The girlish gigglethat spills from my mouth would be embarrassing if I wasn’t filledto the brim with giddy glee at his stumbled words and theappreciative glint in his eyes. “Hi. And thank you. You lookbeautiful too. I mean handsome.”
And he does; histousled hair falls forward slightly in the way I love, and he’swearing dark slacks and a burgundy dress shirt. When I told him thecolor suited him a few weeks ago and he said he’d remember, he wastrue to his word. I take him in the way he did with me, my gazelingering on the bakery box in his hands before meeting his smilingeyes again.
“Ohgod, you two are so cute,” Evie murmurs from behind me.
I jump at hervoice. I was so caught up in the moment, I nearly forgot she wasthere. Leland peers around me, his smile growing as he says helloto Evie.
“Thisis for you.” Leland hands me the bakery box, which I now see isstamped with the Cravings logo. I lift the lid and peek inside atthe array of cookies. “I asked Willow to make them for you. I wasgoing to bring you a slushy too, but thought you might not want toarrive at the reunion with a blue tongue.”
I sputter out alaugh. This man never ceases to surprise me with histhoughtfulness. “Maybe we can stop somewhere afterward,” I say.“Thank you for these.”
We stare at eachother for another long minute. I’m sure my goofy grin matchesLeland’s. I hear Evie chuckle a second before she swoops in andreminds us we should get going. She exchanges the box of cookiesfor my coat, telling me she’ll leave the cookies on thecounter.
When Leland and Ireach the sidewalk in front of Evie’s condo building, he catches myhand, holding my fingers loosely. At his car, he opens thepassenger door, but stops me before I can get in. “There’ssomething I’d like to talk to you about later. After thereunion.”
My stomachclenches. His easy, playful grin is gone now, replaced by anearnestness I haven’t seen from him before. If I didn’t know anybetter, I’d say he looks…nervous?
“Okay.”My mind spins with possibilities. Is he ready for this charade tobe over after tonight? Our fake dating scheme will have served itspurpose, after all: his mom is content and working on getting moreof a life of her own, and we’ll present a united front tonight atthe reunion.
I’m not ready forthis to be over. The ruse part, yes, but I feel like we’ve begunbuilding a foundation for something real. Something amazing. Nowisn’t the time to bring that up, though; if things don’t go the wayI hope they do—if Leland tells me he just wants us to be friends—itwould make the reunion awkward. His serious expression nearly makesme lose my nerve, but I gather my courage and manage to say, “Ihave something I want to talk to you about too.”
His face softensinto a smile. “Okay. How about this: we stick around the reunionjust long enough to put in an appearance, catch up with a fewpeople, and then we get out of there.”
I can’t help thesigh of relief that escapes me. “Deal.”
*****
The events room atConnelly’s Pub is spacious and low-lit, with high round tables andstools, padded couch-like benches against one entire wall, and asmall bar on the opposite wall. Music plays from hidden speakers,loud enough to be heard, but not so loud as to drown outconversations or make people have to yell.
“Thisis actually really nice,” I say, unable to keep the surprise frommy voice. A waiter swings past with a tray of finger food, andLeland and I both scoop up stuffed mushrooms.
“Whatwere you picturing?” Leland asks. “I want to see if your mentalimage matches mine.”
“Hmm,well…not exactly beer and loud music because that doesn’t seem likeNelle’s style. I guess I didn’t think she’d put this much effortinto it, especially since it’s an informal reunion.”
“Shehired a party planner,” a voice says from behind us.
I spin around toface Sylvie Bell. Her gaze flicks between Leland and me beforesettling on me, her smile growing into a full-blown grin as sheholds out her arms. Just as I’m surprised by this venue, I’m alsosurprised by how genuinely glad I am to see Sylvie. She holds ontome for a long minute, and then gives Leland a quick hug.
“So, aparty planner?” Leland shifts closer to me, his arm sliding aroundmy waist, hand settling lightly on my hip.
“Yep.She started to plan the whole thing herself, but decided it was toomuch work. She wanted a bunch of us to pitch in, but I told herthis reunion was her idea, so she was on her own. I did make theplaylist for tonight, though.”
The song changesto “Drops of Jupiter” by Train, and Leland makes a small hum ofpleasure. “Man, this song takes me back.”
“Thewhole playlist is made of songs that were popular when we were inhigh school,” Sylvie says.
As other peoplejoin us, I’m transported back in time nearly twenty years, and notonly from seeing so many familiar faces. Just like in high school,Leland seems to have a magnetic force field around him that drawspeople in. Our trio grows to five, then eight, then a dozen people.Leland keeps his arm around me the whole time, his body inchingcloser to mine as more and more people join us. We get a fewquestions and comments about our relationship, but people are kindand curious, and move on quickly to other topics, which is arelief.
Leland excuses usafter a while, saying we haven’t had a chance to get a drink orspeak to the hostess yet. We make our way to the bar, where I ordera fruity cocktail and Leland asks for a beer.
When the bartenderhands over our drinks, Leland clinks his beer bottle against myglass. “This isn’t so bad, right?”
“Sofar, so good. It’s actually been nice seeing some of these peopleagain. I could handle avoiding the hostess for a bit longer,though.”
“Now,now, Stella McGrath.” Leland makes atsking sound and shakes his head,although he can’t hide his smile. “Just think, if it weren’t forNelle, we might not be here together. Wouldn’t that be ashame?”
“Acrying shame.” I say it lightly, playing along, but I mean it.Leland and I would still have met up again if not for Nelle, and wemight have seen each other around town, but we wouldn’t have had areason to hang out like we have been. We wouldn’t have had a chanceto get to know each other the way we have. I wouldn’t have had achance to start the wonderful and terrifying process of falling forhim, even in such a short amount of time.
