Page 44 of When We Were Young

“Layla, that’s different. Uncle Harry and Delaney... I went to school with Lizette. I was just surprised to see her.”

Layla shrugs. “You were surprised, but you gotta ‘pologize. It’s the next right thing. Mommy says you should always do the next right thing.”

I glance toward Tillie. She’s watching now. Her eyes are suspiciously glassy, and her smile couldn’t be bigger.

Layla pats my leg and wanders back to her coloring. Then she pauses and looks up.

“Oh, and don’t tell her about loving her yet. You’ll freak her out.”

Chapter Seventeen

Lizzie

Apparently, seeing Holden Aron again has made me choose violence.

I grasp the corner of the faded, hideous wallpaper and pull with all my strength. An exaggerated grunt escapes me. The sound coming from my body has little to do with the effort of ripping the unusually stubborn wallpaper from the bakery wall. It’s that seeing Holden face-to-face after all this time has shaken me up.

Usually, I would put each piece in the trash as I work—it’s neater and makes clean-up easier—but right now I don’t care. I whip the piece I’m holding off to the side. I attack the wall once again, as if it’s responsible for the tornado of confusing emotions I’m feeling right now. I’ve got my claws in another piece, and as I tug on it, a voice behind me startles me.

“If it weren’t so god-awful tacky, I’d ask what that poor wallpaper did to you.”

I turn around to find Ruthie, of all people, standing behind me. She’s observing me as if it’s not creepy that she snuck up on me. I stare at her for several seconds before I’m able to speak.

“What are you doing down here?” God, that sounded rude. “I’m sorry—I didn’t mean that to come out like it did. I’m just surprised to see you.”

“It’s okay. You’ve had quite the shock today, so I’ll let it slide.” There’s a grin on her face, but something in her eyes sparkles.

“You can say that again.” Bitterness drips from my words, and I loathe how I sound.

I spin around and once again wrap my shaky fingers around the dried-up old paper, giving it another swift pull. A huge shard comes off, and it’s immensely satisfying.

I don’t hear anything behind me for a few seconds, so I assume that Ruthie has gone back upstairs with everyone else. I know that it’s my place, and I should probably join everyone as well.

But I can’t. Not right now. Unfortunately, the longer I stay down here, the weirder it’s going to be—but I don’t have it in me yet.

I hear a tinkling sound and turn around to find Ruthie using the old industrial coffee pot to brew some fresh coffee.

Emotionally and physically drained, I say nothing. Instead, I plant myself on the bench of the booth nearest me.

“Ouch! Shit.” I rub at the back of my thigh. I glance over at Ruthie, and she’s smiling at me.

“Did that seat bite the back of your legs with all those cracks in the vinyl?”

“How did you know?”

Ruthie saunters over to me and takes a seat across from me.

“Ella may have been my friend, but on top of having horrible taste in décor”—she gestures around the room with her palm up, as if she’s showing off some prize on a game show—”she’s also a cheapskate. I’ve been telling her forever that she should replace the seats. She insisted that it added to the ambiance of the bakery. Called it retro. Vintage.”

Ruthie laughs, and it reminds me of how the witches would cackle in Halloween movies when I was a kid. Yet it’s a perfect fit for her.

When she settles, we sit in silence for several uncomfortable seconds. In fairness to me, today is only the third time I’ve met the woman. The first time was at the ladies’ night we had at Tillie, and Henry’s a while back. Then I ran into her when I was first downtown looking at this property. And finally, again today, when she showed up to help entertain the kids while Henry and Tillie helped with the painting of my place.

“We can be a lot, huh?” Ruthie asks.

It’s the first thing in the last twenty minutes that even remotely comes close to putting a smile on my face.

I shrug. “I don’t mind, really. It’s true that I’m not used to having a lot of people around, but it’s nice. I just...”