My brow dipped, and I frowned, unsure how I’d missed it.
Diane smiled. “I’m not surprised you didn’t see it, honestly.”
“Why?”
She covered our joined hands with her free one, patting softly. “It was in the way he stared at you. Every time he was sure you weren’t looking.” Giving my hand a gentle squeeze, she winked at me. “He was very careful to do it when he was sure you couldn’t see him. So, he didn’t realize that I did.”
We stayed at the diner with Bill and Diane for almost an hour after we finished our lunch, and they gave us both big hugs before we left. As we drove back to our apartment to get my things, I thought about everything Diane had said.
Driving under the trees, with the canopy of leaves overhead, brought back memories of my drives with Max, but it was an overcast day, and less light filtered through than it had when we were together.
Tears sprang to my eyes, and I swiped them away.
Gia noticed anyway. “Talk to me, babe. What’s going on?”
I tugged my lower lip between my teeth, not wanting to admit it but unable to hide from her.
“I don’t know.” Ignoring the pressure building in my chest, I shrugged. “I really liked how that felt. Diane and Bill hugging me like that. Excited to see me. But what if I’m wrong, Gia? What if everything going on with Max is real, and I have been grasping at straws because…”
Gia’s eyes softened as I hid my face, and she reached over to grab my hand. “Because you included them in the image you were building in your head. Didn’t you? One of the future you want—something you haven’t done in a really long time.”
My voice broke. “Not really.”
“So, now, the thought of losing it scares you?”
Tears pricked my eyes.
“No,” I lied, swiping at my cheeks and sniffling. “Geez, you’re usually so much better at reading me than this.”
She laughed, and it drew one from me even as more tears slid down my cheeks. Squeezing my hand as we turned off the highway, she let go and reached into her purse to pull something out of it.
When she handed over a small stack of diner napkins, the memory of Max that day, writing out my list of Skills and Assets, came sharply to mind. I’d slipped it into my pocket and saved it, thinking it’d be another reminder of how Max Dread had wooed and fooled me. Back when I’d been lying to myself about who he was, and what I felt for him.
Back before he’d forced me to face the truth.
But, deep down, it was the first moment I considered the possibility that he truly saw me.
That we could be more than a fantasy. A what if.
Or a road not traveled.
“Sometimes, it seems ridiculous. Feeling the way I do about them. Especially so quickly. But, other times, it’s like?—”
“What?”
“Like they were waiting at Camelot Court for me to find them. And I was waiting for them, too. Or that we were just four lonely people who ended up in the same place at the right time, and saw something in each other that made us feel less alone.” I shrugged. “Maybe that’s not enough to build a future on, but…I wanted to try. I don’t want their world to dig its claws into them and pull them away from me. Not before we decide for ourselves what this is or isn’t.”
“That all sounds really fair, and reasonable.” Gia gave me a smile, pulling up to our apartment and shutting off the car. “And I would’ve accepted if you were a petty bitch who didn’t want the other girl to win, so.” She flipped her hair off her shoulder, turning to face me in her seat. “We’ll get your man. All of them. Don’t worry. It’s been a little like herding cats to start, but you’ll get that chance. I know it.”
“I hope so.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
With my quiet admission, Gia’s smile grew, and she leaned over to hug me. But when she sat back, her bright expression wobbled.
Tears filled her eyes. “Oh, no.”
She grabbed a napkin from the pile in my hand, dabbing under her eyes.
