I did not miss her.
I also did not miss Nate beside her, or Evan and Abby across from them.
“Wait, I thought this was girls' night!”
“So did I.” Emily jabbed her thumb at the men. “These two had a fishing trip.”
“River's too high.” Evan snagged a fry from Abby's plate without looking. “Outfitter canceled.”
“So naturally you crashed.” Abby swatted Evan's hand away from her fries.
“Wejoined,” Nate corrected.
Emily leveled a fry at him like a weapon. “Nobody invited you.”
“Funny story.” He plucked the fry from her fingers and ate it. “We came anyway.”
The look Emily shot him could have stripped paint, except her mouth kept twitching at the corners. She was losing the battle against her own smile, and I took advantage of the distraction to slide in beside Abby.
“So glad you made it.” Abby bumped my shoulder. “How's the farm?”
“Weirdly better.”
“And Cal?” She kept her voice light. Casual. The way people do when they are absolutely not being casual.
I reached for a menu. “What about him?”
Abby's smile went dangerously soft. “You know, since the boys already crashed our evening...” She waved at Evan and Nate. “Maybe you should invite Cal? He could use a night out.”
My stomach did something complicated.
“Text him.” Abby nudged my shoulder again. “Worst case, he says no.”
Which shouldn't have felt like a gut punch, but somehow did.
I pulled out my phone, staring at Cal's contact.
I wanted to see him again. Wanted to hear his dry observations about the chaos around us. Wanted to watch him nearly smile when he thought I wasn't looking. Wanted to sit across from him and pretend my chest didn't tighten every time our eyes met.
I wanted to pretend, for one more evening, that we were just friends.
And friends invited friends to diners.
Except my pulse was doing something entirely unfriendly as I typed.
Me
Hey! I'm at the diner with Emily and Abby. Evan and Nate are here, they crashed girls’ night. You should come!
I hit send before I could overthink it.
“There.” I set the phone face-down on the table. “Done.”
“Now we wait.” Emily grinned.
My phone buzzed thirty seconds later.
Cal
