“He should have bitch-slapped that cocksucker with his cane.” She shook her head, the green in her eyes sparking.
A couple glanced our way, and Autumn shot them a syrupy smile as an apology for swearing. I returned their stare with a militant glare that saidmind your own businessand you won’t hear her swear.
She nudged my shin under the table. Fair. She had to live here while I could leave, which I’d do as soon as my “honeymoon” was done.
She pushed an errant curl behind her ear. “What’d you do at his place?”
“Slept. Watched TV.” Talked. That part was my favorite. “He worked. Did you know he builds furniture?”
She cocked her head. “You didn’t?”
Why did everyone act like his job was something I should know? “He said he gets old barrels from Copper Summit and I hoped he and Teller were talking again.”
Sadness entered her eyes. “They aren’t close like before.” She took a long drink of her soda. “I think Teller worries about him when he’s not seen in town for a while. I hear him grilling the delivery drivers. Jonahchanged after the accident and he’s never reverted back, but who can blame him.”
“Jonah blames himself for Eli.” He shouldn’t. The burden rested fully on my shoulders. Only I knew why Eli had gone to Jonah’s place that day and drunk too much.
Our food arrived and Autumn moved on from all things Jonah. She told me about her third graders’ antics, how she felt so much older than some of the new teachers ten years younger than her, and if it weren’t for Scarlett, she might’ve quit. I loved our incredibly normal conversation.
When it was time to go, Autumn scooted out of the booth. “I’m running to the restroom before I load up on muffins.”
“I’ll buy mine while waiting.”
The same server who’d helped us met me at the bakery counter. I ordered two strawberry cream cheese and two pumpkin cream cheese. Mama would have at least one. Oh wait, Myles’s brothers, Lane and Cruz, would be around too.
“Can you add one more of each?” I recalled the guys’ appetites. “Wait, two more. You know what? Do a half dozen of each.”
Autumn’s muffins would be my treat.
The server smiled and busied herself with boxing my order.
“Summer? Surprised to see you here.”
I turned, my stomach dropping as my brain registered whose voice I’d heard.
Jackie Weller.
The jealous punch to my gut was staggering. I pulledmy coat around myself and didn’t bother faking a smile. “Jackie, hi.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be on a honeymoon?” she asked innocently.
She’d always been snide and snotty when she’d come around the Dunns’ place and I’d been over there with Eli.
She was going low, and I didn’t have the energy to go high. “I’m sure you’ve heard I didn’t get married,” I said flatly.
“Right.” She narrowed her eyes on me. “You were staying at Jonah’s?”
My family wouldn’t have talked, but I hadn’t been inconspicuous in my wedding dress crawling into Jonah’s truck. Word got around. “Is that what they’re saying?”
Humor danced in her blue eyes, but I hadn’t known how to take her when I was younger, and I wasn’t sure now. Was she laughing at me? At the situation? At the irony that we’d run into each other now of all times? “They’re always saying a lot, but I’m sure it’s because people remember how it used to be.”
I hated to ask.Don’t ask, I screamed at myself, but the question left my lips regardless. “How what used to be?”
“How you used to have a thing for Jonah.”
My heart skipped a beat. “I did not.”
She lifted a dark brow. “I felt so sorry for Eli. You never looked at him the way you did at Jonah.”
