Becky had recently cut her long, blond hair into a flirty bob that suited her pixie face. Anyone looking at her would drop a jaw to learn she was the mother of two, because the haircut made her appear all of eighteen. But there was wisdom and understanding in her eyes as she let her gaze roam over Eliza’s face.
“Yeah.” Eliza nodded. “Thanks. I keep thinking if I just stay busy, I won’t have time tothink. But I forget that baking and thinking go hand-in-hand.”
“It’s perfectly normal to miss him even if you didn’t want to marry him,” Becky assured her. “I mean, youlikedhim, right? He was a good guy. So I don’t blame you for replaying everything in your head. Just don’t let that film roll on for too long, or it tends to get stuck in a loop.”
Eliza felt like the world’s biggest ass.
Of courseBecky thought she was remembering Charlie and the horror of the shooting. Whowouldn’tbe remembering that?
Me, apparently, a lovesick fool and the world’s biggest ass.
Embarrassed to admit the truth, she simply nodded. “Thanks. That’s good advice.” She glanced around the kitchen to find six sets of worried eyes fixed on her. “I know you’re all hanging around because you’re trying to distract me. And I appreciate it. But you have lives and kids andbedroomsto get back to.” She pinned a meaningful look on Jake and Michelle and then transferred it to Ozzie and Samantha. Samantha had the good grace to blush. “Please go about your evenings. That’s what’s going to help me the most, I think. I just need everyone to keep on keeping on as usual and?—”
Sam interrupted her when he walked into the room carrying Ozzie and Samantha’s baby girl like one might carry an active grenade.
“She needs a diaper change.” He quickly handed the baby off to Ozzie. “I’ll do feedings and clean up puke. But when it comes to poopy diapers, I’m out.”
“Coward,” Ozzie accused.
Sam was unfazed. “Say what you will. But I’d rather face an armed assailant than a Pampers full of soft serve. And if the sounds that just came outta her are any indication, that’s what’s waiting for you.” He gestured toward little Sophia Marie’s bulging diaper with an offended curl of his upper lip.
The pitter-patter of little feet heralded the arrival of Charlotte and Hazel, Boss and Becky’s two girls. And quick on their heels marched Britt, Hewitt, and Graham. Then Franklin and JJ, Snake and Michelle’s two boys, pushed through the back door. Both of them wore baseball mitts. Fisher sauntered in behind them, tossing a baseball in the air before easily catching it.
Just like that, the kitchen went from full to packed-to-the-gills.
The moment Fisher stopped by the back door to chuck the baseball in the cubby they kept for just such things, her mind flew back to the night before. To the way he’d kissed her. To the way he’d held her. To the way he’d told her under no circumstances would he ever love her the way she loved him.
They’d barely spoken two words to each other all day. Which, if she was being honest, was her doing.
She’d been avoiding him.
Or, rather, she’d been keeping herself so busy she hadn’t afforded him any opportunity to talk to her. What was left to say? They’d said it all the night before.
Her lips burned from where she’d been biting them all afternoon. Her pulse thumped so hard it hurt. But she managed to offer him a small smile and a subtle nod when his gaze found hers.
It was the only olive branch she had to give. And she hoped he understood that just because he wasn’t capable of giving her what she wanted, she wasn’t upset with him. Sad? Sure. But not upset.Neverupset.
How could I be mad at him when he’s always told me the truth?
His chin dipped in response to her smile, but the rest of him was as still and as imposing as a mountain.
Good grief, why does he have to look so good?
His too-long hair was windblown from playing catch. His cheeks were tinged pink from the July heat. And the tan skin of his neck glistened with the faintest sheen of sweat.
All around her there was noise. The baby had started fussing. The two little girls were squealing and clapping their hands as their parents split a cupcake between them.
Hewitt and Sam were giving each other a hard time. “There are two things I don’t like about you, Hew, and both are your face,” Sam said.
To which Hewitt replied, “Oh, cry me a river, why doncha? And then go drown yourself in it.”
Snake and Michelle were loading pieces of the lemon tart into Tupperware to take home with them while arguing with their boys about saving the dessert for tomorrow because, as Michelle was quick to point out, “You’ve both already had three slices each.” And Peanut had followed the hoard into the kitchen and now wound himself around Eliza’s ankles, meowing pitifully and begging her to drop a morsel of something,anything, onto the floor.
She barely registered any of it.
It was background noise. Unfocused. Seemingly far away. Every cell in her body was attuned to Fisher and the way his lips twisted into a wry smile at the chaos that was the kitchen.
She held her breath as he sauntered in her direction. It shuddered out of her when he slipped an arm around her shoulders.
