“Um, what?” Mauve asked. “How did no one tell me this yet?”
“I forgot,” Reese said. “There’s been a lot going on.”
“I’m so bidding on that,” Mauve said. “But I doubt I’ll win. That’s going to be the talk of the gala.”
“You can come out to visit anytime,” Jason said. “I’ll take you to set. Introduce you to the cast. Whatever you want.”
“Don’t say it if you’re not serious,” Mauve said. “Because I will take you up on it.”
“We could all go,” Reese said. “Watch Jason work.” She turned toward Mauve. “When we were in high school, Jason was the star of all the school plays. There wasn’t a girl in town who wasn’t in love with him.”
Jason shook his head, flushing. “Not everyone. At least one was in love with my twin brother.”
“Who was that?” Reese asked, deadpan.
Jason turned slightly toward Mauve. “These two were inseparable back then. I was actually jealous.”
“You were not,” Reese said.
“No, I was.” Jason grimaced. “I used to write in my journal every morning back then. There were quite a few entries about how Roan had taken Reese from me.”
“I didn’t know you thought that,” Roan said.
“It was immature, but, hey, we were all kids. Basically anyway,” Jason said.
“Only we didn’t know it.” Reese turned to Jason and said with a teasing lilt to her voice. “You wrote in a journal?”
“Every day,” Jason said. “Still do. I start the day writing about what I’m grateful for. Gratitude’s the key to everything, you know.”
“That’s true,” Mauve said. “Although there are days it’s hard to find it. If you’re hurting, for example.”
“Yeah, sometimes you have to dig really deep,” Jason said.
The two of them looked at each other for a moment, locking eyes.
Okay, interesting. Jason was smitten with Reese’s best friend. She seemed equally enamored by him.
“The same is true for forgiveness,” Reese said. “But there’s no reason to hold onto hurt or resentment forever.” She looked into Roan’s eyes quickly, before turning back to her half-eaten slice of pizza.
“All right, so let me get this straight.” Mauve eyes twinkled. “The key to happiness is to write in a journal every morning and to forgive people who have harmed you or hurt you in the past. That’s it?”
“There may be more, but that’s a good start,” Jason said, grinning.
They were nearly done by then. Mauve excused herself to use the restroom, while Jason offered to pay the bill and get boxes for the leftover pizza.
When they were alone, Roan turned toward Reese, reaching out to tuck her hair behind her ear, a gesture he had regularly done when they were kids newly in love. “How are you doing?”
She glanced down at her empty plate, a flush rising to her cheeks. “I’m good.”
“Do you remember when we used to skate on the lake?”
“Yeah. They’re not allowing that anymore. That’s why they have the pop-up rink.”
“It’s a pity. I used to love it out there this time of year,” Roan said.
“We could skate here in town.”
“Now?”
