I squeeze my eyes shut and lean my head back. “Fine. I got it from Oliver.”
“Who’s that?” Willow asks.
“Oliver?” Lucy gasps. “As in, the hot firefighter from the clinic?” she asks, her voice going all gooey around the edges.
“Oliver, as in, the firefighter who assisted us with Ron’s medical emergency the other day,” I correct her, leaving thehotpart out, though she’s certainly not wrong about that. “We ran into each other in town this afternoon.”
Lucy squeals. “You went on a date today!”
“First of all, it wasnota date,” I say. “We ran into each other and got some coffee. Not a big deal.”
“Who paid for said coffee?” Ben asks.
I press my lips together, and my silence is all the answer they need.
Ellie waggles her brows. “Kinda sounds like a date to me.”
“It wasn’t,” I insist. “Come on. Aren’t we more evolved than this?” I attempt to soothe the tension building behind my eyes by rubbing my forehead as I give them the rundown of my time with Oliver. “We’re just two people who bumped into each other, and we decided to get coffee together.”
“Two single,hotpeople,” Lucy quickly adds. “The guy is a firefighter, remember?”
“How do you know he’s single?” I challenge her. “For all you know, he could have a whole wife and kids at home.”
“He doesn’t,” she insists with a grin. “Because Kayla asked if there were any additional family members who needed to be put on his dog’s records and he said no, that it was just him.”
Of course, she did. “You two are shameless, you know that?”
“So, how exactly was this not a date?” Ben asks, tilting his head.
I roll my eyes. “Really, Ben? It wasn’t a date because I don’t need that in my life right now,” I say, perhaps a little too defensively. “Is it so hard to believe I’m happy alone?”
Lucy reaches for her mug on the coffee table. “You really haven’t dated anyone since Daniel. And that was…a long time ago.”
Nearly four years, to be exact. We split almost a year after Dad died.
“I still wish you two could have worked things out,” Ben says. “He was a good guy.”
They knew my ex, Daniel, as the happy-go-lucky person he was on the surface. What they don’t know is that they didn’t reallyknowhim at all.
“Can we drop this, please?” I force a tight smile and rise to my feet. “I’m gonna go check on the kids.”
I step into the hall and follow the merry giggles into the kitchen where June Bug is darting between Noah and Emily, licking their toes. A familiar longing tugs at my heart as I watch them, but I shove it down. Everything I said is true. Iamhappy. Idolove my life.
I can’t entirely fault Ben and Lucy for wanting me to fall in love when their own relationships are so supportive. When Dad passed away, Ellie was the one who stepped up and made lists of everything that needed to be done. She went to the funeral home with us to make arrangements, making sure every detail was perfect. All the while, she single-handedly juggled running the design firm where she still works as our mother’s right hand. And Willow, who was Lucy’s girlfriend at the time, jumped in and took care of us. She made sure we ate and even helped get Mom’s house ready for the wake. Willow had only been with mysister for three months, but she showed up, not just for Lucy, but for all of us.
Even though we’d been together almost two years, Daniel never did any of that, and my family had been too consumed by grief to notice.
ButInoticed.
I might've been the one to break up with Daniel, buthewas the one who abandoned me.
4
MJ
“So, Lindsey,”Lucy says, poking her sister in the arm after our weekly Sunday dinner. “I want to hear more about your date yesterday.”
I lean forward, eyebrows raised.
