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Arielle looped an arm through Jess’s and squeezed. “Can’t let the tofu scramble get cold. Shall we?”
“You okay?”
Jess didn’t have to turn much to face Kevin. The patio table was barely big enough to fit six chairs, so they all sat close, knees grazing and thighs bumping as they passed plates and poured steaming cups of coffee from carafes. Kevin’s younger sisters were recalling the previous week’s high school drama to his parents, giving the two of them a reprieve after their endless questioning about the new bakery at Port Wheels.
Kevin pressed his leg up against Jess’s and whispered to her again. “I’m guessing my mom’s question about your father threw you off.”
She toyed with the berries on her plate with her fork. “Yeah, it did.”
He slid a hand on her knee and rubbed back and forth, then froze. He swiftly removed his hand, like he’d thought better of it.
“You know what’s sad? I have no idea what my father is up to,” she reckoned. “I screwed up so badly with them that I don’t even know how he spends his days anymore, or if he’s working at all.”
Kevin placed down his fork. “Jess, are you ever going to tell me what happened with them?”
She sucked in a breath.
“We’re friends, right? You can trust me. I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk about it.”
“What if I’m never ready?” she confessed.
He turned his head and leaned in, his words barely a whisper. “You see, you made a grave mistake, Jessica. I know that working things out with them is the last thing on your bucket list. And I really don’t think you want to start collecting unemployment.”
“You wouldn’t—”
“Are you sure about that?” He cocked a brow.
She glared at him. “Glad to see you’re back to being your insufferable self.”
He looked at her with a devilish grin. “Glad to see you’re back to hating me.”
“I don’t hate you.”
He stretched up, reaching for a plate of sliced banana bread. “Don’t worry, sweetheart, I certainly know that now.”
She kicked his shin under the table, causing a slice of banana bread to tumble off the plate and hit the wooden patio floor with a dramatic plop.
Kevin laughed and cleaned up the mess as Jess shook her head.
“Jess, you can tell me if you don’t like the bread, no need to throw it,” Arielle teased.
“Oh gosh no, that’s not—”
Kevin pinched her calf as he finished cleaning up the mess. She yelped.
She fumed. “Arielle, please tell me why you call your son Kevvy Bear.”
“Traitor,” Kevin growled as he sat back up.
“It’s what he used to call himself,” Arielle explained with a teasing glint in her eye. “He carried around his teddy bear and said he was the Kevvy bear.”
Jess shot him a wicked grin. “Brilliant.”
Kevin pointed a fork at her. “You are going to regret this.”
“Oh I don’t think I will.”
His family laughed at their banter. Jess asked for more embarrassing stories, and his mother and father entertained her with tales of Kevin covered in scabs from crazy bike rides and coming home with lonely animals that needed a home.
