deserve.
Look me up sometime when you have a game nearby.
I’m sorry. I love you.
My lips curve into a smile. If I’m being honest, getting hit by the truck isn’t the regret I have, as awesome as the past four weeks have been, because it brought me Jenny and Maddie, and it brought me perspective.
But I have one regret about a gorgeous woman at a diner.
And that one I very much intend to fix.
Ten minutes, right? That’s all it takes.
Chapter twenty
Last Christmas
Maddie
IfIhadn’tjustspent the last month in a town ripped right out of a freaking Hallmark movie, I probably would have freaked the fuck out when I woke up this morning in the middle of a diner that shuttered its doors two years ago.
“Earth to Pookie. You okay?”
Jenny’s hand waves in my face and brings my attention to focus. Her brow furrows under her baseball cap, staring at me.
Aw, hell, I’ve missed her.
“Sorry.” I blink a few times, trying to figure out where in my timeline I am. “I, um, I’m just tired today.”
“Still not sleeping, huh?” She reaches out and grabs my hand. “I love you, boo. But he’s not worth losing sleep over. I promise you’ll get over this, find someone who deserves you.”
Oh hell. I know what this is. This is the day Brady and Lacey taught me a lesson.
Logically, I feel like this timeline doesn’t make sense, that wherever Seth is, he should have already been hit by the truck, but whatever he did with his ten minutes, I’ll endure this moment with grace as long as he is happy. And maybe, I can make something right of my life too.
Jenny brings her lips to her straw, blowing bubbles into the milkshake and giggling. I cradle my head in my hands and admire the warmth and joy hanging in Jenny’s eyes.
Gosh, she’s as radiant as the freaking sun.
“What are you looking at, weirdo?” She laughs.
“You. You’re pretty.”
Sweet Jenny, who doesn’t know the betrayal I’m capable of, doesn’t know how easily I tossed a fifteen-year friendship for nothing. A Jenny who didn’t do the same to me.
I reach out and grab her face. “I love you, Pixie. And I’m so so grateful for you. I’d never do anything to lose that, understood? You are cherished and magical, and I love your face.”
“I’m grateful for you too. Why are you squishing my cheeks?” She mumbles, her eyes glancing at her phone.
I release her cheeks and take a sip of my milkshake, savoring the freezing chocolate cream sliding down my throat—the frostiest thing here.
“Oh, here he is!” Jenny waves at someone, wiggling in the booth.
My heart stops. We didn’t meet anyone that day. It was just us. “Seth, over here!”
I can’t bring my gaze to meet his. My heart hammers in my chest like it’s trying to escape, like it knows its other half is here and can’t wait to be whole again.
