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Briggs studies me. “That working out for you?”

“No,” I admit, wondering what it is about this man that makes me want to forget control and confide in him.

At that moment, Marco walks past our booth carrying a tray of sodas and yells, “If either of you start crying in my restaurant, I’m charging you extra.”

Briggs chokes on his beer, and I laugh so hard I nearly inhale garlic crust.

Marco points at me triumphantly. “See? Emotional healing through mozzarella.”

The tension breaks after that.

Enough that when we finally leave Pine Knot Pizza an hour later, the idea of going back alone to the empty house feels unbearable.

Rain mists softly across Main Street while Briggs walks me toward my car.

“You okay getting home?” he asks when we arrive.

No.

“You could come back with me,” I hear myself say.

Briggs stills.

“Not… I mean, not for any reason.” Brilliant clarification. “I just… don’t really want to be alone for a while. While Lucy’s at school, I mean.”

Warmth flickers in Briggs’s eyes.

“Yeah,” he says. “Okay, Laurel.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Briggs

Laurel keeps both hands tight on the steering wheel, shoulders stiff beneath her coat, eyes fixed ahead while windshield wipers beat time across the glass.

She looks exhausted, shoulders tight beneath her damp coat when she gets out and the porch light spills gold across the rain-soaked yard.

Laurel kills the engine and exhales.

“I should probably warn you,” she says, staring through the windshield, “I haven’t emotionally recovered from the syrup incident this morning.”

I glance over. “The what?”

“I got maple syrup on Lucy’s school library book at breakfast.”

I wait.

“That’s the whole story.”

I roll my eyes playfully. “That’s barely a misdemeanor.”

“You didn’t see the panic.”

A laugh slips out before I can stop it.

Laurel looks startled enough by the sound, I immediately regret letting it happen.

Laughing doesn’t bother me. Her noticing it does.