Page 42 of When In Doubt

“She’ll love it. She always wants more time with her grandson.”

“Grandson?” She giggles.

“Oh yeah, I’m a very proud daddy.” I waggle my eyebrows with a newfound playfulness, and the blush that stains her cheeks makes me think I should be this way more often.

Fuck, she’s pretty. She always was. But the way she is now, all grown up, it’s something else.

The walk back to her apartment feels shorter than it should, or maybe it’s just that I don’t want it to end. But by the time we make it to the bottom of the steps leading up to her front door, all I can think about is if there’s a non-weird way to ask if she wants to take another lap around the block.

Chapter Fourteen

FREYA

Luci frowns through the screen. “So, what’s the actual issue here?”

“I just don’t know why he’d even offer,” I groan. We’ve been circling the same subject the better part of an hour, and I haven’t gotten any closer to picking apart my feelings about the craft fair.

“You really don’t know?” Her voice is skeptical, her eyes narrowing.

“I think he’s doing a favor for his mom.” I pick at the comforter beneath me. It’s Monday, so the store’s closed, and instead of doing anything productive with my day off, I’ve spent it in a doom spiral.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes!” I flop back until my head’s on the pillow, my free arm flung over my face.

“Freya…”

“Luci…” I whine.

“You’re not stupid. You can’t seriously be telling me that you think this man is making an eight hour round trip and enduring an entire day of knitting talk just to please his mother.”

“They’re really close,” I mumble.

“Freya…” she says again, more forcefully this time.

I sigh. “I don’t know if I even want him to come.”

“Do you feel unsafe around him? He sounded nice from what you’ve said, but…” She eyes me suspiciously, and I hate that she’s probably right to be unsure.

“No, he is nice.” I sit up, needing to defend him. “I mean, he seems nice.”

“You knew him when you were kids, though, right?”

“Not really.” I’ve been racking my brain, but I hardly remember him at all. There’s a few vague memories, a dark head of hair in the playground, maybe someone asking me about the blocks I was stacking. I feel terrible about it, but back then I wasn’t paying much attention to anything except my own little world. Sometimes I can still be like that, but I’ve worked hard to open myself up more. Even after Aaron, I’m not the shut down little girl I used to be. “We went to the same school, but he’s a couple years older.”

“Did you talk at all?”

“Not that I know of.” I chew the inside of my cheek. “But his mom said he knew Jamie Riley.”

“Eew. Were they friends?” Luci scowls. She’s heard all the stories of how that kid used to torment me.

“I don’t think so. Apparently they got into a fight once.”

“Good for firefighter guy.”

“Yeah, I wish I could have seen that.”

“From everything you’ve said about this guy, he seems trustworthy.”