I stood and stretched.He’d talked about Stu’s mom for a while, but I noticed he never said he’d been in love with her.Which was kind of sad, and it made me wonder.
“Still want that tea?”I asked.
“Sure.”
He followed me into the kitchen and sat at the island again as I poured filtered water into our mugs, but this time I zapped it in the microwave.
Handing him his peppermint tea, my fingers brushed over his, and Dixon looked up at me.
“Sugar?”I asked.
He shook his head and sipped the plain, weak tea, but I added a spoonful to mine and stirred.
“What do you wanna know?”I asked as I sat across from him.“There’s not much to tell, really.”
“Not much to tell?You’re kiddin’, right?It’s been, what, almost twenty years since we’ve seen each other?Maybe less, but I wasn’t exactly present the last few years I lived here.”Swiping the hair up off his neck, he pulled it back into a loose ponytail, let it drop, and then reached for my wrist.He tugged the elastic band I wore there for the same reason and slipped it over my hand, then used it to tie his hair back.
“Well, I went to school locally to get my business degree.Gran wanted to retire and I always knew I would take over the flower shop, so when I felt confident enough, I did.It was kind of cool.I was in my last year of classes, and my professors and the other students were invested in helping me figure things out, so I got a lot of guidance.
“I graduated, then Gran retired officially, and all of a sudden, I was a full-time small-business owner.”I shrugged.“That’s about it.”
“What about friends?Men?”
Men.Right.
“Friends faded away as we got older.They moved away or got married and had families, and I didn’t.But I made new friends in the local business community.They’re better anyway.They don’t come with ancient high-school drama.”
“What about that girl you used to hang with?What was her name… Bindy?Bobby?”
“Brandy?
“Yeah,” he said, “that’s the one.She had a weird last name.”
“Brandy Noon.Everybody called her Nooner.She’s married now and her name is Brandy Sheets.”
“A nooner in the sheets?”He laughed and took a sip of his tea.“But you two were thick as thieves in high school.Best friends, right?”
“Friends, yeah.I don’t know about best friends.She was pretty shallow back then, and our friendship revolved around what was goin’ on with her.”
“But I always saw you two together?—”
“Because that’s what I wanted you to see.”
“What does that mean?”
“Youwere my best friend, Dixon.”Embarrassed to admit it to him, I sipped my tea, too, and blew at the steam rising from my mug.“But you were on a different path.You had all those friends and y’all were the life of the party.I was just the quiet, mousy girl you used to know, so when you looked, I acted like I had life all figured out.But I was just as lost as you, and I still went to bed every night thinkin’ about you.”
His eyebrows rose higher the longer I talked.“You did?”
I nodded slowly, remembering all the nights I pined for him, for the friendship that had shaped my childhood and the hurt I felt when it ended.It wasn’t Dixon’s fault.He was living in hell, but I still missed him and cried for him when I was alone.
“Yeah.I missed you even though you were right here.But we grew up and then you left.”
Reaching across the table for my hand this time, he held it within his grasp, his calloused skin roughing over mine.“I’m sorry.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”I smiled at him, trying not to let tears fall.Tears for the loss of our closeness all those years ago.Tears for the abuse I knew he’d suffered, and tears for the loss of what could’ve been.
“I’m not so sure about that,” he said.“I don’t know if I should tell you this, but I was the opposite.Isawyou.I saw you clear as day back then, but I wouldn’t allow myself to think about you.”
