This time when she cast him a quick look, he was staring at the pond in front of them. A group of brown-and-gold-spotted ducks was paddling around the water, and three of them dipped their heads beneath the surface in search of a fish or two for breakfast. She needed to answer his question.
“Um, sure.”
“Have I offended you somehow?”
Stunned, she turned to him. That was the last thing she expected him to ask. “No. Why would you think that?”
“You seem eager to get away from me right now. I got the same impression yesterday when you came into the store.” He tapped the rubber heel of his athletic shoe against the walkway. “I guess I just wondered if I’d done something to annoy you when I picked you up from the airport the other night.”
She gripped the edge of the bench. Might as well add splinters to her fingers too. “We haven’t seen each other in over a decade, Hayden,” she said, her tone turning soft. “What could you possibly have done to upset me?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking if I’ve done something wrong.”
Riley let out a bitter laugh. “As if that would ever happen.”
“Hey, I’m not perfect. Far from it.”
He sounded annoyed, so she turned to him. “From what I remember, you were pretty darn close.” Oh no, had she really said that out loud?
He smirked. “Interesting. I didn’t think you noticed me at all.”
“Oh, come on. Everyone knows the great Hayden Price.”
“I’m not so great now.” Instead of sounding upset, he seemed resigned. “Then again, not everyone can say they blew an entire career on one pitch.”
That put things into perspective. While her career had never gotten off the ground, his had launched to the highest peak, only to come crashing down.
“I’m sorry that happened,” she said, meaning it.
He shrugged. “Me too. But things happen for a reason, you know? It took me a while to accept that, but now I have.” He shifted on the bench again, and now he was facing her, seeming not to care about the precarious sturdiness of the wood. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
“How has life treated you the last ten years? I’m not up on the art world, but I’m sure you’ve been successful. I remember how good your drawings and paintings were in art class, and that mural you painted on the side of Rusty’s Garage for the Too Dang Hot Parade was amazing.”
His compliments gave her a boost but not enough to talk about her past. “Is that still going on?”
“Of course. This year it’s on August12. Although it’s not much of a parade anymore. Just a reason for everyone to go shopping, get a hot dog and a snow cone, and shoot the breeze.”
Riley took that in. The It’s Too Dang Hot for a Parade Parade, which had been shortened thirty years ago to the Too Dang Hot Parade, had been one of the few things she looked forward to each year, with the exception of the time she was fifteen and Mimi forced her to join the parade and wear a hat covered with small balls of yarn and a placard advertising Knots and Tangles. That had been embarrassing, not to mention a failure, since everyone who attended the parade already knew about Knots and Tangles anyway.
“I can’t believe there isn’t a parade anymore.”
“Yeah, it’s disappointing. But it’s also understandable why it disappeared. Lots of people have moved away. The high school band has grown and was invited to do other festivals in larger towns, so they stopped doing the parade. They were always the main draw. Plus, it’s too dang hot in August.” He grinned. “The name sure was accurate.”
“Then why don’t they change it to something else? Or have a parade another time during the year?”
“You know how folks are around here. They like tradition. I also think the older ones keep hoping that one day the parade will resume.” He looked at her, his expression serious now. “Hope is everything for some people. If you take that away, they don’t have anything.” He shrugged. “Anyway, you haven’t answered my question. What’s it like being a big-time New York artist?”
Riley swallowed. She knew about hope. She’d been filled with it when she left Maple Falls. She was going to shake up the art world, andifshe returned home, it would only be as a success story. She was going to make something of herself and prove to everyone that she wasn’t a loser like Tracey. Instead, she found out that while she had been an exceptional artist in a backwater Arkansas town, she had little talent compared to the real artists in New York. How was she supposed to admitthatto the golden boy?
“I’ve got to get back to Mimi,” she said, jumping up from the bench. “She was asleep when I left, but I’m sure she’s up now. I don’t want her to be alone for too long.”
“Right.” Hayden stood. “She’s still doing okay, then?”
She couldn’t help but smile. He’d asked about Mimi yesterday morning and was still genuinely concerned about her well-being. “She’s fine.”
“Good.” He glanced at the pond again. “I should probably get going too. I’m supposed to open the shop this morning. Dad’s going to Little Rock for a yearly tool show.” Despite his words, he didn’t make a move to leave.
