“Hey,” Sadie nudged me. “Does Miles’s date look familiar to you?”
I looked over and studied the gorgeous girl with the red lipstick sitting across the table and down from us. She did look familiar, especially when she smiled like she was now, looking into her date’s eyes as if he was the answer to all her problems. Miles whispered something to her, and she giggled.
“Did you catch her name?” I asked.
“Actually, yeah. Karen. But spelled C-a-r-i-n. She told me how she spells it when she introduced herself, which is the only reason I remember it. I hate when people do that. Like I care how you spell your name.”
I tapped Sadie’s hand, partly to get her to stop ranting about name spellings and partly because I knew exactly who she was.
“Sadie,” I whispered. “That’s Noah’s Carin.” I refused to feel jealous that the woman who had dated him while I only got to be his buddy was sitting right there, but that didn’t mean I liked being reminded she was beautiful and confident in ways I never would be.
“Oh, you’re right. He brought her to that work party. I didn’t like her at all.”
“Why?” I had thought she was nice.
“I don’t really remember. Gut feeling I think.”
Not that I didn’t believe in gut feelings, but Sadie not liking someone wasn’t exactly newsworthy. Sadie didn’t like a lot of people on sight—the FedEx guy who’d winked at her once. Dan’s next door neighbor with the annoying rooster. The lady who gave her a flu shot. Justin Bieber. I doubted there was anything wrong with Carin beyond her propensity to spell out her name for people.
Justin lightly touched my arm to get my attention. “The salad’s coming around, my lady. I’ll serve you up if you’d like.”
“Sure.”
He put a small helping on my plate. “More?”
“Yep. Double it.”
“Anything for you.”
I held in the smile I felt at his words. Having known me for all of one minute, he was being a little heavy-handed on the chivalry, but it was best not to draw attention to it.
He put the tongs back in the bowl and then passed the bowl to me, once again letting our hands brush.
“Are your parents still married?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“Happily?”
I nodded. “They are. They’re both really quiet, and I think they enjoy doing their own things. My dad just retired, and they decided to start creating and selling mini succulent gardens. They sell them at farmers markets and places like that. It keeps them busy.”
Justin’s blue eyes stayed on me the entire time I talked, making me even more aware of how much I was rambling, but he seemed interested in my answer.
“That’s so great. I want that someday. My dad is not like that at all. He got remarried the second my mom divorced him. And then after that one didn’t work out, he got remarried again.”
“Is he still married?” I asked.
He shook his head solemnly. “None of them worked out. He doesn’t know how to love someone with total unselfishness. And how do you teach someone that?” When Justin’s arm came around the back of my chair, I startled, and he quickly dropped it.
I think he had intended for it to be a gesture of reaching out for comfort, and as usual, I hadn’t been ready to reciprocate that kind of connection. I was too busy analyzing everything, questioning why he had even brought the subject up with someone he had just met. Maybe he simply wanted reassurance that happy old couples existed. Maybe he was worried about his mom and Robert making it work.
“Sadie really admires her dad. I’m sure he’s a good guy.”
Justin nodded. “Thanks. I appreciate that. You’re really easy to talk to.”
“Thanks.” I blushed.
“I’m easy to talk to,” Noah said, leaning in on Justin’s other side. “You can talk to me, Justin. Anytime you want.”
