Connecting (Lily Dale #3)(71)
Why does he have to be right here again, right in front of her, making her remember all the chemistry they had between them once upon a time?
Never mind that, why is the chemistry threatening to pop up again despite all that’s happened?
And why is she suddenly finding it impossible to hate Kevin for the unhappily-ever-after ending to their once-upon-a-time?
“Now you look more like you,” he says, looking her up and down, and her heart skips a beat.
Cut it out.You can’t do this.
No, she can’t go around wistfully longing for the old days with Kevin. He’s changed. She’s changed. They’re over. He has college and Annie; she has Lily Dale and Jacy.
“You mean I look more like the old me.”
“Yeah.”
“The one you broke up with.”
He shifts his weight from one foot to the other. “About that . . .”
Trailing off, he looks at her as though waiting for her to interrupt, to tell him not to go there. No way. Let him fumble awkwardly. Let her be in control for once.
The least he can do—after breaking up with her in a text message, for Pete’s sake—is make himself accountable to her.
“What about it?” she asks, all but tapping her foot and wearing an I’m waiting expression.
“Okay, I’ll admit it. I was an idiot, and a coward. . . .”
“A jerk. Don’t forget jerk.”
He gives an awkward laugh. “Hey, don’t mince any words, here.”
She doesn’t laugh. “Don’t worry. I won’t.”
“I just hate that this has been hanging between us for all these months, unresolved.”
“Who says it’s unresolved?” She shakes her head. “You resolved it for both of us, back in April. And now you have a girlfriend, so I’d say that’s pretty resolved.”
“Not anymore.”
“What?”
“I broke up with her.”
“In person? Or did you text her, too?” she forces herself to ask with a flip toss of her head, as though the news has nothing whatsoever to do with her. Which, she reminds herself, it doesn’t.
“You’re never going to forgive me for that, are you?”
“Probably not. I thought Annie was a great girl.”
“You know her name?”
Oops. She shrugs, as though she could care less about her replacement—her temporary replacement, actually.
“She is a great girl,” Kevin says.
“Then why did you break up with her?”
“A lot of reasons. Does it matter?”
“No,” she says, “it definitely doesn’t.” Not considering that she herself is a great girl, and he broke up with her, too.
“Don’t you think it’s a huge coincidence,” Kevin asks, his ocean-blue eyes fastened on her face, “that we both ended up in New York, just a few miles apart?”
“Ithaca and Lily Dale aren’t a few miles apart,” she points out, her pulse pounding. She wants to take a step back from him, but her bare feet remain stubbornly rooted to the cool tile floor. She needs to see this through.
“Well, in the grand scheme of things, Ithaca and Lily Dale aren’t all that far apart, don’t you think?”
Calla shrugs. This isn’t the first time she’s thought about that.
Yes, it’s a coincidence that they both ended up in the same part of New York State—if you believe in coincidences.
Most people in Lily Dale do not.
But what can it possibly mean—Calla and Kevin finding themselves living in relatively close proximity again?
It doesn’t mean that they’re destined to be together after all.
No, because . . .
Wait, why can’t we be together again?
Annie is no longer in the picture, and . . .
Jacy.
You have Jacy now. Remember?
Jacy would never hurt you the way Kevin did.
Okay, six months ago, she’d have told herself that Kevin was incapable of hurting her, too.
But he did.
And she won’t let herself forget it.
“I have to go find Lisa,” she tells Kevin, stepping away from him at last, moving around him, past him.
“Fair enough,” he calls after her, “but don’t write me off just yet, Calla. Promise me you won’t.”
She doesn’t bother to reply.
And as happy as she is to see Lisa again, all she really wants to do is get this Florida visit over and get back to Lily Dale, and Gammy, and Jacy.
Back where she belongs now.
TWENTY-ONE
Tampa, Florida
Saturday, October 6
10:41 a.m.
If seeing the Wilsons’ house again last night after all this time was difficult for Calla, seeing her own house this morning is . . .
Well, heart-wrenching agony doesn’t begin to describe the fierce emotion that grips her as she climbs off Lisa’s bike and walks it slowly up the driveway.
Maybe she should have waited until Lisa could come with her after all.
But her friend had to work the senior class car wash this morning, and Calla had no desire to accompany her and see the old gang again. Lisa was surprised and disappointed— maybe even a little peeved. When Calla asked what time Lisa would be home, she said she had no idea and that Calla should just take the bike and ride over here herself.