But there wasnothingbehind that smile.Just a terrible blankness that made her heart hurt and made her absolutely not want to bring up what she needed to.
“Hi, Cal.”She managed what had to be an awkward smile.
She knew she’d have to face him, have to talk to him, but she hadn’t been ready for him to answer the door.Hadn’t been ready toalreadyfeel sorry for him.
“Jill.Glenda.”His smile was faker than hers.“Come on in.”
Grandma went in first, and Jill followed.Cal closed the door behind them, and Aly appeared looking flushed and happy, so Jill moved toward her, holding out the container.“Grandma made rolls.”
“Oh, thanks, Glenda.You make the best.”Aly ushered them into the dining room, fluttered around putting the rolls on the table and making sure everyone had something to drink.
Grandma took the empty seat in between Landon and Nate, so Jill was forced to take the only other empty seat.Right next to Cal.
Which wasfine.They all sat.They all ate.They talked about the weather and the ranch and Landon and Aly’s upcoming wedding.Sam shared a funny story about an Honor’s Edge case that involved a very nefarious pet goat.
Jill wanted to relax, but when Aly made no grand announcements, when nothing happened but a very nice dinner with friends, Jill didn’t know what to think.
After a year of pain and suffering, uncomfortable secrets and scary threats, a normal dinner with friends just… didn’t seem possible.
But they ate.They chatted.When Aly and Landon started clearing the table, Jill helped them.
“Are you guys in wedding countdown mode yet?”she asked, scraping off plates and stacking them next to where Landon rinsed and loaded the dishwasher.
“Not yet.My dress is supposed to get here any day now.Maybe then it’ll start feeling real and stressful, but it’s such a small wedding.”Aly shrugged as she put away leftovers.“As long as you guys are there, we’ve got an officiant to make it legal, and I look nice, I’ll be happy.”
Cal strode into the room.Jill thought he looked a little stormy, but he had that pleasant smile on his face that had all that horrible blankness behind it.
“Thanks for dinner, Al.See you guys later.”
“Oh, but—” Before Aly could finish her sentence, Cal was gone.
With Aly scowling after him.Then she looked down at her pile of leftovers.
“Oh, he forgot his leftovers,” she said brightly.“Can you run this out to him?”
It took Jill a minute, and Aly shoving the container at her, to realize Aly meanther.
“Um, sure.”She didn’t know why it had to beher, but it would give her a moment alone with him to bring up the book.
She didn’tquiteunderstand the disapproving look Landon was shooting Aly but figured that was between the two of them.So she took the Tupperware full of food and followed Cal’s path out of the house.
He’d made it to his SUV, but hadn’t gotten in yet, so she called out his name.He stopped, but he didn’t look back at her.Or close the distance.Which meant she had to walk through the yard and slush and cold to meet him at his truck.
“Aly wanted me to bring you this.”
He looked down at the extended container, then at her.Slowly, as if he wasn’t sure if he was being handed leftovers or a bomb, he took it.“Okay, thanks.”
“No problem.Um, listen.You, uh, know how I was writing that book with…” She lost her courage and her words in one fell swoop.
She wrapped her arms around herself because it wasfreezing, and she was starting to shiver since she hadn’t put her coat on to run the leftovers out to him.
“If you can’t say it, you probably shouldn’t write it.”
Stung, Jill straightened.“I can say it,” she muttered.
She wasn’t a coward.Shewouldn’tbe a coward.She was just trying to be… to bekind.
“I wrote the proposal, and my agent wants to send it out.She thinks it’ll sell and—”
