We lived it.
And we got through it together.
Now we have lives of our own, even if we both still exist within the same bubble of our hometown. There’s some safety there which is difficult to ignore.
For some reason, a vision of Rhodes flashes in my head and I can’t help but grin.
Jessi pokes my side and I let out a shriek while we make our way through the parking area and toward the stalls people have set up. I bat my hand at her, and she giggles while sidestepping me. The glare I send her way does nothing. Nothing at all.
“You think I haven’t seen that secret little grin,” she teases me while pointing at my face. “I want to know what it’s about. I’ve been hearing some whisperings about you and a certain Sheriff. And I’m not talking about Sheriff Lyons,” she clarifies while wiggling her eyebrows.
My face scrunches up and I stick my tongue out at my sister who giggles. Still, the expectant look she shoots me tells me she’s not going to let it go. We start to move through the stalls, looking at items as we move slowly.
We don’t even need to go over a game plan; we used to do this so much and easily fall back into our rhythm. It takes me back to when this was something we did all the time. I’m nostalgic for back then, but also proud of how far we’ve come.
“He kind of keeps popping up,” I admit, my eyebrows pulling together as I remember him showing up at Bunz Out.
I was surprised with how scared Graycie was when he joked about stalking me. Her reaction wasn’t normal, but I also know I can’t push her to confide in me. She’s relatively new in town and seems sweet, but we’re not friends, really.
Why would she confide in me?
She has gotten close to Opal, who is connected to the town’s motorcycle club. She’s a nice person and as long as their friendship keeps Graycie safe, I’m not going to say a damn thing about it.
“What do you mean?” She eyes me out of the corner of her eye while we gently go through a few mirrors lined up and leaning against a makeshift wall.
They’re gilded and kind of perfect if I was in the market for one. I think I catch a glimpse of some lampshades a few booths over, but I don’t rush toward them. We’ll make it over there.
“Like I said,” I tell her with a shrug knowing from the look she’s giving me that she’s about to throttle me. “Fine,” I sigh with a whiny undertone. “He just keeps popping up. At Dolly’s Place. At Bunz Out. Uncommon Grounds,” I add on.
I might sound a little exasperated but I’m powerless to stop myself from smiling slightly.
“There,” Jessi points at my face, “that smile. That secret Mona Lisa smile,” she teases me. “So mysterious.” She mimes fanning herself with her hand and batting her eyelashes at me.
“I like him,” I tell her honestly, the words feeling soft and more than a little fragile.
My sister blinks at me a few times and she looks at me seriously. “You’ve talked to him enough to like him?”
She knows about how things ended with Thad. She knows about how he never misses a chance to needle me out in public when he sees me.
Until the last time you saw him and Rhodes was there.
I prefer there to be a connection, something, before anything else happens. It was a lesson I learned—to not involve feelings without there being something there. I’ll never be anywhere near a man like Thad again.
Rhodesis nothing like him.
“Yeah,” I nod and swallow hard, “we’ve talked. About nothing and everything?” I look toward my sister and plead slightly, “It’s weird, okay?”
“It doesn’t sound weird, it sounds nice,” Jessi tells me and for a moment I’m struck at how we’re opposites in so many ways, especially physically. I got dad’s coloring when it comes to our Irish heritage. Jessi is all mom.
She hated her red hair growing up, but she seems to have embraced it as she’s grown up. But our differences weren’t celebrated nearly enough. She was always a reminder of our mom for dad, and there were times when it clearly wasn’t in a good way. It was never her fault.
I hope one day every part of her is celebrated.
“It is nice,” I tell her honestly. “He’s walked me back to work and sat with me during lunch. He bought my coffee and saved me from Thad when he strolled in all smarmy.”
Jessi sneers and I know she’s imagining some elaborate way to kill my ex without getting caught. She’s bloodthirsty like that, especially when it comes to me.
But she would never actually follow through. I don’t think, anyway.
