I’d gotten used to seeing him every day, and his absence that morning bothered me more than I wanted to admit.He didn’t owe me anything, and all we did was share coffee and a few kisses, but it still stuck in my head, like a hangnail I couldn’t stop messing with.
“What are you reading?”Ashlyn joined me on the couch with both hands wrapped around a mug.
I showed her the front of the book, and she grinned.
“That’s a good one.My book club read it in the spring.”
“You’re in a book club?”
She nodded.“I am.Sage started it.We try to meet every month and talk about the book we read.Summer is a little harder sometimes.”
“You’ve really made a good life here, haven’t you?”
Ashlyn grinned and looked around her house.“I have.My family thought I was crazy to move here, and I think the locals expected me to bail after the first winter, but I love it here.”
“I’m really happy for you, Ash.”
“Thanks.”She sipped her coffee, watching me over the rim of her mug.“You could be happy here, too, you know.”
The idea of staying had been teasing my mind since that first day, but I wasn’t sure if it was right for me.And until I decided, I was not going to tell Ashlyn I was even considering it.“Yeah, yeah.Living in your guest room and mooching off you is not a life plan.”
She shrugged.“I wouldn’t mind having the company.It’s not like I need the privacy.”
I examined my bestie closely.She seemed to be doing okay without Rob, but I knew Ashlyn kept a lot of things close to the vest.She wasn’t going to make a big deal of a problem she couldn’t solve, and Rob walking out wasn’t for her to fix.If he wanted to be gone, she couldn’t change his mind.Even if she wanted to.“We should do something today.”
She scrunched up her face.“I have to meet a client in an hour.But Sage asked if she could come over later.She wants to meet you.”
“That would be fun.Tell me about her.”
Ashlyn inhaled sharply.“Oh, jeez.How do you capture a person in a few minutes?Sage is smart.She has this ability to piece things together in ways that always eludes me.She’s kind and thoughtful, always going out of her way to help people.She loves this place as much as I do, even though we were both campers.”
“She’s older than us?”I asked.
“Yeah.She’s Shana’s age, so about four years older than us.They were close when we would come here for the summers, but the age difference back then was a lot.Shana and I didn’t get close until we were both out of college and adults.”Ashlyn’s sister, Shana, lived in their hometown with her wife and two kids.I remembered Ashlyn talking about her older sister when we were in college, but I didn’t meet Shana until graduation.
“What does Sage do?”
Ashlyn looked at me like she didn’t understand the question.“I thought you knew.She’s the news anchor.”
“Seriously?Sage Barrett?”
Ashlyn nodded.“I thought I told you that.”
I shook my head.“Nope.But that’s cool.I get what you mean about her putting things together.When she’s just talking, I can tell she’s very intelligent.”
“She is.And so sweet.Shana told her when I moved here, and she reached out my first week.I don’t know if I would have made it here without her.”
“You never told me that.”
Ashlyn shrugged.“It was hard to move somewhere without anyone I knew.I know you did it, too, but being a teacher, you had a built-in community.Real estate is so isolating.Everyone is competing with everyone else, even if you want to believe you’re friends, it’s not always the case.”
“I’m sorry, Ash.”
“It’s okay.Sage called that first week.She’d been here a few years and had already made a little bit of a name for herself.She was a feature reporter, and I thought she was such a big deal.She picked me up and took me to dinner, then we spent some time in town.She showed me her favorite places and introduced me to some people she knew.She made this place feel like home.”
“Then I love her already for giving you that.”
Ashlyn grinned widely.“Like I said, she wants to meet you.I said she should come over for dinner.We can light the fire pit and open a few bottles of wine.She might stay the night, if you don’t mind.”
