“I really did.” I offer her a lopsided grin. “Tough day.”
She points at the pastry I’ve set down on the table. “The size of that lemon bar tells me the kind of day you’ve had.”
I grab two forks from the small station nearby and hand one to Jo. I reach into my purse and remove the two cans of rosé I picked up from the Merc. “Do these further tell you the story of the day I’ve had?” I slide one over to her.
She pops the top and sips. “Sure does. Want to talk about it?”
I finish chewing my first bite of lemon bar. “It’s not an easy subject.”
“Let me guess,” she says, holding a forkful of the pastry in midair. “It has something to do with a certain Hayden.”
One side of my mouth turns up in a smile. “Sort of. More than one Hayden, anyway.”
She nods knowingly. “They can be an interesting bunch. There’s been some talk, you know.”
“About me?”
“You and Wes.”
I sip my wine. “What’s the talk?”
“That you’ve been seeing an awful lot of each other.”
“That’s true.”
“And that this town has been seeing more of Wes than they have in years, and that’s due to your presence.”
“Is that considered a good thing?”
She nods her head vigorously. “Most definitely. He’s a big deal in our town. My mom and dad remember when he was born. He grew up playing football, and there was this pride in the whole town when he went into the Army. He came home, and I think we all expected him to be the same Wes, which was pretty short-sighted of us. It might sound silly, but whatever happened to Wes when he was over there, happened to us too, because it took away the town hero.”
“That’s a lot of pressure to put on one person. To need him to be your hero. Not you, specifically. ‘You’ as in ‘the town’.”
“You are right about that. I think it comes with the territory though. Having Hayden as a last name.”
It makes me think about Juliette and her boundary-crossing behavior. “It does seem like an awful lot to live up to.”
“And now you’re dating a Hayden. Who knows, maybe your last name will be Hayden one day.”
I cough on my wine and slip my left hand under the table. Last name? I hadn’t even given a thought to that. Do I want to change my last name?
“Are you okay?” Jo asks.
“Yes, yes,” I sputter. “Let’s talk about you.” I need the subject change, stat. “Are you dating anybody right now?”
“Well…” Jo pokes at some crumbs with the tines of her fork. “Not dating, no. I might’ve made a teensy mistake last weekend.”
“Spill,” I command, grateful to be out of the spotlight.
“I went down to Phoenix with a group of friends. We stayed at a resort, did the spa thing, dinner and drinks. We all had a lot to drink and I miiight have slept with someone who was in our group.” She makes a bare-teeth face. “But he doesn’t remember.” Flames of red sweep across her face.
“Don’t be embarrassed.” I touch her forearm. “Seriously. We all make mistakes. I know I have.” Colossal mistakes, in my case. “Why do you think he doesn’t remember?”
“Because I left his room after, and when I saw him at breakfast the next morning, he didn’t even look at me twice.” Her eyes fill with tears. “And when our other friend asked him how the rest of his night went, he shrugged and said he went to his room and passed out.” She dabs at her eyes with a white paper napkin.
“Do you care about this person?”
She sniffs and takes a drink. “I’ve had a crush on him for years, and I swear he never even noticed me until last weekend.”
