Tumble (Dogwood Lane, #1)(42)

She loads her fork with spaghetti and pretends to launch it across the table. “I should shoot this at your face for being a jerk.”

“How am I a jerk?” I laugh. “I just call it like I see it, and you are ‘in love’ with someone new every two months. I don’t even try to learn their names anymore. It’s pointless.”

She sits back in her seat and sighs. “Enough about me. What did you do today? You’re more chipper than usual.”

“I did have an eventful evening.” That damn smile that I wore on the ride home, while Mia and I pulled weeds out front, and then while I made dinner comes back. Haley doesn’t miss a beat.

She leans forward, resting her chin on her hands. “I’m waiting.”

There’s no doubt this is going to backfire. If I tell Miss Romantic here that I spent time with Neely, she’ll be planning our wedding before the spaghetti gets cold. I should make up some story and play it off, but for some reason I don’t understand, I want to tell her. I want to tell someone.

I brace myself for her reaction. “Neely went with Mia and me to Dad’s.”

Haley gasps. Her hands hit the table so hard the plates rattle. “You’re joking. Dane! This is amazing.”

“This is not amazing.” I scoff despite the grin plastered on my lips. “But it was nice, and Mia enjoyed it, I think.”

“And you,” she says, poking a finger my way. “You enjoyed it. I know you did, so don’t even try to lie to me.”

“Very funny.”

She wads up the napkin from her lap and places it next to her plate. “You know, ever since I found that picture of the two of you in your closet, I had a feeling this would come full circle.”

“Slow down,” I warn. “First of all, that picture was of me, her, Matt, and Claire. Second of all—”

“Her head was on your shoulder.”

“And Claire’s hand was on my ass. You just couldn’t see it,” I lie. “Second of all, she’s just visiting her mom. She’ll be back in New York by the end of the week.”

“You must think there’s the potential for something there.”

I shake my head. “I don’t. There is no potential for anything.”

“I’m going out on a limb and saying that’s a lie.”

I pick up my bowl and glass and flip her a warning look. Heading to the sink, I try to put some space between us, but it doesn’t work. Like a puppy that doesn’t get it, she follows on my heels. The way I swing the dishwasher open doesn’t dissuade her either.

“This is none of my business,” she starts, “but let me just point out that this is the first woman you’ve brought around since Sara.”

I don’t turn around. I rinse my plate and empty the remaining water from the glass and shove them in the dishwasher.

“That has to mean something.” Her voice is soft, and something about the way she says those words hits me. “You’ve never really talked about her before, but I’ve always gotten the impression she was special to you.”

Taking a deep breath, I turn around and lean against the counter. My stomach is a pit of acid, churning violently as I look at my friend. Talking about Neely, saying things out loud, is something I’ve avoided for the most part for a very long time. It makes me uncomfortable. It feels like a guard has been taken down and I’m exposed. Yet the longer I stand there exposed to Haley’s insights, the more comfortable it becomes.

“She was special to me,” I say slowly, testing the waters. “She’s a special person.”

“And so are you in your own way.” She flinches. “I can’t believe I just said that. Anyway, I love this love story.”

I reach down and yank up the dishwasher door. It latches with a pop, making Haley jump.

“It’s not a love story,” I say.

“Maybe I’m a hopeless romantic, but I have hope.”

“You do that.”

She jabbers on while I clean off the rest of the table, telling me how second chances happen and she has a good feeling about Neely and me.

I can’t tell her I want to have a good feeling about us too. That would put the guard a little too far down to be safe. And would be stupid. It would be really stupid since she’s leaving us again anyway.





CHAPTER FIFTEEN

NEELY

You’re awfully quiet this morning.” Mom glances at me from the passenger’s seat. “Everything all right?”

“I’m fine. Just sleepy.”

The sun beats through the windshield as I pilot us to Calvary Church. Usually, the sunlight wakes me up and energizes me; I count on that as I head into the office every day. I’m too far gone for any rays to help me today.

Once I finally fell asleep, somewhere around two in the morning, my dreams were loaded with koi fish and green eyes and memories of sitting on the bluff and talking until our curfew hit. Images of dinners with smiling faces and visions of Mia tumbling along grass lawns invaded my dreams too. It was a compilation of the past, the present, and things that will never be. Each time I woke up, once an hour or so, the reality would hit me that none of those things were true, and it was tough getting back to sleep.

I slow the car and make a wide circle around Blue. He doesn’t bother to lift his head.